There’s a plethora of options and styles in any draft class of running backs. In the 2019 class, there are power backs like Alabama’s Josh Jacobs and Iowa State’s David Montgomery. There are also smaller speedsters like Florida Atlantic’s Devin Singletary and Trayveon Williams out of Texas A&M. But pound-for-pound, there are few backs who show multi-dimensional potential like Memphis’ Darrell Henderson. In 2018, Henderson gained 1,909 yards and scored 22 touchdowns on just 214 carries in a rotation with Patrick Taylor, Jr. and Tony Pollard.
That astonishing 8.9 yards per carry average was no fluke, either – in 2017, he gained 1,154 yards and scored nine touchdowns on just 130 carries, averaging the exact same expanse of field every time he touched the ball.
Moreover, there may be no better back in this class when it comes to running after contact, which may come as a surprise with a player carrying a 5’8”, 208-pound frame. Blessed with a seemingly ideal combination of aggression and second-burst speed, Henderson led all collegiate runners last season with 1,318 yards gained after contact, per Pro Football Focus. And though Henderson is more than capable of breaking off long gainers, he’s also able to gut out the tough yards. 57 missed tackles last season proved that point. In this case, size doesn’t seem to matter when it comes to running with power.
There are some who may insist that Henderson did his thing against weaker defenses, but that doesn’t account for the fact that against Central Florida in two games (one in the regular season and again in the AAC championship), Henderson gained 409 yards and scored four touchdowns on 47 carried. Per Football Outsiders’ FEI ratings, UCF had the 39th best defense in college football last season, and though Henderson wasn’t running against SEC defenses every week, there’s more than enough solid tape to project him well to the next level. Also, against a Houston defense led by defensive lineman Ed Oliver, Henderson amassed 178 yards and scored two touchdowns on 24 carries.
RELATED: Have a need for speed? Memphis’ Darrell Henderson might be your man
In fact, the more I watched Henderson, the more he reminded me of another running back who flew under the radar a few years back for entirely different off-field reasons—Toledo’s Kareem Hunt, who the Chiefs selected with the 86t overall pick in the third round of the 2017 draft. Hunt’s combination of speed, power, receiving ability, and decisiveness in a zone-based run game made him the epicenter of the NFL’s most dynamic offense until everything fell apart. So, if you’re looking for a back with a lot of Hunt’s attributes who’s also totally clean off the field, Darrell Henderson looks as good as anyone in this class.
I recently caught up with Henderson, who trained at Michael Johnson Performance before the combine and is now working with his old running backs coach Anthony Jones on “football stuff” like bag drills and cone drills, in preparation for a draft that should see him taken on the second day, and perhaps as a prelude to a featured and highly valuable role in an NFL offense.
Doug Farrar: When you see multi-faceted backs like Kareem Hunt with home run potential, is that your ideal model?
Darrell Henderson: It is. I feel that I have all the traits you need for that. I try to put everything on film, and I’m trusting the process. Kareem Hunt is a good player.
DF: You’re renowned for breaking contact, which shows on tape. How are you able to do that so consistently at your size?
DH: It’s a mindset. I go into every game focused, letting everyone know that I might be small, but I’m going to run hard. It’s not going to be easy to take me down. I’m going to make my statement, and leave it there.
DF: Pass-rushers talk about converting speed to power. Is that what you do in a sense—use your speed to generate power to break contact?
DH: Yeah—if you have speed, it’s going to make you stronger.
DF: This happens to every back who isn’t crashing into SEC fronts week after week, so let’s just get it out of the way—what’s your answer to people who say that you ran up your stats against defenses that wouldn’t match NFL talent?
DH: I’ll say this—I don’t make the schedule. I have to play whoever’s in front of me, and I’m going to play them like they’re the best team in America. I take every opponent seriously.
Henderson said that the championship game against UFC was the best game of his collegiate career, and I’d already dialed up three plays from that one.
PLAY 1 vs. UCF (Championship game)
DF: In this long touchdown run against UCF, you blast through the initial gap, bounce off contact, hit the jets downfield for second-level acceleration. Where does that speed through the breaks come from?
DH: You have to have a short-area burst. My coaches always used to say, you have to beat your opponent to that hole.
DF: Were you always that decisive getting through the gap, or did that develop over time?
DH: It’s something I’ve always had, and it just got better over my career.
DF: When you get to the second level here, and you’re going through contact and juking defenders—this is an example of the kind of speed that generates power, where guys can’t catch up with you.
DH: I feel that my football speed is like… if I know somebody’s chasing me, I can’t stop my feet.
DF: You do a really nice job here of sinking into your cuts and using leverage to generate additional speed.
DH: That’s just something I’ve always been able to do—my coaches would ask me how I do that, and I didn’t know how. But when you’re a running back, and you chop your feet, people don’t have time to catch up. I watched other running backs do that, and they’d get caught from behind, but I didn’t see defenses catch up. I just weave through defenses, doing all those choppy steps.
DF: Your additional acceleration when you hit the open field—that shows up a lot on your tape.
DH: You just keep your head down and keep running!
PLAY 2—vs. UCF (Championship game)
DF: Here’s a direct-snap touchdown run—you had another one called back on a penalty, and you had multiple direct-snap runs in this game. How did that develop?
DH: [Head] Coach [Mike] Norvell, he did a brilliant job of creating opportunities for us. We decided to go Wildcat. Coach knew I had run it in high school, and he trusted me to run it here in the big game.
DF: Are your keys or reads any different when you don’t have to wait for a handoff? I imagine it makes it easier to see what’s in front of you when you have the ball right away.
DH: I think the advantage is that it gets you going downhill quicker. Working with the line, and you just go downhill.
PLAY 3—vs. UCF (Championship game)
DF: Here, you’re booting right, and you throw a really nice touchdown pass. You’re not just fastballing it—you have nice touch and timing to get your receiver open. How did this come about?
DH: I’d played quarterback in high school, so I was ready for anything. And the coaches (at Memphis) had been looking for a running back who could throw, and I was throwing people the ball. They gave me the opportunity to do so, and I took advantage of it.
DF: There are some college quarterbacks who would consider that a pretty nice touchdown pass.
DH: [Laughs] That’s a flat route leading to the corner route, and I threw the corner route.
PLAY 4—vs. Houston
DF: How do you know in the moment whether you’re going to cut inside or outside?
DH: I’m studying [defenses] through the week. Where are they aggressive? How are they aligned? I’m looking for all that. This is outside zone, but if they’re aligned outside, I’m cutting inside. And I’m looking at all that before the snap.
DF: This Memphis run game seemed so integrated and so effective schematically—obviously you helped make it go, but how did it feel to be part of that?
DH: It’s all about trusting your coaches and being dialed in. They gave me the right opportunities, and after that, It’s my job to take everything seriously. The hard work paid off.
PLAY 5—vs. Navy
DF: This is a simple swing pass against Navy, but it leaves an opening to discuss your potential as a receiver. I saw you aligned in the slot, and as the inside man in bunch formations. Do you feel you can expand on your potential as a receiver at the NFL level?
DH: Yeah. I want to show teams that I’m able to catch the ball out of the backfield. You look at the NFL now, it’s a lot of spread offenses and you have running backs who can catch. Our coaches did a really good job of giving me the opportunity to do that. A lot of backs don’t have that experience, but I do.
DF: What have you told NFL teams, and what will you tell NFL teams, about why you’ll succeed at the next level?
DH: That I’m always working to get better. I think I’m good, but I’m always working for improvement. Even if I’m good at something, I’m working to get better at it. I know how to work hard, and I’m going to do that.
