Throughout the entire offseason, much of the hype surrounding the Baltimore Ravens has centered on running back Derrick Henry and his fit in the offense.
Over his eight-year run with the Tennessee Titans, Henry established himself as arguably the best running back in the league thanks to his punishing style. Now alongside the shifty Lamar Jackson, the regining league MVP, Henry should make Baltimore’s rushing offense that much more dangerous.
The Jackson-Henry duo is going to be amazing to watch, the question is how high the ceiling goes. NFL Network’s Akbar Gbajabiamila set that bar astronomically high, comparing it to the Kobe Bryant-Shaquille O’Neal duo that dominated the NBA in the early 2000s.
“This is the Shaquille O’Neal right here. This dude is a monster,” Gbajabiamila said. “When you give him the ball, if he’s averaging over five yards a carry, he’s running like 2020 Derrick Henry? Let me tell you as a defensive player, ain’t nobody got time for that. Ain’t nobody want to see that type of nonsense. You think I want to see Derrick Henry and Lamar Jackson in the backfield? That is a nastiness nobody is prepared for.
“That’s hard to stop. That right there looks like a Super Bowl-caliber team. This is your Kobe-Shaquille O’Neal year right here.”
In 1996, the Los Angeles Lakers added O’Neal, already a four-time All-Star and perennial MVP contender, to support their star rookie in Bryant. It took a while to get off the ground, and the disagreements between the two are well documented, but nothing can take away the fact that they won three straight NBA championships from 2000-02.
Continuing with the NBA analogies, Peter Schrager compared Jackson’s lack of a Super Bowl appearance to that of the legendary Michael Jordan, who didn’t win a championship until his ninth season. On the other hand, Kyle Brandt compared Jackson not to Jordan, bu to one of the many star players the NBA icon kept under his thumb.
“I don’t look at [Jackson] as Jordan. Because Jordan plays for the Chiefs,” Brandt said. “[Charles] Barkley, [Karl] Malone, [Patrick] Ewing — is that the fate for these AFC quarterbacks because they played in the wrong era? Those are great all-time players who should’ve won championships, and not a single title amongst them because [Jordan] took them all. [Mahomes] has taken them all.”
The saying goes that you have to beat the best to be the best, and the Ravens will certainly have to go through the best this season.
