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With one game remaining on their schedule against the lowly Houston Texans, the Tennessee Titans find themselves in a bit of a pickle. If they win this game, they are assured of the number one seed in the AFC, thus securing a week off during the divisional round. They would normally want to have “all hands on deck” and that would include running back Derrick Henry who is supposed to practice on Wednesday for the first time in over two months.
However, with the prospects of an extra week of rest, it gives Henry much more time to rehab his surgically repaired foot for the playoffs. Therein lies the rub: do the Titans rest Henry and risk the one-seed going to another team if they lose, or play Henry roughly two weeks before they have to in order to try and secure the number one seed. We are definitely advocating for the former and have come up with three main reasons that the Titans should be resting Henry during Sunday's game.
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Three reasons the Titans should rest Derrick Henry
3. They are going to beat Houston regardless of Henry's playing status
Tennessee should be able to handle Houston without Henry, and if they can't, that means that they have way bigger problems than who the starting running back is going to be. Houston already took out Tennessee once this year, meaning the Titans will be out for blood in this one. They want to prove that they are a different team now that A.J. Brown has returned and this will be another opportunity to showcase that. They don't need Henry to make that statement.
People don't appreciate Derrick Henry's vision enough pic.twitter.com/RTcWJDPKpR
— James Foster (@NoFlagsFilm) December 3, 2021
2. The injury risk
This one seems obvious, but can't be understated. If Henry comes back and injures himself in any way that hinders the Titans' playoff chances, there will be a riot in Tennessee. In getting their best offensive weapon back for the playoffs, the Titans might have the most momentum of any team in the league. They do not want to lose that with an injury to Henry that could have been prevented had he just sat out one more game. His style of play leads to many collisions, like this one here:
Looks like Derrick Henry suffered an arm or shoulder injury here..pic.twitter.com/7c9YUSHydQ
— Dov Kleiman (@NFL_DovKleiman) November 22, 2020
1. The Bye gives him basically two extra weeks to practice
This one is number one because it is the most overlooked but still important. If Henry goes out there on Sunday against the Texans and plays, he will be doing so with just three practices under his belt. If he waits for the playoffs, he will have an extra 1-2 weeks to get into a rhythm behind his offensive line and get some chemistry with Ryan Tannehill when it comes to check-down passes and blitz protections. This is an invaluable time for Henry to use to get himself back into the flow of the offense.
If he goes out there too early he risks putting some bad runs on tape that his playoff opponents can study and gain confidence from. For the Titans, it's much better from an intimidation standpoint for potential opponents to watch some of Henry's tape from earlier this season than to watch him in a rusty tune-up game.
