Ravens RB Derrick Henry
Mitch Stringer-Imagn Images
There are only nine players in NFL history who’ve managed to rush for at least 2,000 yards in a single season. That includes Derrick Henry, who hasn’t been able to check that box as a member of the Ravens but has some extra incentive to do so this year thanks to Adam Sandler.
In 1973, O.J. Simpson became the first player in NFL history to rush for more than 2,000 yards in a season when he finished with 2,003 in the 14 games he played in that year.
Since then, eight other players have joined that exclusive club. Saquon Barkley became the most recent thanks to the monster season he had with the Eagles in 2024, but no one has managed to top the 2,105 Eric Dickerson put up with the Rams while setting a single-season NFL record that’s stood since 1986.
Derrick Henry got in on the action in 2020 when he racked up 2,027 yards on the ground during his fifth season with the Titans. That remains a career high for the RB who had 1,921 in his third season with the Ravens last year, and the 31-year-old seems to think he has what it takes to become the first NFL player to get at least 2,000 yards on two occasions.
Earlier this week, Henry sat down for an interview with Dan Patrick where the latter was wearing a sweatshirt Adam Sandler gave him while they were working together on Happy Gilmore 2 (the longtime broadcaster is also a longtime friend of the comedy legend who’s given him a role in a number of his movies).
Henry noted he’s a huge Sandler fan before Patrick not only promised to get the actor to send him a video but pledged to convince him to give him a role of his own in a movie if he can hit 2,000 yards in 2025—an offer the Sandman confirmed is officially on the table (along with a “nice dinner”) in the message the RB watched at training camp.
Something tells me Henry will be appearing in a movie even if he ends up short of the 2,000-yard mark, but a little bit of added motivation never hurts.