Derrick Henry gives emotional speech to Titans fans after possible final game in Tennessee
The Tennessee Titans’ Week 18 matchup against the Jacksonville Jaguars had zero playoff implications for the hometown team, but Tennessee was still able to pull out the 28-20 home win over Jacksonville to finish the season 6-11.
Following the game, Titans star running back Derrick Henry took the microphone and addressed the home crowd in Nashville, thanking the Titans fans in a message that insinuated that Henry may be parting ways with the franchise moving forward.
Check out Henry’s heartfelt speech, and potential goodbye, to Titans nation below.
“Titan fans, I just want to say thank you for the greatest eight years of my life. The ups and the downs, y’all have been there for everything, through the adversity, watching me grow as a person and a player, always supporting me,” Henry said. “I love y’all, I love seeing the 22s in the stadium. Hopefully, I was an inspiration to all the young kids and everybody in the community. Just thank y’all so much. Man, God is good, and Titan up baby.”
Henry will be a free agent this offseason, and his vocalization regarding the unfair payment of running backs and the state of the market at the position at large was one of the biggest stories around the NFL this offseason. That paired with his message delivered at Nissan Stadium on Sunday following the team’s last game of the season makes it seem like Henry and the Titans could be headed in separate directions in the neat future.
Henry rushed for 153 yards and a touchdown versus the Jaguars, pushing his season total to over 1,000 yards rushing for the fifth time in his eight-year NFL career with Tennessee.
The Titans selected Henry with the No. 45 overall pick in the second round of the 2016 NFL Draft out of Alabama where he won the Heisman Trophy, the Maxwell Award, the Walter Camp Award, the Doak Walker Award, and a College Football Playoff championship all in the 2015-2016 season.
Derrick Henry has rushed for 9,349 yards and 89 touchdowns in his eight-year career with the Titans earning First-Team All-Pro honors once, Second-Team All-Pro honors twice, and four Pro Bowl selections in his career.
In the 2019 and 2020 seasons, he led the NFL in rushing yards and rushing touchdowns, also helping lead the Titans to playoff appearances in both years. Henry ranks second all-time in rushing yards for the Titans organization only behind Eddie George, and if this season was his last in Nashville, there’s no question that his legacy has been left and will be remembered forever.