Baltimore Ravens running back Derrick Henry refuses to single out any member of the Ravens for their two-point loss to the Buffalo Bills in their Divisional Round game. He does not want anyone throwing shade at two-time NFL Most Valuable Player Lamar Jackson.
Derrick Henry Sticks Up for Lamar Jackson
Henry refuses to blame the Ravens QB, who had turned the ball over twice. Henry said Jackson was the ultimate teammate and carried the team as far as it got.
“I came in being a teammate and found a brother,” Henry said via transcript from the team. “Lamar is what makes this team go, and he’s the reason why we still had a chance, so I’d tell him the same thing: hold his head high. He’s a Hall of Fame player and had a great season.”
With the negative rhetoric connected to Lamar Jackson when it comes to the playoffs, I asked Derrick Henry his thoughts on LJ as a player/leader:
“Lamar is what makes this thing go. He’s the reason we had a chance. I’d tell him to hold his head high. He’s a Hall of Fame player.”… pic.twitter.com/SqmPvTxyYF
— Carita Parks (@CaritaCParks) January 20, 2025
Henry was no slouch himself as he rushed the ball for 1,921 yards and 16 touchdowns this season.
With 186 yards on the ground in last week’s Wild Card win over the division-rival Pittsburgh Steelers, Henry surpassed the 2,000-yard plateau.
Henry believes Jackson did everything he could against a potent Buffalo defense. He said whether you win or lose, you do it as a team. It was the team who lost Sunday and not Jackson, or Mark Andrews who dropped a two-point conversion late in the game.
“It’s a team effort. We came up short together. It’s not on him. Forget what anybody else outside of what we [have] going on says,” Henry said. “We believe in him, and we always [are] going [to] be behind his back.”
Over his seven seasons as the Ravens’ starting quarterback, Jackson has lost in the Wild Card or Divisional Round five times.
The two-time league MVP may have had his best shot at reaching the Super Bowl this year, with the addition of Henry and an extra year in offensive coordinator Todd Monken’s system. Nonetheless, Jackson and the Ravens made an early exit again.
Jackson is a perennial MVP candidate, and that’s no different this season. His main opposition for this year’s award is Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen.
Jackson, the 27-year-old from Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., put together one of his best seasons in 2024, leading the league in PFN’s QB+ metric. He threw for 4,172 passing yards, 41 touchdowns and only four interceptions. He also rushed for 915 yards and four touchdowns, leading the Ravens to a 12-5 regular-season record.
