Ravens Extend All-Pro Running Back
On May 14th, 2025, the Baltimore Ravens and Derrick Henry have agreed to a two-year contract extension that averages $15 million per year, with $25 million guaranteed. The extension is the most lucrative ever for an RB over the age of 30, but the five-time Pro Bowler has proven his worth with over 2,000 yards from scrimmage and a career-high 18 total touchdowns in 2024 in his first year as a Raven. This extension is big news for Ravens fans because, since the departure of Ray Rice in 2013, Justin Forsett’s one-year-wonder in 2014 and the J.K. Dobbins and Gus Edwards tandem that ended in 2023, Baltimore looks to have a bonafide ball carrying game wrecker who seems to defy father time year in and year out. Set to be a free agent after the 2025 season, King Henry is now locked into wearing purple and black until after the 2027 season, where he would end the campaign near his 34th birthday.
Drafted in the second round of the 2016 NFL Draft by the Tennessee Titans, Henry recorded over 9,500 rushing yards and 90 touchdowns in eight seasons. Henry was the eighth player in NFL history to rush for 2,000 yards in a single season, achieved in 2020, earning the Offensive Player of the Year award. Henry’s monstrous year succeeded Adrian Peterson’s 2012 MVP season and preceded Saquon Barkley’s 2024 Offensive Player of the Year campaign as the three most recent players to reach the insurmountable milestone while still chasing Eric Dickerson’s single-season record of 2,105 from 1984. After signing with the Ravens in 2024, Henry was 79 yards short of being the first player in NFL history to rush for 2,000 yards in multiple seasons. With 11,423 career yards, Henry ranks 19th overall but first among active players in career rushing yards, but an additional 1,500 yards in 2025 could push him into the top 10. Additionally, if Henry were to keep on his yards per season track of 1,270 yards, he could sneak into the top five, just behind Hall of Fame RB Barry Sanders’ 15,260 yards by the end of the contract.
As for this upcoming season, Henry looks to be a part of another offensive juggernaut, lined up next to QB Lamar Jackson, who had close to 1,000 yards on the ground and over 4,000 through the air. Running backs are notorious for having a short life span, but Henry never listened to it. “That’s always going to be said when a running back gets up in age, the stigma on the position,” Henry said after his 30th birthday to Jamison Hensley of ESPN, “I just focus on me being healthy, doing my job when I’m here, and then let my play speak for my age.” King Henry is truly a freak of nature, defying the laws of aging NFL players, and will undoubtedly find himself in the Hall of Fame as a first ballot inductee, but for at least the next three seasons, Henry will battle in the trenches for his first Super Bowl appearance, and victory, fighting for immortality while wearing the purple and black.
