He burst onto the scene by putting up impossible numbers at Yulee High School north of Jacksonville, then kept that going in college with a Heisman Trophy campaign at Alabama. And even as his 11th NFL season gets underway, Derrick Henry is battering opponents just like he always has.
The powerful Baltimore Ravens running back kicked off the 2026 season with 144 yards on 24 carries with three touchdowns against the Indianapolis Colts, just another ho-hum performance by the 32-year-old back. "King Henry" is now up to 13,162 yards for his career, the most by far among active players (the closest is Saquon Barkley nearly 5,000 yards behind).
It's got people wondering whether Henry will break the all-time NFL rushing record, which belongs to another
Florida high school legend in Pensacola's Emmitt Smith. The Florida Gators great ran for 18,355 yards over 15 seasons with the Dallas Cowboys and Arizona Cardinals. And he recently said he thinks Henry will break his record ... again.
"Oh yeah, I think it's possible," Smith said to DraftKings. "Derrick Henry is a bigger back. He takes great care of his body. He's in great shape. ... He broke my state high school record, so I believe he can do it again."
At Escambia High School in the 1980s, Smith ran for 8,804 yards, which stood as the Florida high school record until Henry smashed it en route to the national high school record of 12,124 yards in 2012. He then ran for 2,219 yards as a junior at Alabama in 2015 to become the first Heisman winner who wasn't a quarterback in six years.
How old is Derrick Henry?
The biggest hindrance to Henry surpassing Smith's record is the wear and tear plowing through hordes of defenders does to a body over time. Henry will turn 33 in January, and running backs tend to drop off exponentially after they turn 30.
But Father Time hasn't been able to catch (or bring down) Henry yet. As ESPN's Jamison Hensley lays out, he has run for a league-leading 3,660 yards since leaving the Tennessee Titans for the Ravens in 2024, when he was 30. He's shown remarkable durability throughout his career, missing half the 2021 season with a broken foot but otherwise never missing more than one game across his career.
NFL career rushing leaders
Henry needs 5,194 yards to break Smith's record. If he averages 1,300 yards for the next four years, he'll break the record in his age-36 season in 2029. Smith broke Walter Payton's rushing record in 2002 when he was 33, then retired two years later after turning 35. Henry has surpassed 1,500 yards in three of the four seasons since breaking his foot in 2021.
Here's a look at the NFL all-time rushing list entering Week 2 of the 2026 season:
- Emmitt Smith: 18,355
- Walter Payton: 16,726
- Frank Gore: 16,000
- Barry Sanders: 15,269
- Adrian Peterson: 14,918
- Curtis Martin: 14,101
- LaDainian Tomlinson: 13,684
- Jerome Bettis: 13,662
- Eric Dickerson: 13,259
- Derrick Henry: 13,162
With 98 yards today against the New Orleans Saints, Henry would pass Los Angeles Rams and Indianapolis Colts legend Eric Dickerson for ninth on the all-time list. If he gets to 1,300 yards this season, he would finish the year in sixth place.
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Can Derrick Henry break NFL rushing record? Emmitt Smith thinks so
