Tennessee Titans Throwback Thursday: Chris Henry

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Typically, we run Throwback Thursday pieces on former Tennessee Titans legends, but I wanted to change it up a bit. The NFL Draft was just a few weeks ago. Now, we have a whole new crop of talented rookies to fawn over. It seems like every year, there’s at least one guy who gets picked in the middle or later rounds, or not at all, that ends up in Titans camp and draws intrigue from the Titans fan base. So, the draft got me thinking about some of those guys. I remembered one epic combine performance that led to a guy being drafted WAY too early: Chris Henry.

Henry was picked in the second round of the 2007 NFL Draft to a response of, “wut?” The guy never eclipsed 600 rushing yards, and never averaged more than 3.5 yards per carry in college. Also, it’s worth mentioning again, clearly, that Henry was a SECOND ROUND PICK….on a team that already had a still-productive Chris Brown and LenDale White entering his prime.

But, I remember how excited Jeff Fisher and his coaching staff were about the pick, despite not even really needing a running back. After a monstrous performance at the NFL Scouting Combine, this dude was supposed to come in and be an absolute weapon – just a freak athlete. Henry played college ball at Arizona, and it didn’t seem like the city really knew too much about the guy.

Such a lack of college production confused us even more. After doing our due diligence, we wondered just where the hell this guy fit into the offense.

As it turned out, the answer to that question was, “nowhere.”

His rookie season with the Titans was technically his most productive – 31 carries, 119 yards, two touchdowns. His sophomore season? One carry for three yards. After that, he was released, landed on a couple of practice squads (Houston, Seattle), before ultimately fizzling out in 2011.

I kinda feel bad writing this – like, I’m just coming off the top rope onto Henry out of nowhere and for no good reason. But, the whole case just baffles me, and I can’t help but wonder what this guy would’ve been like had he not had the expectations of a second round pick attached to him. Maybe if he’s drafted much later and developed from the approach of honing his athletic abilities into the running back position instead of just throwing him into the fire, things are different.

Henry is a fine example of why we shouldn’t get our hopes up about any prospect in the Spring. The dude was a workout warrior and elite athlete, but turned out to be one of those guys who looks better in a pair of shorts than shoulder pads.

Tennessee Titans Throwback Thursday Archives

Drew Bennett
Keith Bulluck

I also wrote a series for Pro Football Spot, featuring Eddie George, Steve McNair, and Vince Young. Can’t seem to find online anywhere, though. So, I’ll be re-working these over the coming weeks.

Stoney Keeley is the Editor in Chief of The SoBros Network. A strong advocate of GSD (get shit done) and #BeBetter, he’s down to talk Tennessee Titans and Alabama Crimson Tide football over a beer any day. Check him out covering the WWE for WrestlingNews.co. Follow on Twitter @StoneyKeeley@WrestlingNewsCo

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