Henry, who finished the night with 75 yards on 12 carries, showed that and more during his preseason debut. Much of the attention surrounding the Commanders’ backfield has been on the more established players and draft picks. There are high expectations for the room, and the players justified that hype on Friday with 174 yards on 41 carries, despite Jacory Croskey-Merritt, Rachaad White and Jeremy McNichols all sitting out. It’s a crowded room, which has created debates over who the Commanders should keep, and Henry showed why he deserves to be part of that discussion.
“There’s much more to improve, but overall, I feel great,” Henry said.
It’s understandable for Henry to get lost among the rest of the Commanders’ running back room. Croskey-Merritt was a seventh-round pick who received almost immediate praise from the fan base, and he mostly lived up to their expectations with 805 yards and eight rushing touchdowns; White, the Commanders’ big acquisition at the position, is a pass-catching threat and a solid route runner; Kaytron Allen, a sixth-round pick, is Penn State’s all-time leading rusher and has an immediate role on the team; and McNichols and Jerome Ford are veterans who can do a bit of everything.
Henry, an undrafted free agent out of UTSA, doesn’t have the same level of pedigree, but he does bring a noteworthy college resume to the position group. He became the third UTSA player in program history to rush for 1,000 yards during his final season, despite missing two games. He recorded 2,339 yards and 27 rushing touchdowns in three seasons with the Roadrunners, averaging 5.7 yards per carry. His highlight performance came against Texas A&M, when he rushed for 177 yards and two touchdowns on just 16 carries.
“Henry is a slasher with a wiggly lower half, allowing him to make sudden cuts and elude tacklers in tight quarters,” NFL.com’s Lance Zierlein wrote in his pre-draft evaluation of Henry.