Titans Henry was ready to plug and play

Sep 19, 2017 - 4:13 AM NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- The Tennessee Titans drafted Derrick Henry in the second round of the NFL draft last year, knowing that he needed to wait his turn behind DeMarco Murray.

The primary reason for drafting Henry was that because the Titans are a run-oriented team and if something happened to Murray, there would be a plug-and-play replacement ready to insert into the backfield.

That became necessary Sunday in Jacksonville as Henry came off the bench to rush for 92 yards and a touchdown on 14 carries in a 37-16 Titans win. Murray tweaked the hamstring that kept him out of most of training camp and preseason.

While some have called for Henry to get more action even with Murray playing well last season, the fact that Murray is off to a slow start and not healthy may give Henry more of an opportunity to carry the load in the short term.

"That's a position where if you can have the luxury of having, similar to Jacksonville, of having two guys that can run the ball like that, because that's a tough position, there's a lot of pounding that goes on their bodies, if you can have good depth at that position," head coach Mike Mularkey said. "We're fortunate that we have it. Yeah, that's part of the reason we drafted Derrick."

Mularkey insists that Murray is still at the top of the pecking order and will be his starter once he is healthy, though.

"I still see it that way. Yesterday I thought Derrick (Henry) came in, really both of them played in the first half. It was a grind trying to run the ball with both of them in there," Mularkey said. "When Derrick (Henry) took over for DeMarco (Murray) in the second half, we stayed patient with the run game and it started to hit some holes."