NFL Hall of Famer Emmitt Smith believes Baltimore Ravens running back Derrick Henry can surpass his career rushing record of 18,355 yards. Henry, currently playing his age-32 season with 13,162 career yards, needs 5,193 more yards to claim the all-time league milestone.
Derrick Henry
Derrick Henry is stiff-arming Father Time. The Baltimore Ravens running back’s age-32 season began with him stacking three touchdowns, along with 144 rushing yards, in a Week 1 win over the Indianapolis Colts. He’s a Heisman Trophy winner and a national champion, plus a five-time Pro Bowler. And, perhaps most notably, the Alabama product is already the NFL’s 10th all-time leading rusher.
Emmitt Smith Evaluates the Path to 18,355 Yards
Emmitt Smith has been the NFL’s all-time rushing leader for more than 20 years, and it’s long been believed that the Hall of Fame running back’s record of 18,355 yards would never be broken. However, with Derrick Henry showing no signs of slowing down at 32, the possibility of him surpassing Smith isn’t as far-fetched as it once seemed. Following his two-year stint with the Arizona Cardinals, Smith finished with 18,355 rushing yards. Trailing Smith by 5,193 yards, Henry sits 10th on the all-time rushing list.
“Oh yeah, I think it’s possible,” Smith said via DraftKings. “Derrick Henry is a bigger back. He takes good care of his body. He’s in great shape.”
Smith also pointed to a shared history between the two players before their professional careers, adding that he hopes someone breaks the record in his lifetime and wishing Walter Payton had still been alive when Smith broke the prior record of 16,726 yards.
“Y’all don’t know this, but Derrick Henry broke my high school record. He broke my state high school record. So I believe he can do it again,” Smith said.
Before Smith won three Super Bowl rings with the Cowboys en route to becoming a Pro Football Hall of Famer, he racked up 8,804 rushing yards as a standout at Escambia High School in Florida. Henry starred at Yulee, where he clocked out with a whopping 12,124 rushing yards. At 6-foot-3 and 252 pounds, Henry maintains a size advantage over Smith, who was listed at 5-foot-9 and 221 pounds. Smith reached his rushing record in 226 games, while Henry currently stands at 154 games.
Climbing Past Hall of Famers and Defying Age-32 Expectations
Henry’s immediate milestone targets sit just ahead of him on the all-time leaderboard. For now, he’s only 97 yards behind Hall of Famer Eric Dickerson. With another 403 yards, he’ll catch Hall of Famer Jerome Bettis. With 22 more yards, he’ll match Hall of Famer LaDainian Tomlinson. And with 417 yards, he’ll tie Hall of Famer Curtis Martin. In all, Henry is 940 yards away from leapfrogging Dickerson, Bettis, Tomlinson, and Martin, each of whom are in Canton. Henry will surely get there, too, especially if he keeps working his way to the top of the all-time rushing list. If he stays healthy the entire season, Henry will likely move into sixth place, ahead of Curtis Martin and behind Adrian Peterson.
Derrick Henry
Teammates and observers alike continue to express astonishment at Henry’s sustained production. Just ask the Colts’ defense how Week 1 went for them, when Henry steamrolled through Indianapolis in the same fashion he’s displayed since he was a youngster in Tennessee. Better yet, ask his defensive teammate, cornerback Marlon Humphrey.
“As Derrick keeps getting older, you start thinking, ‘He can’t do this forever,'” Humphrey said, via ESPN. “Then he does that and it’s like, ‘Maybe he can.'”
Henry has long existed as a unique specimen, an athletic freak of nature whose size, power and speed has propelled him to great feats. Henry’s impressive start to the 2026 campaign has sparked debate about where he ranks at his position in NFL lore. After all, he’s already a two-time league rushing leader (2019 and 2020), and he’s worn the single-season rushing touchdown crown on three occasions (2019, 2020 and 2024). Former five-time Pro Bowl offensive tackle Terron Armstead argued on NFL on CBS that public perception undervalues Henry’s place in football history due to his running style.
“I think we’re not vocal enough about Derrick Henry being the greatest running back of all time, arguably,” former five-time Pro Bowl offensive tackle Terron Armstead said Wednesday on NFL on CBS. “We talk about him being a Hall of Famer, but it is time to really have that conversation that he may be the greatest running back of all time. And I think we lack that conversation because he’s not flashy, he’s not shifty. We see Barry Sanders, we see the Gale Sayers of the world. But when you talk production — 2,000 yards rushing, leads the league in touchdowns — time and time again, year after year, and he’s only getting better. We need to have that conversation. … His career didn’t start off hot. Barry Sanders was 10 straight [1,000-plus-yard rushing seasons], electric. Derrick Henry, he had growing pains. He had a learning curve. And since then, he’s been incredible, unstoppable with different offenses, different offensive lines, different offensive coordinators. He has been a constant level of elite production. We got to have that conversation.”
What It Takes to Reach the Top Spot
Derrick Henry
To bridge the 5,193-yard gap separating him from Smith’s benchmark, Henry will need to keep rolling for at least four more seasons beyond 2026, translating to 84 more games. At an average of 61.8 yards per game, he’ll get there. At the moment, Henry is sitting at 13,162 rushing yards. The 6-foot-3, 252-pounder accounted for the majority of that yardage during his eight seasons with the Tennessee Titans, but he’s kept his foot on the gas since joining the Ravens in 2024. Famously, Henry is one of nine NFL players to run for at least 2,000 yards in a season. He accomplished that feat in 2020 with the Titans — earning NFL Offensive Player of the Year as a result — however, he eventually flirted with crossing that barrier again in his first season with Baltimore.
While Father Time remains undefeated, Henry has been defying it. If he wants to keep going, and if his body holds up, he could get there. For now, he has the vote of confidence of the record-holder — and a dynamic, explosive surrounding cast capable of helping him march closer.