Every week, FOX Sports NFL reporter Peter Schrager opens his notebook and opines on three of the biggest storylines around the league. Here’s my takes heading into Week 7.
1. Derrick Henry The Difference Maker
A lot of folks in NFL circles rolled their eyes when Derrick Henry signed with the Ravens in March. We’d seen this story before. Aging veteran enters final year of free agency, his longtime team curiously doesn’t make much of an effort to bring him back, and then he signs with great fanfare somewhere else. Whether this was Ezekiel Elliott as a Patriot, Emmitt Smith as a Cardinal, Marshawn Lynch as a Raider, or Adrian Peterson as a Saint — the story usually goes the same. A bunch of jerseys sold, a lot of fantasy football chatter, and then an injury, a younger guy fills in, and ultimately a fizzle to the end of that era. Umm…Derrick Henry didn’t get the memo. At 30 years old, he is having his best year as a pro. He has touchdowns in all six games, has over 700 rushing yards, and more than anything, is providing something the Ravens have so desperately needed since the start of the Lamar Jackson Era: a closer.
The knock on the Ravens, dating back to Jackson’s first MVP season in 2019, is that they can’t put games away, and in the ones that matter most, have no hammer to ice games. They had the league’s best-rushing attack of all time in that ’19 campaign, but the run game was nonexistent in their playoff loss to Henry’s Tennessee Titans. Last year, the running game vanished in their AFC Championship Game against the Kansas City Chiefs. Baltimore opted to only hand the ball off to running backs eight times in that game and the questions loomed all offseason as to whether Henry would actually serve as a plug to that hole, or if it was just another high-priced aging running back addition that the league has seen a million times before.
Henry’s been outstanding this season. On Sunday, he ran for 132 yards and two touchdowns in a 30-23 win over the Washington Commanders. He has nine total touchdowns in six games. Henry is the first back since LaDainian Tomlinson in 2005 to run for touchdowns in each of his team’s first six games, but you have to love what he said after the game more than anything. In the locker room, with everyone showering him with praise, Henry said, “I feel like everything was working; it was like, ‘Pick your poison.’ Everybody did a great job of being locked in and executing. Hats off to everybody on offense for putting plays together and being able to field these drives to put ourselves in a position to win.”
Henry put the Cowboys away with his legs in Week 3, had monster games against the Bills and Bengals in Weeks 4 and 5, and stole the headlines from the highly anticipated Jayden Daniels-Lamar Jackson matchup in Week 6. I can make the argument that he’s the best free-agent acquisition the NFL has seen in some time. With the exception of Tom Brady in 2020, which free agent — not a player acquired via trade — has made such an immediate impact in such a big way?
The schedule doesn’t get any easier, of course, but Henry doesn’t seem to be letting up. We haven’t had a running back win MVP since 2012 when Adrian Peterson won the award. Derrick Henry is making his case, week in and week out.
Derrick Henry leads the NFL in rushing yards in his first season with the Ravens. (Photo by Patrick Smith/Getty Images)
2. Saquon Comes “Home”
Back in May, I would have circled Sunday’s Eagles-Giants tilt as a top 5 or at least a top 10 game of the upcoming NFL season. Saquon Barkley, the Giants’ best player for nearly a half decade and a home-grown talent whose contract was a matter of public discourse for nearly two seasons, would be coming back to MetLife Stadium to face the Giants as a member of the hated Philadelphia Eagles. The anticipation grew even more after a six-episode reality show series, “Hard Knocks: Offseason with the New York Giants“, aired a lot of the Barkley conversations, negotiations and fallout on national TV during the dead of summer. But, then, something happened. An NFL season broke out. And, as much as it felt like a top storyline of the offseason, Barkley’s “heel turn” to the Eagles and return to East Rutherford, doesn’t quite feel like the juicy storyline it did a few months ago. With Chiefs-49ers, Lions-Vikings, and even the Sean Payton Bowl on Thursday night in New Orleans, I’m not even sure if it’s anything more than a side note this week. And why is that? Well, first, it appears that both the Giants and Eagles have other things going on this week. Nick Siriani shaved his head during the bye week, his Eagles, barely snuck by an inept Browns team, and then he was caught on camera barking at the home crowd in the final moments. In his press conference after the game, he was terse with the local scribes. In New York, the Giants have managed just one offensive touchdown at home, are winless in their own building in their 100th season, and at 2-4 the season is on the brink. Saquon also took the stinger out of this, as well. I spoke to him on the NFL Network a few weeks back, and when I asked about this matchup, his response was the following: “I truly have no hate, no nothing in my heart over those guys. I live in the moment, I’m excited where I’m at. … I know that game is around the corner and will be talked about a lot, but when that comes I’ll handle that.”
I’m all for hyping up a game. Especially an Eagles-Giants NFC East rivalry game. But Daniel Jones is coming off his 13th primetime loss in 14 games. And Siriani just went dark after a win in his latest press conference. Saquon Barkley and Giants fans’ reception of him just doesn’t seem all that significant. And the facts shouldn’t get lost on how it all turned out for both sides. “The Saquon Revenge Game” narrative might sell, but who’s looking for vengeance from whom? In the end, Saquon got offered a big contract from the Giants that he turned down in February of 2023. He then got paid big bucks by the Eagles a year later. As for the Giants, they moved on by trading and signing star pass-rusher Brian Burns, building an offensive line and drafting running back Tyrone Tracy from Purdue on Day 3. Tracy’s been great the past two weeks for Big Blue. We’ll watch and we’ll do flips on Saquon’s return, but in the end, it’s football and it’s business. Storylines from May might not be so significant come October.
Saquon Barkley spent the first six seasons of his career with the Giants. (Photo by Cooper Neill/Getty Images)
3. Brian Branch’s Time Is Now
Lost in the sadness and devastation of the Aidan Hutchinson injury on Sunday was a career day from Lions safety Brian Branch against the Cowboys. Back in August, I released my annual “Top 10 Breakout Players” list and included Branch at No. 4. This came from whispers all summer that Branch was not only healthy, but was ready to make a major leap both in responsibility and production on the field. The leadership piece is what we often miss when watching from afar. And from all accounts, in a young, precarious defensive back room, Branch — a second-year guy — is the voice and tone setter. He had his best game as a pro on Sunday in Dallas.
Branch got a game ball from head coach Dan Campbell by recording six tackles, one quarterback hit, two interceptions and one forced fumble against the Cowboys. Since 1999 (when forced fumbles became an official statistic), Branch is just the fourth player to ever go 6 tackles, 2 picks, a forced fumble, and at least a 40-yard INT return. “He means a ton to us,” Campbell said at his postgame press conference about the former Alabama star. “What you see is what you get. He’s a highly productive player. He is the ultimate football player. He’s a football player. He gets it. He sees it.”
Branch has spent the past two years in this sweet spot of rising star, breakout player and future All-Pro. With Hutchinson’s injury likely meaning he’ll be out for not only the regular season but likely the month of January, too — Branch may have to step up in more ways than just the stat sheet. The Lions play the Vikings in Week 7 in what could be inexplicably the NFC’s Game of the Year thus far. Branch will have his hands full, no doubt. I’m watching to see if he’s the leader of the unit.
Brian Branch had a career day in Week 6 against the Cowboys. (Photo by Sam Hodde/Getty Images)
Bonus Stat of the Week
Tampa Bay scored 51 points Sunday in New Orleans, despite turning the ball over three times and committing 12 penalties. The last team to score 50+ points with at least three turnovers and 12 penalties was the Chiefs in the famous 54-51 Monday night loss to the Rams in 2018.
Peter Schrager is an NFL Insider for FOX Sports and a host of “Good Morning Football” on NFL Network. You can follow him on Twitter at @PSchrags.
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