Top Landing Spots For Darrell Henderson

The Los Angeles Rams turned heads on Tuesday afternoon when they announced they had waived RB Darrell Henderson, who has been their starting running back for the bulk of the season. 

Now granted, the Rams have been one of the worst teams at rushing the football this season and Henderson hasn’t been blameless for their struggles.

It’s still surprising to see them cut bait so abruptly. Los Angeles will move on with other options on the roster, while Henderson will have a chance at a fresh start to hopefully boost his value before free agency this spring.

It looks like he’s excited to be elsewhere. 

https://twitter.com/DarrellH8/status/1595158595762470915

Since he’s still on his rookie contract and owed only about $436,718 for the remainder of the 2022 season, there’s a good chance Henderson is claimed on the waiver wire. If not, he shouldn’t be out of work long. 

The market for backs has been a little saturated with recent surprise cuts like Eno Benjamin and Melvin Gordon just yesterday, but Henderson is a different player. Some of the teams that might have been interested in Gordon and missed out will be interested in Henderson, but he’ll also appeal to different squads. 

Here are the top five potential landing spots for Henderson for the rest of the season:

Cardinals

The Cardinals have taken a machete to their running back depth in recent weeks, releasing Benjamin for somewhat mysterious reasons and just now cutting Jonathan Ward even though he was healthy enough to come back from injured reserve. They still have James Conner, Darrel Williams and sixth-round rookie Keaontay Ingram, but they could stand to add Henderson for a couple of different reasons. 

The first is that Williams is banged up right now and Conner has a pretty lengthy injury history of his own. Ingram has shown some flashes of promise but it would be tough to turn the entire backfield over to him and/or Williams if Conner were to go down. 

The second is that Benjamin and Ward were both passing down backs, and both had a lot more “juice” to their game than the trio who remain. Williams is good at pass protection but he ran a 40-yard dash in 4.72 seconds. Conner was 4.65, Ingram 4.53. Henderson ran a 4.49-second 40, and entered the league with a reputation as a big-play threat. 

Arizona will be aware of that, as the Cardinals hosted him for a pre-draft visit leading up to the 2019 draft. They’ve also gotten a close look at him in the division over the past few years. They have the highest waiver priority of the teams listed here. 

Ravens

Baltimore is one of the teams I mentioned as a potential landing spot for Gordon yesterday, as they could use the depth and they actually hosted Gordon for a free-agent visit this summer before he elected to re-sign with the Broncos. But I actually think Henderson is a better fit for what the team needs right now. 

Backing up a bit, when Henderson was coming out of Memphis he was primarily a gap runner in the Tigers’ spread system. It made him a weird fit for the Rams who are primarily a zone running scheme. You could write loads on the differences for a running back — and other people have — but an easy way to think about it is that gap runs are like multiple-choice questions on a test, while zone runs are like short answer. 

Every team runs both and most teams run more zone than gap. But there are exceptions, and gap runs are proving more effective this season in particular with how defenses are changing. One of the best teams at gap runs is the Ravens, which is why Henderson would be a terrific fit as a potential big-play threat if he can recapture his college prowess. 

Seahawks

The Seahawks were another team I mentioned yesterday as a fit for Gordon, as the depth behind standout second-round RB Kenneth Walker is lacking. Henderson doesn’t profile as someone who could step up as a workhorse back should Walker go down, as he’s pretty much always split carries in his NFL career. But he could lead a committee with help from DeeJay Dallas and Travis Homer. 

Another factor to consider is the coaching connections. Current Seahawks OC Shane Waldron was an assistant with the Rams for the first two years of Henderson’s career and would be familiar with him as a player. Henderson would also be familiar with Waldron and might not have as much of a learning curve to acclimate to the Seattle offense. Coaching connections like this are massive when connecting the dots on landing spots and this is the reason why. 

Giants

The Bills were one of the teams that expressed a decent amount of interest in Henderson when he was coming out of school as a prospect. Their depth chart is pretty stacked at the position right now, but it’s worth noting a big chunk of the coaching staff and front office have migrated over to New York right now. And the only back the Giants have behind Saquon Barkley of any note is Matt Breida.

Adding Henderson gives them more depth for the rest of the 2022 season, and is a low-cost way to help fortify a potential playoff push. Who knows, perhaps Henderson could even factor into their long-term plans and give them a cheaper alternative to re-sign than Barkley. 

Cowboys

Dallas is pretty set with the tandem of Ezekiel Elliott and Tony Pollard leading their backfield. However, Elliott is banged up a little and the team doesn’t trust Pollard to carry the full-time load as a bell cow back. When Elliott was out the past few weeks, Dallas gave Malik Davis 13 carries across two games. 

Henderson would upgrade the Cowboys’ depth behind Pollard and Elliott, which isn’t a bad thing to think about for a team that has Super Bowl hopes. There’s a good amount of familiarity to lean on too; Henderson played with Pollard at Memphis and his position coach his rookie year, Skip Peete, is Dallas’ current RB coach. 

Bonus fits: 

• Eagles: They’ve looked into adding a number of different running backs and they have another one of Henderson’s former Memphis teammates in Kenneth Gainwell. Philadelphia also hosted Henderson for a pre-draft visit in 2019. 
• Vikings: A large number of former Rams coaches are now in Minnesota, which is worth noting even if the Vikings are pretty set at running back right now. 
• Bills: They were interested in Henderson as a draft prospect and there’s a connection to the Rams on the coaching staff in OL coach/run game coordinator Aaron Kromer.
• Chiefs: Kansas City reportedly was one of the teams to put in a claim on Benjamin, losing out to the Texans. That was before RB Clyde Edwards-Helaire went down with what’s reportedly a high ankle sprain. They still have seventh-round rookie Isiah Pacheco, Jerick McKinnon and Ronald Jones but their actions say they’re open to at least adding more competition.