Longtime Titans coach Jeff Fisher joined Darren, Daunic & Chase on 102.5 The Game Tuesday afternoon, and compared the Titans’ current superstar with his revered workhorse running back.
“Football’s all about comparisons,” Fisher said. “You compare one person to the next, that’s what the game’s based on. If you can put Derrick [Henry] up there with Eddie [George], then they’ve got something special.”
Fisher admires both Henry and George, who share similar reputations across eras as tireless workers and ultimate team players. Fisher saw one of their careers firsthand coaching George in the Titans’ early years. Now he gets to sit back, relax, and enjoy Derrick Henry’s domination.
“I’ve been watching the Titans closely and watched what Derrick did last year, in particular,” Fisher said. “You saw flashes, you saw the ability, you saw all these things… I was so impressed with his season last year.”
What stood out most to Fisher? How Henry took command as the season wore on.
“When you’ve got a back like that, you wanna lean on that back and wear people down. Football changes over the course of a season. It changes in September, October, and then we saw it all change when no one gave the Titans a chance in the postseason. The difference was that people just don’t like tackling the big back. It’s like knocking your head on a frozen truck bumper. You don’t wanna do it, and that’s the kind of back he is.”
An oft-discussed conversation between the Titans legend and his modern day successor was what pushed Fisher over the edge on putting George and Henry in the same elite class.
“It speaks volumes of both,” Fisher said of the two running backs meeting each other and discussing the game. “Number one, Eddie being willing to offer some advice. But two, Derrick being willing to listen. Some light went off. It might’ve been something along the lines of, ‘Hey Derrick, you’re not a 195-pound, third down scat back. You are a man. So run like a man and you’ll wear people down.’”
That conversation between two Titan greats is credited with vaulting Henry to the all-pro levels he reached last year. The Titans hope their current running back has his sights set on George’s career records with a new contract extension in hand. Their original coach agrees.
“He’s the guy that can carry them a long way. I was really excited to hear that Eddie had gotten together with him and they’d talked.”
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