Baltimore Ravens running back Derrick Henry has always been one of a kind, and his reaching 10,000 career rushing yards this past Sunday against in a win over the Cincinnati Bengals is further proof of that.
Crossing the 10k mark used to be a lot more common for running backs. 31 others have done it before Henry in over 100 years of NFL history, but the most recent additions to the list prior to Henry were Marshawn Lynch and LeSean McCoy, both of whom accomplished the feat in 2017.
There's a good chance that Henry could be the last to reach the milestone for a longtime, unless a guy like Joe Mixon does it wearing a Houston Texans uniform.
Mixon is currently at 6,596 career yards on the ground in the middle of his eighth season. Prior to this year, he averaged 916 yards a season for the Bengals despite being in a backfield committee as a rookie in 2017 and missing most of the 2020 season due to injury. Maintaining that yearly average yardage would require him to play 11 seasons in order to reach 10k.
But Mixon is only under contract for three years in Houston with his deal set to run out at the end of his 10th season. He will have to kick it up a notch in the back-half of his career in order to join Henry.
That mission journey was off to a phenomenal start in his debut outing in Week 1 with 159 yards and a touchdown. 25 yards into his second game, Mixon suffered an ankle injury that has sidelined him ever since.
Clearly, even at age 28, Mixon has some juice left to make a march towards 10k. The questions are going to be same as they are for every tailback who's not Henry: Age and health.
The latter is already coming into question as his ankle injury has taken him out of three games already this season. He played just three full seasons during his seven years in Cincinnati, and he's still been one of the more durable backs over the past decade. That's simply the nature of the position.
If Mixon can return soon this season and play at least 10 games while averaging 90 yards per game (he's technically averaging 92 so far), that will get him to 900 on the year and 7,312 for his career. From there, he'll likely have to play three more seasons with a 900-yard average to cross the finish line.
That would require him to play one more season than he's under contract for, but if he's still getting close to 1,000 yards a season, it's not out of the question for the Texans or another team to give him one more go at it when he's 31. Eclipsing his career-high of 1,205 once or twice would obviously expedite the process as well.
Running backs face an uphill climb to leave their legacy nowadays, even when running the ball is becoming more and more advantageous for offenses again.
Mixon's climb won't be easy, but he's one of a few who can make it and join Henry.
