NFC SOUTH

NEW ORLEANS

QB TAYSOM HILL who became TE TAYSOM HILL wants to be WR TAYSOM HILL. Josh Alper of ProFootballTalk.com:

After making nine starts at quarterback in 2020 and 2021, Taysom Hill was listed as a tight end last season and only threw 19 passes as his role shifted in Dennis Allen’s first year as the team’s head coach.

Hill still lined up in a variety of places and set career highs in rushing attempts and yards while scoring seven rushing touchdowns. With Derek Carr now on hand at quarterback, Hill spent the offseason working on the same things he did last season and said on Thursday that the Saints “can tailor that to what they’re asking me to do on the practice field” to what he’s doing in the offense.

That doesn’t mean he expects things to be exactly the same this year, however. Hill told reporters that he’s looking for a bigger role in the passing game in his sixth season in New Orleans.

“I think that’s kind of stuff that hasn’t been explored a ton with me here,” Hill said, via the team’s website. “The throwing stuff as a quarterback or running, that stuff we’ve been doing that for a long time and that’s come really natural for me. I think running routes and catching balls, that was a foreign thing for me and I also think because of that, we haven’t done a ton of it and I think there’s some opportunities there that we just haven’t explored yet. As I look at next season, I think the hope and the expectation is that that expands a little bit.”

Carr said he sees Hill as someone he can check the ball off to because Hill “runs through and he runs over a couple of guys and he gets the first down.” If that becomes a regular facet of the offense, Hill’s career highs may be coming in different areas this season.

AFC WEST

DENVER

Greg Penner, one of the Denver owners, has his own physical accomplishments and Coach Sean Payton had him speak to the team as it prepares to climb the NFL mountain. Mike Klis of 9News.com:

For his final team meeting of the offseason Thursday morning, Denver Broncos head coach Sean Payton enlisted the help of his boss, owner Greg Penner.

Payton likes to use analogies, and the one he used throughout the offseason, and as the team was about to conduct its final one-hour practice before a 5 ½-week break, was about how difficult it is to climb a mountain – and how easy it can be to slip back to the bottom.

“I don’t know a whole lot about climbing mountains, but our owner does,’’ Payton told the media in a Zoom press conference Thursday. “Greg Penner has climbed seven of the tallest peaks in the world, and there’s a process involved in that. Weeks. Months. And yet the descent down can take a day-and-a-half, two days.’’

Penner has actually climbed five of the seven highest summits on each continent (Kilimanjaro, Everest, Aconcagua, Vinson Massif and Denali). He still plans to climb Russia’s Mount Elbrus and New Guinea’s Puncak Jaya, or Carstensz. Penner has also climbed two other top peaks in Tibetan’s Cho You and Nepal’s Ama Dablam. He’s also climbed a bunch of 14ers in the United States.

Penner, you see, has impressively reached the summit on more than just Walmart. Anyway, about Payton’s climbing-the-mountain theme.

“There’s a simple picture of the Rocky Mountains with a little X on it that says, ‘Base Camp,’ ’’ Payton said. “In other words, this is where we’re at right now. And we can’t afford in this journey to decide to hang out at base camp for two weeks or go backwards.”

And then Payton got around to the expert.

“Greg was fantastic,’’ Payton said. “I gave my completely rookie generic version of what I thought it would be, and then I asked Greg to help me with it, and then I realized I was clueless relative to climbing mountains. But nonetheless the point was made – man, the work going north is much more treacherous, difficult, challenging, and it’s very easy for that to slip. And so we’re all counting on each other, and that was the main message.”

Stay in shape, guys. Physically, the Broncos got out of their offseason in good shape, the exception being third-year edge rusher Baron Browning, who is now expected to miss the first few games of the season following knee surgery.

Payton said he continues to be optimistic that running back Javonte Williams will be ready for the start of training camp as he continues to recover well from last year’s ACL surgery. The Broncos’ top two drafted rookies, receiver Marvin Mims Jr. and linebacker Drew Sanders, have been held out of practice the past week or so with minor injuries but Payton said he isn’t concerned they have fallen behind.

“No, I think they’re both real sharp mentally,’’ Payton said. “We have real good early glimpses of them, and they’re quickly healing.”

And so what about the Broncos in 2023?

“When the season gets near, training camp … I’m anxious to see what kind of team we have,’’ Payton said. “But to the conditioning level, to the strength, to the running, to the offseason program, I like where we’re at now.”

The key is to minimize the slippage during the extended break before training camp.

KANSAS CITY

The Chiefs received their Super Bowl 57 rings last night.  Adam Teicher of ESPN.com:

Patrick Mahomes won’t often wear the championship ring he collected Thursday night for the Kansas City Chiefs’ Super Bowl LVII victory. He’ll keep it in a safe at home, safely tucked away and out of view.

That doesn’t mean he won’t cherish it, just as he does the ring commemorating the Chiefs’ win in Super Bowl LIV.

“That’s what you work for, was to win the Super Bowl and get those rings,” Mahomes said before the Chiefs handed out the rings at a private ceremony at Kansas City’s Union Station. “They last a lifetime. To be able to see them, I know they’ve done a great job with them. I got to help out a little bit with the creating process.

“I got to see the process of it and gave some ideas and stuff like that. So they did a great job and they mean [a lot] even with whatever they look like. You get to have them forever and they mean the world. It’s cool to be able to have two of them now.”

According to Jostens, the company that made the Chiefs’ Super Bowl rings, each one contains 613 diamonds — 609 round diamonds and four marquise diamonds — and 35 rubies totaling 16.1 carats.

Other features of the ring include:

* The team’s logo with 16 rubies, representing the number of division titles for the franchise. Fifty diamonds on the arrowhead portion of the team’s logo, representing the 50th anniversary of Arrowhead Stadium.

* Three Lombardi Trophies, each set with a marquise diamond at the top, representing the team’s third Super Bowl championship.

* A total of 16 baguette diamonds at the base, representing the 16 players who scored a touchdown in the 2022 regular season.

* A red backdrop created from 19 rubies and 38 diamonds. The Chiefs scored 38 points in the Super Bowl, which was the 57th.

* Fifty-four diamonds along the top, representing the deficit in terms of total points the Chiefs had to overcome in their two most recent Super Bowl championship playoff runs.

* A removable top of the ring that can turn into a pendant modeled to look like Arrowhead Stadium.

* Each player’s name in gold along with a row of 13 diamonds.

The Chiefs welcomed back a number of players and coaches now with other teams for the ceremony. One was former offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy, who now holds the same position with the Washington Commanders.

Bieniemy also joined the Chiefs last week for their visit to the White House with President Joe Biden.

“It was tough because of the workload that I have,” Bieniemy said. “I wasn’t sure if I was going to be here or not because of work, but we got everything done. We got everything finalized, and it was easy to make sure that I was here tonight. And so I’m glad that I’m here to be a part of this, just to have this opportunity to share this moment in time with everybody.”

The Chiefs are able to celebrate this Super Bowl victory differently than the last one. The Super Bowl LIV win happened in the days before the COVID-19 pandemic, so there was no White House visit.

They had a ring ceremony that year, but it was a socially distanced affair on the playing field at Arrowhead Stadium.

“I guess it is our first time going through it all, so it’s all new to me and it feels right,” tight end Travis Kelce said. “I think this is the last hurrah, though. I think everybody in this building is kind of ready to go after 2023 here and put this one in the past. But it’s going to be cool seeing these rings and reminisce for one more time.”

AFC NORTH

BALTIMORE

RB J.K. DOBBINS is missing in action in a contract dispute.  Jordan Dajani of CBSSports.com:

Baltimore Ravens running back J.K. Dobbins was not present at voluntary workouts this offseason and reportedly did not participate at mandatory minicamp this week. Dobbins was at the team facilities, but did not take the field, ESPN reports. He has since revealed that he sat out due to his contract situation.

“The business side is very hard. It’s very different,” Dobbins told WJZ Sports. “But it’s part of it. It’s part of the dream and it’s something I’m blessed with — to deal with the business side of that. You saw with Lamar [Jackson] it’s never just roses and daisies. It can be hard at times you know, and it’s business though.”

Dobbins, who was selected by the Ravens with the No. 55 overall pick of the 2020 NFL Draft out of Ohio State, is entering the final year of his rookie deal. In 2022, he’s scheduled to make $1.39 million, per Spotrac.

Dobbins rushed for 805 yards and nine touchdowns in his rookie season, but tore his ACL in the final preseason game going into his second season and missed the entire year. Dobbins returned to the field in Week 3 this past season, but was placed on injured reserve after Week 6 with another knee issue that required surgery. He returned to the lineup in Week 14 and played four out of the final five games of the regular season. In all, Dobbins finished with 520 rushing yards on 92 carries and three total touchdowns.

Despite sitting out of minicamp, Dobbins told WJZ Sports that he wants to remain in Baltimore.

“The thing I can say is I would love to be a Baltimore Raven for the rest of my career,” Dobbins said. “I would love to because I love the city, I love the people. It feels like family here. It feels like my second home. And I hope that happens.”

This has been a dramatic offseason for running backs. We witnessed the releases of Dalvin Cook and Ezekiel Elliott. Plus, Tony Pollard, Josh Jacobs and Saquon Barkley have not received the contract extensions they were hoping for, Austin Ekeler did not find a trade partner after making a request for a change of scenery and Aaron Jones took a pay cut with the Green Bay Packers. It will be interesting to see how the Ravens respond to this situation.

LB Ray Lewis has lost a son.  ESPN.com:

Ray Lewis III, the son of Baltimore Ravens legend and Pro Football Hall of Famer Ray Lewis, has died. He was 28 years old.

Lewis’ younger brother, Rahsaan Lewis, posted about his sibling’s death Thursday in an Instagram story.

Details of the circumstances surrounding his death were not yet known.

“Really can’t believe I’m even typing this but RIP big brother,” Rahsaan Lewis wrote. “A true angel I pray (you’re) at peace now because ik how much you was (really) hurtin … I love you I love you I love you.”

Ray Lewis III played college football at Miami like his father. The younger Lewis was a running back in his home state of Florida and later played cornerback at Coastal Carolina and Division II Virginia Union.

“Great young man and a better teammate,” Virginia Union associate head coach Diego Ryland told TMZ Sports. “The entire Virginia Union University community is praying for the family as they deal with the loss of Ray.”

AFC SOUTH

TENNESSEE

Chad Graff of The Athletic breaks down RB DERRICK HENRY’s amazing senior high school season in Yulee, Florida.

Bobby Ramsey was 28 when he was hired as the high school football coach in Yulee, Fla., a town of 36,000 people that sits 25 miles north of Jacksonville and 15 miles south of the Georgia state line. Yulee High wanted a young, energetic guy. They knew how tough the job would be.

The Hornets were upstarts, a new school with just one year as a varsity team in a state that churns out some of the nation’s top players. They were ill-prepared. The facilities were tiny. The players were, too.

“I’ll never forget meeting the team at the time and walking into the room and looking at the kids like, ‘Where are the real players?’” Ramsey said. “After a couple weeks, I was like, ‘I want to call my old school and see if they still have my old teaching job. I don’t know if I want to do this.’

“There was not an area of the program that didn’t need work. It was just … a lot.”

In spring 2008, as Ramsey scrambled to field enough players, build a playbook and instill a culture in his team, he was visited by Pat Dunlap, one of the town’s middle school football coaches. Dunlap was an institution in Yulee, had been there for decades. He saw an overwhelmed Ramsey and told him to relax.

“You know, Coach, in a year we’ll get Derrick Henry up here and we’ll be fine,’” Ramsey recalled Dunlap telling him in his deep, gruff voice.

“Sure, there’s some seventh-grader who you think is pretty good,” Ramsey thought. “Look at this team right now. We’re going to go 0-10 next year.’”

A few days later, Ramsey was leading one of his first spring practices at the high school, which borders the middle school field. “We looked horrible,” Ramsey recalled. “We were soft. I’m just really down.” As he walked off the field, he looked over at the middle school football practice. Players were lined up at the 25-yard line, standing shoulder to shoulder. The kids mostly looked the same: 5-foot-5, 5-foot-7, 5-foot-6, all in a row.

“Then it was, boom, 6-foot-2,” Ramsey said. “I was like, Ohhhh, that’s Derrick. Yeah, let’s get through Year 1, then we’ve got a shot.”

“He was about the same size in middle school as he is now,” said assistant Charles Richards.

Prior to winning a Heisman Trophy and a national championship, two NFL rushing titles and the league’s Offensive Player of the Year award in 2020, the legend of Derrick Henry began even before he played his first high school game. But it was what he did as a Yulee High School Hornet that still has locals sharing stories.

The high school coaches knew all about Henry well before their first preseason together — the 14-year-old Henry was so dominant the county instituted a new policy: “When it got to a 28-point lead, they had to take him out,” Ramsey said — but it’s still a big jump from middle school to high school, from towering over opponents to facing five-star linebacker recruits.

At Henry’s first practice with varsity, he ran an iso — “and we didn’t block a soul on this play,” Ramsey said. Henry was crushed at the line of scrimmage. “I always remember it looked like Optimus Prime falling down.”

Coaches looked at each other nervously. Henry never got hit like that in middle school. How would he react? Would he yell at the offensive line? Storm off and transfer to a school with a more established football program?

“He went back to the huddle, and I took a deep breath,” Ramsey said. “And then we ran the same play again, and this time he busted right through the middle for a 75-yard touchdown. … So it took two plays until we were like, ‘Yep, he’s gonna start.’”

As a freshman, Henry ran for 2,465 yards (224.1 per game) and 26 touchdowns. The next year, coaches started using him sporadically on defense as a pass rusher. He was only allowed to do it if the game was close late, but if they needed a sack, Henry went in as a blitzing outside linebacker.

In Henry’s sophomore season, Yulee had a chance to clinch its first-ever playoff berth in a late-October game against University Christian. But the Hornets played their worst first half of the season and trailed 21-3 at the break. “Coach Ramsey came into halftime and chewed us out,” said Zac Camp, a wide receiver and defensive back.

The coach changed the plan. Henry was to barely leave the field. He carried the ball 33 times. He played defense. And for the first time, he played special teams, too.

In the 38-34 come-from-behind win that sent the Hornets into the playoffs, Henry ran for 288 yards and three touchdowns, sacked the opposing quarterback and blocked a punt. “I’m not sure that he ever practiced it,” assistant Scott Jones said of Henry’s punt block. “Before that or since.”

“The second half of that game was the closest you’d see to a basketball player taking a game over,” Ramsey said.

It didn’t matter that teams knew Henry was the star. They still couldn’t stop him.

Henry’s defensive prowess had college scouts fascinated. Many thought Henry projected better on that side of the ball, or maybe at tight end. “They said at the college level he was going to be an easy target as a running back since he’s so big,” said Larry Blustein, a recruiting expert in Florida for the last five decades.

Ramsey met with Henry after his sophomore year to discuss his recruitment. Henry was adamant that he was a running back. He told Ramsey he didn’t want to talk to any colleges that were considering moving him to a different position.

“Some schools would giggle when I would say he wanted to play running back,” Ramsey said. They would tell Ramsey that players who look like Henry needed to rush the passer. “And I get all that,” Ramsey said. “But there are always outliers. I would always compare it to Magic Johnson. Magic was 6-foot-9 and played point guard.”

After that season, Ramsey put assistant Bryan Libby in charge of putting together the team’s schedule for the next season, but when Libby called coaches to set up games, their only question was about Henry.

“They were like, ‘Yeah, man, that’s great, when’s your running back graduate?’ I was like, ‘In two years,’” Libby said. “They said, ‘Great, call us back once he leaves.’”

“You try to schedule games with Derrick Henry on your team,” Ramsey said. “It was like we were selling cancer.”

Yulee had to schedule games against far superior teams, and Henry’s junior season was a gauntlet. Gainesville, a powerhouse with several Division I recruits on its roster, beat Yulee in the season opener. But afterward, the discussion was about how Henry ran for 181 yards and two touchdowns against arguably the best defense in the state with an undermanned offensive line and few rushing lanes. “Coming off the field, everyone was like, ‘This dude is for real,’” Ramsey said. “It was weird because we lost this game by 15, but everyone was just caught up in him.”

Over the team’s final 10 games, Henry averaged 231 rushing yards and three touchdowns per game. “At that point, it became a traveling road show,” Libby said. “The circus was coming to town.”

In some ways, Henry made play calling difficult. You can’t give him the ball every play. Or can you?

“It was kind of a joke being the offensive coordinator,” Jones said. “Like, ‘Gee, what play am I going to call now? Oh, give it to Derrick.’”

In Henry’s junior year, Jones learned the hard way what happens when you didn’t give him the ball. On a second-and-long, he called for a play-action pass, hoping to take a shot down the field. Instead, it ended with a sack. Yulee now faced third-and-39.

“Ramsey is chewing me out after that. He’s yelling at me like, ‘Don’t overcoach it!’” Jones said. “And I was like, ‘Damn it, Ramsey. Fine, here you go. Blast left, Derrick. Go ahead, see if you can get us 39.’

“And sure enough, he gets us 40 yards.”

Henry ran for 2,610 rushing yards and 34 touchdowns his junior year, prompting what felt like daily offseason visits from college coaches. No school, Yulee coaches said, recruited Henry harder than Tennessee. One day in the spring before Henry’s senior season, Vols running backs coach Jay Graham came to visit Henry at 9 a.m. — even though Henry wouldn’t get out of classes until 3. So he sat in the coaches’ office for six hours waiting.

Graham told Ramsey about working with Jim Harbaugh at the University of San Diego in 2007, using the power offense that Harbaugh loved and running the same play out of dozens of formations. They started watching film of Harbaugh’s games at Stanford. Before Andrew Luck arrived, the Cardinal had a good offensive line, a great running back and a struggling quarterback. They used a lot of power running and wildcat formations.

“And I was like, this is us!” Ramsey said. “This was what we have.”

Ramsey had his assistants study Harbaugh’s offense. They loved that Harbaugh ran the same plays and didn’t care if the opponent knew what was coming. Make them stop it. “We were like, hey let’s adopt that philosophy,” said Libby, who had become the offensive coordinator that season. The change in offensive scheme set the stage for arguably the greatest individual high school football season of all time.

In the fourth game of that 2012 season, Henry broke the national single-game rushing record, piling up 510 yards and six touchdowns. He carried the ball 45 times that night, one of six games that season where he touched it at least 40 times.

“I remember the first time he had more than 40. I was like, oh man, I’m gonna get arrested for child endangerment or something,” Ramsey said. “I always tell people who get so caught up in his carries, well, when we were in the middle of it, we were just trying to win games. And that’s how we were going to win. And he didn’t really get fatigued. And he never got hurt.”

Yulee coaches heard some opponents knock their system for leaning on Henry so much.

“A lot of people were like, ‘The offense is dependent on Derrick,’” Libby said. “Well, duh. We’ve got a kid in the backfield that you’re never going to see again.”

The Henry experience peaked after that record-breaking game. ESPN came to town the following week to broadcast a matchup against Glades Day — with Fred Taylor’s son, Kelvin at running back — in what had been billed as a showdown between the best backs in the nation. Scouts were split on who was the better prospect. The younger Taylor had already broken Emmitt Smith’s Florida rushing record, and ESPN ranked Taylor higher than Henry.

Henry announced his commitment to Alabama the day of the game. The stadium was full two hours before kickoff. Fred Taylor stood in a roped-off section behind one of the end zones with some players from the Jacksonville Jaguars. Kelvin had 34 carries, while Henry had 35. Kelvin finished with 222 yards and a touchdown.

Henry finished with 362 yards and six touchdowns.

“That was a good situation for him because it pitted him up against another guy,” said Camp, his teammate. “They always talk about how Michael Jordan played better whenever someone talked trash to him. Derrick did that, too.”

After that game, Henry set his sights on chasing down Taylor’s state rushing record, even with Taylor still playing. Kelvin had played varsity since eighth grade, so Henry figured he needed about 2,000 yards in the final six games to break the record. He totaled 455 yards and five touchdowns against West Nassau, then 404 yards and six touchdowns (on 21 carries) two weeks later.

“People thought we were running the score up, but when you have the ball on your own 13-yard line and he breaks into the open field on a run play, what do you expect him to do?” Ramsey asked.

Henry had at least three touchdowns in all but one game his senior season, including six games with five touchdowns. He ran for 200 yards or more in 12 of 13 games. Before the regular-season finale, with Henry averaging 33 carries a game, Ramsey told him to get some rest. Henry initially pushed back, but Ramsey said it wasn’t an option. Henry would only watch at practice that Monday.

“So he’s out there in street clothes,” Ramsey said. “We split up into offense-defense. I ran the defense, so I’m down on the other end of the field. About 45 minutes later, I look over and he’s in shells taking reps.

“I run over and I’m like, ‘What are you doing?’ And he’s like, ‘Man, I got bored.’”

Yulee entered the first-round playoff matchup against the Taylor County Bulldogs with Henry roughly 180 yards from the all-time national rushing record. Ryan Smith, then the head coach at Taylor County, called a friend who had already coached against Yulee for a scouting report. Smith was determined that one player wasn’t going to beat him — “and (my friend) was like, ‘Yeah, this one man is,” Smith said.

Yulee knew Taylor County was going to sell out to stop the run, so Libby walked his young quarterback through a play-action pass in that week’s game plan. During the game, the Bulldogs’ defense showed the perfect look for the play, but the Hornets’ quarterback held onto the ball too long and threw an interception. Taylor County scored on the next play.

“(Ramsey) wasn’t happy about the play call,” Libby said. “We went back and forth on that deal. And I said, ‘Fine, we’re not going to throw it the rest of the night, I promise you that.’

“We get the ball back after that, put Derrick in the wildcat, and said, ‘This is you now. Go. You better be ready to carry the load.’ He said, ‘OK.’”

There was no limit to Henry’s workload. He broke the all-time national high school rushing record in the first half. Ramsey even put him back as the team’s kick and punt returner. When Smith saw that, he sprinted down the field to get his kicker’s attention.

“Don’t even think about kicking it to him,” Smith told him. “And he looked at me like, ‘Yeah, no sh–, Coach.’”

Yulee threw two passes that night. Both were interceptions. Henry carried the ball 57 times, finishing with 485 yards and six touchdowns in the 41-26 victory. “And the crazy thing about that was we didn’t have the ball for most of the fourth quarter,” Libby said. “He could’ve gotten 600 yards that night.”

“He was the greatest high school player I’ve ever seen,” Smith said. “My D-coordinator was all upset. And I was like, ‘What are you mad about? There wasn’t anything you could do about that.’ We knew when he walked out to warm up pregame.”

“We watched it the whole next day over and over and over on ‘SportsCenter,’” Smith said. “And I wasn’t even mad about it. He was pretty unbelievable.”

Smith later coached at Alabama when Henry was there, and the two joked about that game and how Henry never seemed to tire. After Henry won the Heisman in 2015, Smith said he realized why. “The day after he won the Heisman,” Smith said, “he was back in the weight room doing squats.”

In the next round of the playoffs, the Yulee coaches knew they were going to be outmanned. Their opponent, Gadsden County, was bigger, faster and stronger, one of the few teams capable of slowing Henry. So Yulee installed a running back pass. Henry faked a sweep to the outside, then pulled up and threw it 30 yards for a touchdown. Henry’s total of 189 rushing yards was his lowest in a full calendar year and he still did enough to help Yulee notch the upset, 16-13.

“The newspaper had a headline the next day that Derrick was slowed down,” Libby said. “And he still almost had 200 yards.”

Yulee’s dream run ended the next week, but not before Henry added another 317 rushing yards and four touchdowns. He finished his career with 12,124 yards and 153 touchdowns. He never had a game with fewer than 100 yards. In his senior season alone, Henry ran for 4,261 yards — averaging 9.2 yards per carry — and 55 touchdowns in 13 games.

“You’ll never see a season like that again,” Libby said. “I mean, who does that?”

Graff omits the name of the team that beat Yulee in Henry’s final game – and no surprise it was The Bolles School, a elite prep school in Jacksonville that finds room for top athletes in all sports within its hallowed confines.

We found this with a little more background on Henry from Jim Schoettler of the Florida Times-Union back in 2012:

Derrick Henry Jr. had 46.3 seconds left to say goodbye to the people who helped him chase a dream that started when he was a 5-year-old Mitey-Mite.

His Yulee High School Hornets were hopelessly down 45-28 to Bolles in the recent state semifinal football playoff game.

But on his 45th carry of the game, he had one last chance to show why he broke the national rushing record that stood for nearly six decades. One last chance to show why he was recruited by the best college programs in the country before eventually committing to the University of Alabama.

Henry, 18, told himself this was no time to quit. Score one more time for the hometown that cheered him from the beginning and adored him at the end.

And off he went. There were 63 yards ahead.

– – –

Henry was born when his mother and father were 15 and 16, leading his grandmother to take over his care three months later.

“I was used to raising kids, so it didn’t bother me at all,” said Gladys Henry, 78, who had 14 children. “I wanted him to live a normal life.”

Henry said she taught her grandson to be respectful of others, a lesson he’s carried throughout his life, family, friends and coaches said.

“He was always a humble child, easy to raise,” she said.

Henry said she was troubled that his father got mixed up for a short time in selling drugs, but she also praised him for overcoming those troubles and visiting with his son when he could. Henry said she and her husband knew the boy’s parents were too young to give their son everything he needed – she nicknamed him “Shocka” over his being born to parents so young – and she hoped to give him a nurturing environment while his mother and father grew up.

Derrick Henry Sr. admitted he lived a life on the streets at an early age and worked to teach his son to stay out of trouble, which his son said is part of why he fought to stay clean.

“I’ve tried to tell him not to do what I did. Not to get started young. Not to hang around the wrong people,” said Henry, 35. “Just keep your head on straight and get through school.”

Two of the younger Henry’s 12 aunts, Stacey Johnson and Valerie Henry, remember him as a rambunctious kid who they’d watch running around the yard playing pickup football and often had to chase up and down the aisles while out shopping.

“I knew if he wasn’t going to be a football player, he’d be a track star,” said Johnson, 45.

Kelly Miltier coached him in Pee Wee football when he was 11. He played offense and defense. He was a lanky kid who stood taller than the rest at about 5-foot-9, Miltier said.

“He gave it everything he had on both sides of the ball,” Miltier said. “He was a good kid. Never lost his temper. Always stayed focused. I knew he could be something special.”

Pat Dunlap, who coached him at Yulee Middle School and later was the running backs coach at the high school, said Henry worked hard to condition himself and developed a determination and drive he’s kept ever since.

“He’s always wanted to be the best ever,” Dunlap said.

– – –

Henry also excelled in school. Yulee Principal DeArmas Graham said he noticed when he first met Henry that the freshman was still grappling with some of the problems he dealt with as a kid, but Graham credits his coaches and others with helping him cope. Graham said Henry quickly became an A/B student and a favorite of his teachers.

“I think because he was so mature and has such a positive group around him, that really encouraged him,” Graham said.

Candy Hicken said Henry is a popular student who had a strong inner circle of friends. She also described him as often being introverted, such as when she and others would go out with him some weeknights playing trivia at a local restaurant. She said he’ll sometimes ask coaches to walk with him to avoid having to talk to people.

“He’s still a little kid in some ways who is still growing up,” Hicken said. “There are just times he likes to be to himself.”

AFC EAST

NEW ENGLAND

And now, WR DeANDRE HOPKINS has come and gone from New England.  Mike Reiss of ESPN.com:

Free agent wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins visited with the New England Patriots on Thursday and, barring an unexpected turn, both sides are now expected to take some time to assess their next steps, according to a source familiar with the visit.

Hopkins, 31, has not been in a rush to sign with a team and has considered waiting until closer to training camp in late July to make a move, a source told ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler.

Likewise, the Patriots officially conclude their offseason program on Friday, with about a one-month hiatus before the start of training camp.

On Instagram, Hopkins posted a picture of himself with Patriots outside linebacker Matthew Judon, from inside New England’s locker room. He included the words “La Familia,” which highlights how he connected with some of the team’s veteran leaders during his visit.

Hopkins’ visit Thursday started early in the morning and went well into the afternoon, a source told Fowler, adding Hopkins appeared intrigued by the possibility of playing for New England and coach Bill Belichick. Whether that results in a deal now or in the future remains unclear.

Hopkins, who also visited with the Tennessee Titans early in the week, has a fan in Patriots quarterback Mac Jones.

“I think DeAndre is a great player. You watch his film from college all the way through the NFL, he’s done a great job. So obviously we’d love to have him, but we do have a great group of guys,” Jones said at the start of the team’s mandatory minicamp this week.

“I’ve been really pleased with the playmakers we have on the team; we’ve come out here and really bought into the system. We have a good group and I feel like we need to keep growing together and whoever is in that room, we’re going to try to dominate together.”

Belichick, who canceled the third and final day of mandatory minicamp on Wednesday for a team-building paintball excursion, has long admired Hopkins. But Belichick repeated multiple times this week that he would speak publicly only about players who are already on the roster.

Thursday’s visit gave Belichick a chance to spend behind-the-scenes time with Hopkins and learn more about what the three-time All-Pro is seeking in his next team after playing for the Houston Texans (2013-2019) and Arizona Cardinals (2020-2022).

Their on-field meeting before the Patriots’ 27-13 win over the Cardinals last December reflected how highly Belichick views Hopkins. In audio captured by NFL Films, Belichick told Hopkins: “I’m glad we only have to play you every four years, man. What a career you’re having.”

In turn, Hopkins said to Belichick: “I love you, man.”

That connection has sparked hope among some New England fans that Hopkins might view the Patriots as his best fit.

The team’s recently concluded minicamp showed why the Patriots could benefit by signing Hopkins. With receivers JuJu Smith-Schuster and Tyquan Thornton working their way back to full health and not practicing, nine-year veteran DeVante Parker and seven-year veteran Kendrick Bourne were the top pass-catchers.

Furthermore, 2023 sixth-round draft picks Kayshon Boutte (No. 187) and Demario Douglas (No. 210) — who are vying for a depth-based role at receiver — were also held out of practice.

When everyone is healthy, Judon, one of the team’s defensive leaders, says he believes that can be a formidable group.

“I would rather just focus on the receivers that we have here,” Judon said when asked about the possibility of signing Hopkins. “We got some guys willing and eager to learn and get better every day. We have guys that can catch the ball, advance the ball, score from anywhere on the field, and a quarterback that can get them the ball.”

Of Hopkins, Judon added: “Wherever he lands, he lands. If it’s here, it’s here. And then we can talk about him.”

THIS AND THAT

DISCRIMINATORY PAY FOR RUNNING BACKS

NFL GMs for decades have paid running backs less and passed over them in the draft. Jim Trotter of The Athletic sees a problem.

There’s a reason three of the NFL’s four unsigned “franchise” players are running backs, and it’s because no position group has been more disrespected by executives and coaches in recent years.

These decision-makers like to use the term “devalued” when discussing the position. They argue they can get by with a plug-and-play mentality or a committee approach. Consequently, compensation for running backs under the franchise tag trails every other position group except kickers and punters. On offense alone, their $10.1 million tender this season is nearly $1.3 million less than tight ends, $8.15 million less than offensive linemen, $9.7 million behind wide receivers and $22.3 million behind quarterbacks.

A quick aside before continuing: It’s insane that the NFL is the only major professional sports league that gets away with directly tying compensation to the position someone plays. In every other sport, the best players make the most money. There is no specific slotting for pitchers versus outfielders or centers versus guards. Yet we don’t bat an eye in football when an average player makes significantly more than the most dominant force in the game, all because one plays quarterback and the other plays defensive tackle.

Which brings me back to running backs and why they will almost always find an ally in me when they hold out or refuse to sign franchise tenders until late in the season. I’ve never subscribed to the theory that they’re less important today than they were a decade ago or a generation ago. They have the ability to change games and fortunes on offense as much as anyone outside of quarterbacks, whose importance is reflected in the rules changes and enhancements the league has adopted to keep them healthy.

Take Josh Jacobs, for instance. He unquestionably was the best offensive player on the Raiders last season, finishing the year as the league leader in rushing yards and scrimmage yards. He was one of only two players in franchise history (along with Hall of Famer Marcus Allen) to surpass 2,000 yards from scrimmage in a season and had five games with 140 yards rushing and a touchdown, nearly doubling the next closest player.

Jacobs became the identity of an offense that had none early in the year. He accounted for 49.9 percent of the team’s touches from scrimmage, which was the highest percentage in the league and nearly 37 points above the next Raider. His 93 rushing first downs were 24 more than anyone else in the league and equaled or surpassed the Vikings, Dolphins, Chargers, Colts, Texans, Rams, Bucs and Jets as a team.

And yet, to this point, the Raiders are asking him to play on a franchise tag that trails six teammates in terms of salary cap allocation. Jacobs has yet to sign the tender or participate in offseason activities, and if the sides fail to reach an agreement on a multiyear deal before July 17, he will be required by league rules to play under the tag this season.

His situation is not unlike that of the Giants’ Saquon Barkley and the Cowboys’ Tony Pollard, fellow running backs who have yet to sign their franchise tenders. Both are considered indispensable parts to their teams’ offenses, and yet in the case of Barkley, he has had to sit back and watch as New York signed others to multiyear extensions this offseason.

All of this would be less of an issue for me if not for the 2011 collective bargaining agreement that threw running backs under the bus. The background:

In the lead-up to negotiations, the NFL made it clear to the players association that it wanted a rookie wage scale as part of any agreement. The owners were tired of paying massive dollars to unproven players, with former Oklahoma quarterback Sam Bradford receiving $50 million in guarantees from the Rams as the first pick in the 2010 draft.

It was not the first time the league had sought a salary cap within the salary cap. However, previous attempts were rebuffed by longtime union executive director Gene Upshaw, a Hall of Fame guard with the Raiders who liked to say that players are rookies for only one year, after which they become captains and leaders of their teams.

“So,” Upshaw would ask rhetorically, “why place a cap on their earnings?”

After Upshaw died of pancreatic cancer in 2008, some owners saw an opportunity to revisit a rookie wage scale and made it a priority in negotiations with DeMaurice Smith, the new executive director who had no previous ties to professional football. Smith studied Upshaw’s notes and writing and initially fought against rookies being used as negotiating pawns, but the owners ultimately won out because, among other things, veteran players were unwilling to miss games and paychecks to protect the incoming class.

We can debate the merits of that decision until our final breath, but there is no denying that that particular change to the collective bargaining agreement has been as devastating to running backs drafted in the first round as it has been beneficial to the owners seeking cost certainty in player contracts. In fact, it is not a stretch to say that no position group has been more negatively affected.

As part of the agreement, teams were allowed to contractually tie up first-round picks for up to eight years; the first four on fully guaranteed deals, followed by a fifth-year team option, then three consecutive years of franchise tags. With the average career span being 3.2 years, according to NFLPA data, that means first-rounders might go their entire career without receiving a multiyear extension or reaching the open market in free agency.

It’s why some agents prefer not to pursue college running backs unless they’re projected to be a top-10 pick, where the money is good, or someone who will be selected outside of the first round because the rules allow those individuals to renegotiate their deals after three seasons or become free agents after four. It’s critical for backs to get as much as they can as quickly as they can because they tend to have an abbreviated shelf life. Of the 173 players who took snaps at the position last season, only 15 were 30 or older, according to Pro Football Focus.

The danger for players like Jacobs is that teams will run them into the ground and then move on quickly. For instance, Jacobs accounted for 79.4 percent of the Raiders’ rush attempts last season, which led the league. Since entering the NFL in 2019, he ranks in the top five in carries, rush yards, rush touchdowns and scrimmage yards. That’s a lot of work in a short period of time.

Running backs know the likelihood is they will have just one shot at a big-money deal after their rookie contract. The system is set up that way. Recent history says Jacobs, Barkley and Pollard will get their extensions before the July 17 deadline — Le’Veon Bell is the only running back since 2010 to receive the franchise tag and not sign a multiyear extension before the deadline — but will it be for the money they deserve? Probably not, which is why their position group will always have an empathetic ally in me.

BROADCAST NEWS

No announcement yet on who the “Hard Knocks” subject will be.  The producers apparently wanted to double up with Dan Campbell and the Lions, but the team said no. W.G. Brady of Detroit Sports Nation:

HBO’s “Hard Knocks” has become a popular and highly anticipated series, and fans eagerly await the announcement of which team will be featured each year. According to Nolan Bianchi of The Detroit News, HBO expressed its desire to feature our Detroit Lions again in 2023.

Why it Matters for Hard Knocks and the Detroit Lions

As you know, the Lions were featured on “Hard Knocks” in 2022 and it was widely viewed as a huge success. The documentary series showcased the team’s players and one-of-a-kind coaching staff that is led by head coach, Dan Campbell. Despite initial reservations, the Lions embraced the opportunity and found the experience beneficial for the team.

– Lions say ‘No Thanks’

Team president Rod Wood, who reached out to NFL Films in 2022 to secure a spot on the show, stated that he was confident the Lions would deliver an engaging portrayal. The documentary exceeded their expectations, and the crew from NFL Films received praise for their work. However, despite their previous positive experience, the Lions have made it clear that they are not keen on participating in the show for another season, considering the mixed outcomes for teams featured in consecutive years.

Which team will be featured in 2023?

The NFL has specific criteria for teams that can be potentially forced to participate, including no first-year head coach, no playoff appearances in the past two years, and no previous appearances on the show in the past 10 years. Therefore, this year’s eligible teams for potential coercion include the Chicago Bears, New Orleans Saints, New York Jets, and Washington Commanders. When you look at those teams, it seems like featuring the New York Jets is a no-brainer decision

More from Larry Holder of The Athletic:

One NFL team will be the subject of the HBO series “Hard Knocks” during training camp come the end of July. And yet neither the league, nor the network has announced which team will be documented.

Last year, the Detroit Lions served as the league’s representative for the documentary. The league and network announced the Lions’ participation in March 2022. It’s mid June and there’s no word publicly of which franchise will willingly or unwillingly participate.

Let’s take a glimpse at some of the ins and outs for “Hard Knocks,” as well as some of the reaction from about possible participation:

It never seems like a team “volunteers” to be on the series. So the league set guidelines around the eligibility for teams to essentially be forced to participate. Here are the requirements not to be on the show:

    Teams with a first-year head coach.

    Teams that have secured a playoff berth in the past two seasons.

    Teams that have appeared on “Hard Knocks” within the past 10 years.

This leaves four teams automatically eligible for the series: Chicago Bears, New Orleans Saints, New York Jets, Washington Commanders.

The fact no team has been announced means there’s been some likely heavy pushback from these organizations. Teams are allowed to volunteer, though. A column in The Detroit News stated the league reached out to the Lions to return for a second consecutive year on the series.

Shocking to no one, teams have been publicly resistant to embrace “Hard Knocks” coming to town for training camp.

“I wouldn’t like it because I just want to focus on our football team and getting better, and any distractions are exactly that, distractions that keep you, ultimately, from reaching your goal,” Saints coach Dennis Allen said Tuesday.

Jets coach Robert Saleh expressed similar sentiments earlier this month hoping to shoo away “Hard Knocks.”

“I know there’s several teams that would love for ‘Hard Knocks’ to be in their building, but we’re just not one of them,” Saleh said.

The Bears made it known very early they weren’t interested.

“We feel there are a number of teams that have compelling stories to tell on ‘Hard Knocks,’” Bears chairman George McCaskey said in March. Asked if that included the Bears, he clarified, “Thirty-one others.”

The series became a hot topic within the Saints locker room earlier this week. A couple of former “Hard Knocks” participants didn’t throw the experience too far under the bus.

Saints running back Jamaal Williams spent last year’s training camp with the Lions under the watchful eye of “Hard Knocks.” Via the New Orleans Times-Picayune, he originally sounded like a detractor when asked but then he scaled back saying, “Nah, it wasn’t that bad.”

Quarterback Derek Carr landed on the 2019 version with the Raiders. He actually praised the show.

“They weren’t intrusive or trying to give secrets away,” Carr said earlier this week. “They were trying to tell a story and let the fans in on what it looks like, even a small picture of what it looks like. I think they do a great job.”

Carr said he wouldn’t call it his favorite thing to do, but he added, “If we have to, we’ll make the most of it.”

Forecasting the team

The Jets would bring the most national appeal given the team’s acquisition of former Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers. The Bears would provide another large market team with a possible budding star in quarterback Justin Fields. The Saints also bring a new look at quarterback with Carr in the fray.

But I find it interesting that the Commanders’ brass hasn’t said anything negative about being the subject. Given the slew of negative publicity surrounding the franchise, this would present the team in a seemingly more positive light.

Plus, I can absolutely envision a quid pro quo between the NFL and likely new Washington owner Josh Harris. The finalization of the ownership switch to Harris and his group from Dan Snyder could occur before or during training camp. A “Hard Knocks” invite might be one of those “I’ll scratch your back if you scratch mine” type of scenarios.