Ezekiel Elliott wasn’t sure what he was seeing the first time he met Derrick Henry.
The two were attending a high school football camp in Oregon in July 2012. Everyone was trying to convince Elliott that the towering Henry was a running back.
“That’s a defensive lineman,” Elliott said with a laugh.
More than a decade later, the 6-foot, 228-pound Elliott and 6-foot-2, 247-pound Henry will cross paths again. This time, Henry and the Baltimore Ravens (0-2) visit Elliott and the Dallas Cowboys (1-1) on Sunday (4:25 p.m. ET, Fox) at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, as both are closing in on a rare milestone for running backs: 10,000 career rushing yards.
Henry is 368 yards away from the mark, and Elliott, who has returned to the Cowboys’ backfield, is 1,040 yards shy. Through Week 2, Henry is averaging 65 yards per game, while Elliott is averaging 28.
There have been 31 players who have eclipsed 10,000 yards rushing — from all-time leader Emmitt Smith at 18,355 to Ricky Williams at 10,009 — but it’s been seven seasons since a running back has reached the milestone. The last running back to surpass 10,000 yards rushing was Marshawn Lynch in December 2017 with the Raiders.
“That’s something that I look back on as a kid watching all the great backs,” Henry said. “Those are guys I looked up to and I wanted to be one day. For me to be this close to that milestone, I’m just thankful and blessed.”
Henry and Elliott first faced off in the 2014 season College Football Playoff. Ohio State’s Elliott rushed for 230 yards in a 42-35 win over Alabama, while Henry had 95 yards. The two entered the league at the same time, as the first two running backs selected in the 2016 draft. Elliott was the No. 4 overall pick and Henry was taken in the second round with the 45th overall pick.
Since then, they’ve played each other once: A 28-14 Tennessee Titans win over the Cowboys in Week 9 of the 2018 season.
Henry and Elliott share a similar running style, a blend of power, tenacity and breakaway speed.
Their roads to 10,000 yards were different. Elliott was an immediate star, leading the NFL in rushing in two of his first three seasons. Henry was a backup his first two seasons and didn’t have a season with 1,000 yards rushing until his third year.
Now, the roles have been reversed. Henry, 30, has been a Pro Bowl selection three times since 2020 before moving over to the Ravens for a two-year, $16 million deal which makes him one of the highest-paid running backs in the NFL. Elliott, 29, came back to Dallas on a one-year, $1.625 guaranteed deal to contribute to its running back by committee approach.
What has not changed over the years is the mutual respect they have for each other.
“[Henry is] just kind of a guy I’ve admired along this whole journey,” Elliott said. “I mean we were in the same recruiting class, so that’s a guy that’s always been around. For us to both be so successful in our careers and be in the same class, it’s just pretty cool.”
HENRY’S CAREER TURNING point came in the most precarious of moments.
It was December 2018 and the Titans lined up at their own 1-yard line. Then-offensive coordinator Matt LaFleur called a quarterback sneak to try to give Tennessee more breathing room against the Jacksonville Jaguars, but he also gave quarterback Marcus Mariota the option to audible and hand the ball off to Henry.
“There was an open A gap, and I’ll never forget, I’m like, ‘We’re going to run the quarterback sneak,'” LaFleur, now the Green Bay Packers’ head coach, said recently. “[Mariota] handed the ball off, and the initial thought was, ‘What are we doing?'”
Henry quickly found some room on the left side, stiff-armed three Jaguars out of his way along the sideline and charged into the end zone for a 99-yard touchdown run.
Before that monstrous 238-yard rushing performance, Henry had averaged 39.7 yards rushing in 43 games, primarily backing up DeMarco Murray in his first two seasons. After that game, Henry averaged 102.6 yards rushing per game and totaled 7,794 yards rushing with the Titans — 1,977 more than the next player, Cleveland Browns running back Nick Chubb, during that span. He is one of eight players to ever rush for 2,000 yards in a season (2,027 in 2020).
“It was crazy the transformation he made,” LaFleur said. “That was really the year that kind of propelled him into who he is today. I’ve got a lot of respect for the guy in terms of just his mindset and the resiliency he showed.”
Henry always smiles when wear and tear is brought up. He understands the question because he has led the NFL in carries for four of the past five seasons. But Henry remembers his first two seasons when he totaled 286 carries.
He acknowledged there was “a little frustration” when Elliott was leading the NFL in rushing as a rookie and Henry never gained more than 65 yards in a game during his first season.
“Ezekiel hit the ground running. Mine took a little while, but I feel like it benefited me in the long run,” Henry said. “It gave me a little bit more years on my legs and I was thankful for that.”
With Elliott and Henry nearing the 10,000-yard mark, Henry is the one sprinting toward it. He is also well aware that it’s in sight. Before this season, Henry was asked how many rushing yards he needed to reach 10,000 for his career. “I think I’m like 500 yards away,” said Henry, who needed 485 yards at that time.
Henry has shown no signs of letting up as he closes in on that achievement. Over the previous five seasons, he tops the NFL in rushing yards (6,115), runs over 10 yards (139) and touches reaching at least 20 miles per hour (22).
“Derrick’s kind of a unicorn, to be honest, [with] his combination of speed, power [and] durability,” Ravens general manager Eric DeCosta said. “He’s thrived in different systems and done different things. He’s won wherever he’s been, and those kinds of guys are rare.”
WHEN HE WAS drafted, Elliott had short-, medium- and long-term goals.
“The way I attack the game is I’m playing to get championships and a gold [Hall of Fame] jacket,” Elliott said a few days before the 2024 season.
Reaching 10,000 yards was another long-term goal.
“It’s something I thought about when I was a rookie, and so just to see it come to fruition — I mean 10,000 yards, that’s a big milestone,” Elliott said. “Not many guys have achieved it, and so it’s definitely a blessing.”
Elliott began the season ranked 40th in NFL history.
“I didn’t know that. That kind of gave me chills, but it’s just a privilege,” Elliott said, looking at the hairs on his arm as he said it. “Didn’t do it by myself. It took every single O-lineman that blocked for me. I couldn’t go for 1,000 yards by myself.”
Elliott’s path to 10,000 yards started well. He led the NFL in rushing as a rookie in 2016 with 1,631 yards. He did the same in 2018 with 1,434 yards. After his fourth season, he was more than halfway to 10,000 yards with 5,405 yards.
In his next four seasons, Elliott gained 3,499 yards, as his rushing totals dipped from 1,002 in 2021 and 876 in 2022 with the Cowboys to 642 yards last season with the New England Patriots. In 2021 and 2022, he split time with Tony Pollard. While he still had the majority of carries, Pollard’s explosiveness led to him getting more work. Elliott also dealt with a sprained PCL in 2021 and a knee injury in 2022 that forced him to wear a brace that limited his movement.
Elliott’s return to Dallas has been hailed by his teammates almost as much for what he brings to the locker room as he does on the field. All-Pro right guard Zack Martin said he can still tell defenders don’t want to tackle Elliott as it gets late in games.
“A lot of times these really good backs don’t hang around very long, right?” Martin said. “They have a couple good years, and 10,000 yards just shows not only the dominance at the position but the longevity at the position.”
Elliott has 30 100-yard games in the regular season and two more in the playoffs. But his last 100-yard game came on Oct. 10, 2021, with 21 carries for 110 yards against the New York Giants. This season, working as a part of a committee of running backs, including Rico Dowdle, Elliott has 56 yards through two games. He was the third Cowboys running back to get a carry against the New Orleans Saints on Sunday and played 28 snaps.
Elliott doesn’t have a game or a run that sticks with him as he approaches 10,000 yards, since he hopes his favorite one is still to come.
“I mean, probably going to be that run when I eclipse 10,000,” Elliott said. “Hopefully I can get that done this season.”
WHO WILL BE the next running back to reach 10,000 yards?
After Henry and Elliott, nine other running backs have topped at least 5,000 yards, but that includes Latavius Murray, 34, and Melvin Gordon III, 31, who are free agents.
Josh Jacobs, two games into his first season with the Packers, might have the best chance of becoming the next 10,000-yard running back. In five seasons with the Raiders, he ran for 5,545 yards.
The Browns’ Chubb (6,511 yards) and Philadelphia Eagles’ Saquon Barkley (5,415 yards) have played six seasons, but both have battled injuries. The Saints’ Alvin Kamara (6,027 yards) is in his seventh season and off to a fast start with 198 yards in two games. The San Francisco 49ers’ Christian McCaffrey (6,185 yards) might be more of a dual threat compared to a between-the-tackles running back.
McCaffrey, the Minnesota Vikings’ Aaron Jones (6,066 yards), Cowboys practice squad option Dalvin Cook (6,207) and Texans’ Joe Mixon (6,596) are in their eighth seasons.
Elliott and Henry are in their ninth, pushing the envelope of a running back’s durability.
“It might be a little tough with a lot of offenses switching to running back by committee, but I think there will always — maybe not always — but I think there will eventually be another workhorse back,” Elliott said. “There’s a lot of good football players out there. I think it may be harder, but someone will get it done.”
When asked who, Henry didn’t hesitate.
“Nick Chubb, for sure,” he said. “He’s a beast. He’s a different breed. Other than myself, that’s probably one of my favorite backs.”
Despite running backs being de-emphasized in today’s game, Henry doesn’t see this milestone being a bigger challenge for players going forward.
“I feel like if you got a guy, a bell cow that can run the ball, why not let him run it?” Henry said. “If he’s effective and he’s a staple of the offense with the passing game, why not just be effective with both? “Even though we know it’s the passing league, I feel like the guys that are consistent and play at a high level each and every week, teams will feed them and let them go do their thing.”
ESPN reporter Rob Demovsky contributed to this story.