Last season, Derrick Henry became a hot name around the trade deadline, with the Ravens a potential candidate to make a move for him in their quest for a Super Bowl.
Henry instead stayed put with the Tennessee Titans, and months later he watched like everyone else when the Ravens fell to the Chiefs in the AFC Championship Game.
This season, after Henry to Baltimore became a reality during free agency in March, the four-time Pro Bowler is gearing up for a season-opening rematch.
It's a game he expects to make a difference in, just as he felt he could have had he been involved the last time the two teams faced.
"Hell yeah," Henry said Sunday when asked if things would have gone differently in the AFC title game were he on the team then. "I wish I could suit up that day watching the game. But now it's my turn, so got to take advantage of it. It's going to be a hell of a game. The Chiefs are always tough, they're solid on all three teams. Got to be locked in this week to be able to execute on Thursday."
Henry, like most players on clubs with championship aspirations in the past half decade or so, has plenty of his own history against the Chiefs.
In four games against Kansas City since Patrick Mahomes took over as the franchise's starting quarterback, Henry has run for 458 yards and five touchdowns, twice averaging over six yards per carry. He's likewise fallen against the Chiefs in an AFC Championship Game, doing so during the 2019 season.
That contest was among his least explosive against them, as the defense bottled him up for 69 yards and a score on 19 carries and -8 yards on two receptions.
Baltimore, despite achieving the conference's No. 1 seed last season due in part to a rushing attack that ranked first in the NFL in both attempts and yardage, abandoned the run against Kansas City in the playoffs.
The Ravens ran the ball fewer times combined than Henry did himself in his aforementioned title game. QB Lamar Jackson turned eight carries into 54 yards, while Gus Edwards, Zay Flowers and Justice Hill combined for another 27 yards on eight attempts.
It's far from a stretch to imagine Henry would have provided more oomph for a squad that only lost by seven points.
Such thinking possibly played a role in Baltimore adding Henry this offseason. Perhaps now, together, the Ravens and their new All-Pro RB can get off to a good start in Week 1 against the Chiefs and eventually dethrone them.
The first step -- plus Henry's first opportunity to prove his theory -- takes place Thursday, in the 2024 NFL Kickoff Game.
"It's who they lost to to get to the big one, so I'm sure that's in the back of their minds," Henry said of the mood of the team. "We're going to come out and play Ravens style of football, execute so we can get a W, but yeah, I'm sure that's in the back of their minds. I'm sure everybody's locked in and going to be ready to go."
