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Who will lead the Titans in rushing this season?

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It's very obvious that Tennessee plans on running the football plenty in 2016. In the offseason, the Titans greatly reinforced their offensive line with mauling run blockers. They also traded for DeMarco Murray and drafted Derrick Henry in the second round.

Adding two power runners suggests this won't be a finesse running game, but the Titans will design runs for Marcus Mariota as well.

As we've seen in many instances, such as Michael Vick's time in Atlanta or Vince Young's in Tennessee, having a threatening runner at the quarterback position can open up a ton of room for the running backs.

That's not to imply Mariota will be a run-first quarterback by any means - he's developing extremely well from the pocket and is on course to become a fantastic all-around QB - but Tennessee will use his legs to further threaten the defense.

Tennessee currently has an abundance of running backs on the roster in addition to Murray and Henry, possibly putting them in a position to trade one away.

But how should we expect the running back distribution to play out in the meantime, and what do Murray and Henry bring to the Titans' backfield? Both have done well in the first two games of the preseason. In fact, Tennessee ran all over the Chargers in the first game in a somewhat embarrassing and utterly dominant fashion. Running room was harder to come by against Carolina, especially for Murray.

DeMarco Murray

After rushing for over 1,000 yards in 2013, Murray exploded the following year with 1,845 yards on the ground, a 4.7 yards per carry average, 416 receiving yards, and 13 touchdowns. That gigantic season was aided quite a bit by the fantastic blocking from Dallas' great offensive line. Including playoffs, though, Murray touched the football just shy of an amazing 500 times that season.

The resulting wear and tear on Murray’s body showed last year in Philadelphia, where he averaged just 3.6 yards per carry and only ran for 702 yards. The Eagles' scheme was a terrible fit for Murray’s running style, but there's no denying he was not nearly as explosive or laterally agile in 2015 compared to the previous season.

Running room was scarce in Chip Kelly’s system last year, but Murray got very little yardage on his own, which makes him tough to evaluate right now.

During this preseason, he's had some long runs and was impressive in space. However, he had a lot of room to run versus San Diego and benefited from massive holes at times and very good blocking. He did his best work between the tackles in Philadelphia and remains an effective receiver, especially for a bigger running back. Chances are that Murray is currently somewhere between the runner we saw in 2014 and the one we saw last season.

Derrick Henry

It looks like Henry is only getting better. Of course, he racked up huge yardage last year at Alabama on the way to not only winning the national championship but the Heisman Trophy as well. At the time, he looked like a track runner who could do huge damage when he got downhill with his shoulders square to the line of scrimmage, but he wasn't particularly nifty, elusive, or much of a start-stop runner.

Anyone can see that he has rare height and dimensions for the running back position (he looks like a defensive end) and there's no denying his pure speed and explosiveness in a straight line. What the preseason's shown us is that Henry's added to those attributes by improving his lateral agility, start/stop skills, and ability to create on his own. It's only been two games, but simply put: Henry looks great.

There will be plenty of carries to go around in Tennessee, assuming the defense can keep games close. While the 28-year-old Murray is the leader in the clubhouse and the Titans' current starting running back, expect Henry to lead this team in rushing in 2016.

Henry needs to be on the field.

Murray could get more work than Henry in the passing game and might be the Titans' short-yardage runner (although Henry is intriguing in that area as well, and only scored 28 touchdowns last year!) But the superior talent of the two is primed to surpass Murray on the depth chart before long. And if at some point it becomes apparent that Tennessee isn’t in the playoff hunt this season, why not turn almost entirely to Henry?

Regardless of how competitive the Titans are, though, Henry is on the verge of being the better player. There really isn’t a back like him in the NFL right now.

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