Derrick Henry is still going strong at age 32. What’s the key to NFL longevity?

The Tennessee Titans are in dangerous territory if they start 0-4.

Only one team in NFL history — the 1992 San Diego Chargers — has lost its first four games and still made the playoffs. (I can hear Jim Mora’s voice right now.)

The Titans (0-3) will have a razor-thin margin of error against the Ravens (2-1) on Oct. 4 (noon CT, CBS).

Here’s what we’ll be discussing today

● Derrick Henry’s still going at age 32. What’s the key to NFL longevity?

● Is there really a key to overcoming Tennessee’s slow starts?

● How Titans are coaching Chimere Dike after his two kickoff fumbles

OK. Hut-hut.

What’s the key to NFL longevity?

How is Derrick Henry still plowing through opponents at 32 years old?

With 301 yards rushing in three games, Henry is on track to become the only 32-year-old with more than 1,121 rushing yards in a season; Ricky Williams (2009, Miami Dolphins) owns the high mark. Washington’s John Riggins is the oldest player in NFL history to break 1,000 yards in a season with 1,239 as a 35-year-old in 1984.

I sought out Titans backup quarterback Mitch Trubisky, 32, and Titans long snapper Morgan Cox, 40, to find the answer to NFL longevity. They’re the oldest players on the roster.

Specialists aren’t in the locker room long. They’re the first to practice and I missed my opportunity to speak with Cox. But Trubisky had some interesting answers.

Some but not all NFL players go all-out to keep their careers going.

“I’ve heard some guys getting a massage every day, spending, like, six figures whether it be on diets or massage therapists or having a trainer travel with you,” Trubisky said. “I’ve heard all kinds of stuff. The guys who last long, they usually find something that helps them.”

The averaged NFL contract is about $3 million per year. A $500,000 specialist on retainer amounts to about 16% of that salary annually.

Should we be surprised that New York Giants quarterback Jameis Winston is said to have attached Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation (TENS) units to his body while sitting in a hot tub? That’s what former Giants receiver Wan’Dale Robinson witnessed Winston do.

“Jameis had his own little, I don’t know if it was a (TENS) unit or what. It was some kind of electrical current. He’d get in the whirlpool, steel tubs and have that all over his body,” Robinson said. “He’d sit in there and dump a bunch of different things in the water. I was like, ‘It looks like he’s making a potion in there.’ I don’t know exactly. He did it to keep his body right. A couple receivers and younger guys started doing it, too. I was like, ‘I guess I’ll see when I get older if I need that.’ ”

What’s the key to Titans starting faster?

They’ve been really bad in first halves, averaging 68.3 first-half yards and 2.6 first downs this season.

The “how can we start faster” silliness has never made sense to me. Players either come ready to play early or they don’t. Unless the coaching is putrid — this is a good staff on paper, but hey, that could be the case here — what magic formula exists for teams to adjust?

The question was asked all day on Oct. 1 and none of the answers really made sense.

Titans offensive coordinator Brian Daboll shouldered the blame.

“Obviously execution is important,” he said, referring to players. “But we’ve got to continue to do a good job as a coaching staff to make sure we’re giving our guys opportunities.”

Daboll explained how he handles accountability.

“I think the most important thing is to tell everyone the truth,” he said. “And you always start with the thumb (coaches pointing at themselves) and then the finger (coaches pointing to players) to tell everyone the truth. Then you coach the guys relative to what we could’ve done a little better, whether that’s situations on third down in the first half or finishing drives.”

How are Titans coaching Chimere Dike after two kickoff fumbles?

That’s obviously not a great start for Dike through four games.

Titans special teams coach John Fassel said the scout is out on Dike now. Opponents will identify him as a fumble risk and go after him.

“There are teaching points to it. Not just going, ‘Hey, you know, it’s OK, tighten it up.’ That’s not good enough,” Fassel said. “So I showed him all the fumble tapes from the first couple weeks of the season, and there’s always been really, to me, three things that stand out that put ballcarriers in vulnerable positions and we’ve been struck by two of them.

“One of them is when a ballcarrier is spinning, when a ballcarrier is stiff-arming and when a ballcarrier is going to the ground. Those are extremely vulnerable positions where you see most of the forced fumbles happen against a runner.

"In the first game, (Dike) spun out of a tackler into another tackler (and fumbled); it’s always the second guy in. In this past game, the first guy tripped (Dike) up and the second guy punched it out as he was going to the ground . . . That’s just something he’ll have to learn to guard against. Because his profile now for opponents is this guy puts the ball on the ground.”

Thanks again for talkin’ Titans with us.

Tyler Palmateer covers the Tennessee Titans for The Tennessean. Have a story idea for Tyler? Reach him at tpalmateer@tennessean.com and on the X platform,@tpalmateer83.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Derrick Henry is still going strong at age 32. What’s the key to NFL longevity?

Source: sports.yahoo.com — article syndicated from the publisher’s feed; all rights remain with the original publisher.