Darrell Henderson should have little trouble winning No. 2 running back job

The Los Angeles Rams selected Darrell Henderson in the third round of this year’s draft to help take some of the pressure off Todd Gurley.

Even though running back wasn’t a top priority for the Los Angeles Rams entering the 2019 NFL Draft, Darrell Henderson seemed like one of those players who was simply too good to pass on when the Memphis product was still available in the third round.

With the Rams previously meeting with Henderson leading up to the draft, this always seemed like a possibility, especially since the team has been dealing with some uncertainty surrounding Todd Gurley.

For obvious reasons, Gurley isn’t at risk for losing his job since he’s one of the top running backs in the NFL when healthy for a reason, but the addition of Henderson seems like it’s going to work wonders for Los Angeles on offense.

Between his different running style along with the 1,909 rushing yards and 22 touchdowns recorded during his final year with the Tigers in 2018, Henderson can certainly bring a ton to the table for the Rams.

And when looking at the impact Henderson has already been making throughout training camp, it seems like only a matter of time before the rookie officially earns the backup role to Gurley ahead of Malcolm Brown.

After matching Brown’s previous offer from the Detroit Lions to bring him back for another year in Los Angeles, it was easy to understand this decision by the Rams since his presence would be some sort of insurance to Gurley.

However, this was all done before Henderson came into the picture in late April, and while Brown has certainly helped the Rams on numerous occasions over the years, he may not have what it takes to hang on to the No. 2 spot on the depth chart at running back.

Experience wise, Brown may have an advantage over Henderson since he knows what it’s actually like to play at the NFL level, but also the rookie running back seems like a strong candidate who could quickly pick things up come September.

Most importantly, if September does roll around, and Gurley’s knee is still somewhat of an issue, Los Angeles has put themselves in better position at running back with the combination of Brown and Henderson.

But if Henderson continues to improve with experience over these next few weeks during camp and preseason, Brown could very well be at risk to losing his job as the official backup to Gurley, which wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing.

At the end of the day, the most important factor for the Rams is making sure they’re in the best position possible to earn another trip to the Super Bowl, and if that means using Henderson more than Brown, then so be it.