Some NFL veterans are making the most of their second chances, or even their fourth or fifth.
Derrick Henry, at 30 years old, looks just as impressive in a Baltimore Ravens uniform as he did as a key player in Tennessee. Saquon Barkley is excelling in Philadelphia and is set to play against his former teammates, the New York Giants, in October.
Sam Darnold is on his fourth stop in the NFL after starting his career as a young 20-year-old, and the ageless Joe Flacco is still playing well with his fifth team.
Henry wasn’t finished when he said goodbye to the Titans and their fans after his last game in Tennessee eight months ago. He’s proving that turning 30 can still look great.
In his first play for the Ravens, Henry rushed 87 yards for a touchdown, marking the longest run in the franchise’s history. He ended the game with 199 yards, helping the Ravens defeat the previously unbeaten Buffalo Bills 35-10 in a major statement for the NFL in Week 4.
According to NFL NextGen Stats, the 247-pound Henry reached a speed of 21.29 mph during that run, tying for the fourth-fastest speed by a ball carrier this season.
Additionally, Henry caught his first touchdown pass since 2019 and now has six touchdowns in four games for Baltimore, which is half of what he scored in his last season in Nashville.
That’s impressive for a player who is just four months away from his 31st birthday, only 18 yards short of reaching 10,000 for his career, and five touchdowns away from hitting 100.
The fountain of youth seems to have touched Sam Darnold in Minnesota and 27-year-old Saquon Barkley in Philadelphia, and it also seems to have splashed on Joe Flacco, who is just four months away from turning 40 and has been away from his days as a key player in Baltimore for a long time.
Flacco, a rare case of a star who became a backup, came in for an injured Anthony Richardson and helped the Indianapolis Colts beat the previously undefeated Pittsburgh Steelers 27-24.
Playing for his fourth team since leaving the Ravens after the 2018 season, the league’s current Comeback Player of the Year threw two touchdown passes against a Steelers team he has defeated 11 times as a starter.
Flacco completed 16 of 26 passes for 168 yards and two touchdowns, which is double what Broncos rookie Bo Nix has managed in four full games so far.
When CBS sideline reporter Aditi Kinkhabwala asked him if he ever feels like he ages, Flacco replied, “When you’re out here in this environment, no. You feel like you’re 12 years old.”
When Kinkhabwala mentioned that Anthony Richardson said Flacco was cooler than he thought, Flacco joked: “Listen, he told me that his mom is eight days older than I am. So, there’s no chance in the world that he thinks I’m cool.”
NBC analyst Chris Simms certainly does think Flacco is impressive.
“How about Joltin’ Joe?” Simms joked on “Football Night in America.” “Does this guy ever get old? Does his arm ever wear out? He’s throwing lasers all around.” He’s looking young again, just like Henry in Baltimore, Darnold in Minneapolis, and Barkley in Philadelphia.
Henry is averaging 6 yards per carry with the Ravens, which is well above his already impressive career average of 4.7 yards.
Barkley, picked second overall in 2018, is averaging just under 6 yards per run for the Eagles, which is much better than his 4.4-yard average with the Giants, who let him go in free agency only for him to join a rival team.
Barkley has scored four rushing touchdowns this season and is on track to surpass his career-high of 11 touchdowns from his rookie year with the Giants in 2018.
Darnold has helped the Vikings (4-0) become a surprise team in the NFL after leading them to a 31-29 victory at Lambeau Field on Sunday.
He spent a year learning from Kyle Shanahan in San Francisco before signing a one-year, $10 million contract with Minnesota. Darnold is completing 68.9% of his passes, a big improvement from his career average of around 60%.
However, not all of the older players in the league are looking so sharp. Aaron Rodgers showed his 40 years in a 10-9 loss to Denver on a wet and messy day at the Meadowlands, where he didn’t throw a touchdown pass.
“The weather sucked,” Rodgers said. “But so did some of my throws.”
This also describes the play of the team around him. The Jets were penalized 15 times, including five false starts, raising questions about whether Rodgers’ cadence—something he has used throughout his career to confuse defenses—might be a problem for his own offense.
After the game, coach Robert Saleh questioned “whether or not we’re good enough or ready to handle all the cadence.” Rodgers referred to the five pre-snap penalties as “an outlier” and said that while changing his cadence is “one way to do it,” he added: “The other way is to hold them accountable.”
This reflects Rodgers’ past criticisms of his teammates during his final days in Green Bay, where he often talked about the inexperience of his younger teammates.
Rodgers limped off the field late in the game after a sack that reminded him of the time he tore his left Achilles tendon just four plays into his Jets debut last year.
He mentioned he was “banged up” and that both legs were having “stuff,” but he insisted he was fine. He plans to play on Sunday for his 30th career start against the Vikings.
