Giants' Tyrone Tracy focused on doing his job, not outdoing Ravens' Derrick Henry

Tyrone Tracy Jr. rattled off the running backs he admired and studied. The list wasn’t surprising given the Giants' rookie’s prowess as both a runner and pass catcher.

Alvin Kamara. Christian McCaffrey. Tony Pollard. Saquon Barkley. All backs in line with Tracy’s all-purpose ability. Still, it was surprising he didn’t name the most prolific of the bunch.

Derrick Henry. The back coming to MetLife Stadium on Sunday with the Ravens as the last person to rush for at least 2,000 yards in an NFL season.

So why the omission?

“I would look at him like, he's a good running back,” said Tracy, who leads the Giants with 664 rushing yards and 880 total scrimmage yards. “I wouldn't look at him like, yeah, I can steal some of his moves. I can't, because we’re two completely different running backs.

No kidding. Tracy is 5-11, 210 pounds and trying to prove himself in his first spin around the NFL block. Henry is 6-2, 247 pounds, and established in his ninth season as a mix of power, speed and consistent dominance.

It’s hard to compare any modern back to Henry, who ranks second behind Barkley with 1,407 rushing yards, has an NFL-leading 13 rushing touchdowns and has the league’s only two rushes of at least 80 yards this season.

Tracy’s smart enough to know that as someone who played both running back and receiver most of his life until his final season at Purdue. That’s why Henry is someone to admire instead of mimic.

“I haven’t actually watched much of him, to be honest with you,” Tracy said. “Just from highlights and whatnot, you know. Obviously, he's a good, hard runner, downhill. He has speed, strength, really, the whole nine, but I haven’t watched much of him to be honest.

Devin Singletary, Tracy’s backfield mate, has a different perspective. As a Florida native, he followed Henry’s exploits going back to when Henry set the national high school rushing record at Yulee High School in Yulee, Florida.

He’s also faced Henry’s Titans five times in his career, including twice last season as a member of the Texans.

“He’s one of a kind, for sure,” Singletary said. “He’s always gonna get his fair share of carries and does his thing when he gets it. I feel like that’s been his MO since he got in the league. A lot of people are like ‘he’s getting old’ and I feel like he’s stumped them on that. Like I’m getting old but look what I’m doing.”

Giants defensive coordinator Shane Bowen knows Henry all too well. He spent the previous six seasons with the Titans, including the last three as defensive coordinator. If anybody knows the challenge of dealing with Henry, it’s Bowen, who called Henry “probably the best stiff-arm guy ever.”

“Just in my time there, seeing some of the things he was able to do with the stiff arm gives me nightmares this week,” Bowen said. “But he's a special player and we've got to make sure we do a good job of hopefully keeping him bottled up. And the thing that's unique about him is if he has the crease and he's rolling, he takes it the distance.”

Henry and Barkley have reminded this season the value of great running backs. For Henry, 30, he’s having this success at an age where running backs typically start declining.

Tracy wouldn’t mind having a similar impact for the Giants. He’s second among NFL rookies in rushing and fourth in scrimmage yards. He’s on pace to be the third Giants rookie in franchise with 1,000 scrimmage yards in a season, unless teammate Malik Nabers (821 yards) gets there first.

Tracy’s 21 touches last Sunday — 16 carries and five receptions — were his most since having 22 touches on Oct. 28 against Pittsburgh. More importantly, he’s had two straight games without a fumble after fumbling in consecutive games on Nov. 10 and Nov. 24.

He’ll get another chance to build on that Sunday but the game isn’t some contest for Tracy to prove himself against Henry. There’s no pressure outside of meeting his own standards.

“I wouldn't necessarily say that's something I'm looking at,” Tracy said about a potential matchup against Henry. “But anything competitive, you always want to get just something going for a competitive edge in that game.”

Tracy’s got his own worries facing the Ravens, the NFL’s No. 1 rushing defense. But he had the same outlook last month when the Giants faced the Buccaneers and leading rusher Bucky Irving.

Irving leads all rookie tailbacks in rushing and scrimmage yards yet Tracy didn’t feel the need to out-do him.

“When I was playing Bucky, it wasn't like I gotta be better than him,” said Tracy, who was out-gained by Irving, 152-70, in total yards. “I know that he's another rookie running back that's doing good in this league this year. So it's always something to get that competitive edge on the football field.”

There may not be an individual battle but Henry also has something to play for. He’s 93 yards from his fourth season of at least 1,500 rushing yards, something only fourth other players have done in NFL history.

But Tracy thinks his teammates will be ready. He’s also ready to get a first-hand look at how Henry’s become an all-time great.

Even though they’re different types of backs, Tracy’s still open to see what he can learn while also rooting for his defense to contain someone who’s been hard to stop all season.

“Our defense, I think they’ll go out there and do their job to the best of their abilities,” Tracy said of stopping Henry. “It’s a challenge but our defense is up for the challenge, for sure.”

With Tom Rock and Denis P. Gorman

By Evan Barnes

evan.barnes@newsday.comevan_b

Evan Barnes covers the Giants for Newsday. He previously covered the Brooklyn Nets, Memphis football and the Memphis Grizzlies and also covered prep sports in Los Angeles.