Any hope that the Tennessee Titans had to realistically contend in 2024 has gone up in flames. The team is not only taking an unsightly 2-4 record into its Week 7 bye, but it could also be without Ryan Tannehill for a stretch after the starting quarterback exited Tennessee's latest loss with an ankle injury and was spotted using crutches while speaking to the media following the contest.

Now in last place in a competitive AFC South with little chance of reaching the playoffs, it's time for the Titans to get a head start on their rebuild. Derrick Henry should be one of the first veterans to get shipped off, as he's set to hit the open market after the season. Tennessee needs to maximize its potential returns by dealing the star running back before the October 31 trade deadline. If Henry remains on the roster past that date, the organization will likely part ways with the star in the offseason and get nothing but a middling compensatory draft pick in return.

While the 29-year-old isn't the same force he was during his prime, he can still change games thanks to his powerful rushing style and ability to wear down defenses. Henry, a three-time Pro Bowler and two-time rushing crown winner, is still averaging 4.3 yards per carry in his eighth NFL season and clearly has something left in the tank.

There will likely be several interested suitors should Henry be made available. While some of these teams will have to get creative to make a trade work due to salary-cap constraints, they would all benefit from his presence and would likely make the necessary moves to fit the back's remaining contract on their books.

With that in mind, here are the contending clubs that could realistically make an offer for Henry in the coming weeks.

All salary-cap figures and contract data courtesy of Spotrac.

Baltimore Ravens

Baltimore Ravens get: RB Derrick Henry

Tennessee Titans get: WR Devin Duvernay, 2024 second-round pick, 2024 fifth-round pick

At 4-2, the Baltimore Ravens have a tenuous grasp on the AFC North lead and should make at least one major move before the deadline to boost their playoff chances. Baltimore's offense has seemed a bit out of sync since losing starter J.K. Dobbins to a season-ending injury in the opener, making running back a prime position to see an in-season upgrade.

While the Ravens' rushing attack looks good on paper—it ranks No. 5 in the league with an average of 144.8 yards per game—much of this success is due to Lamar Jackson. The quarterback is the team's leading rusher and has been responsible for 327 yards and five scores on the ground. Jackson's dual-threat abilities make him one of the league's most dangerous players, but he's also finished each of the last two seasons on the sideline due to injury. Baltimore's brass should be looking to lessen the amount of wear-and-tear on the quarterback by acquiring a back capable of assuming a large workload.

Since Dobbins went down, Gus Edwards and Justice Hill have been handling the backfield duties in a timeshare. Edwards has seen more action—tallying 282 yards and a score on his 72 totes—while Hill has been more effective in his limited work, racking up 150 yards and three touchdowns on 37 rushes. While these aren't bad marks, they aren't particularly impressive either. Both started the campaign as depth options for a reason and Baltimore should be trying to get a true lead back to round out the offense for a Super Bowl push.

Henry would be an ideal fit and the Ravens just got a firsthand look at how dangerous he can still be. While Baltimore managed to knock off the Titans during a Week 6 clash in London, Henry was one of Tennessee's lone bright spots in the contest and put up 97 yards and a score on just 12 carries. Having Henry shouldering the rushing load in an offense that boasts plenty of talented playmakers like Zay Flowers, Mark Andrews, Odell Beckham Jr. and Rashod Bateman could be exactly what this squad needs to make a run.

The Ravens have a shade under $7 million in available cap space, making a trade relatively feasible—especially if they include someone like wideout/return man Devin Duvernay and his $4.3 million expiring contract. While taking on Henry's deal would give Baltimore little room to work with after ironing out all the details, there's no other available player who could have as much of a positive impact on this roster. He'll be worth every penny for a team that could be in for an underwhelming season if it doesn't get some backfield help soon.

Buffalo Bills

Buffalo Bills get: RB Derrick Henry

Tennessee Titans get: RB Latavius Murray, 2024 second-round pick, 2024 fifth-round pick

The Buffalo Bills have been perceived as a Super Bowl contender for the better part of the last half-decade but have only reached the conference championship game once since drafting Josh Allen in 2018. While the team had plenty of firepower during last year's regular season, it ran out of gas in the playoffs with the ground game notably stalling out.

The Bills largely failed to address that issue in the offseason and have come out of the gate in 2023 looking somewhat inconsistent on the offensive side of the ball. While Buffalo is averaging an impressive 374.8 yards and 28.8 points per game, respectively the No. 6 and No. 3 marks in the league, a closer look reveals that much of this production has come against weaker opponents.

The Bills ran up the score on the Las Vegas Raiders and Washington Commanders during the first month of the campaign—tallying up a combined 75 points in those games—and have just one truly impressive win under their belt this year in the form of a 48-20 victory over the Miami Dolphins. The team underwhelmed in a season-opening loss to the New York Jets and mustered just 20 points in a losing effort against the Jaguars in Week 5.

Buffalo even looked out of sync during its most recent win, narrowly scraping by the undermanned New York Giants by a slim 14-9 margin. That result should prompt Buffalo's front office to become buyers at the deadline, as it's becoming clear this unit needs some assistance if it is going to finally get over the hump and bring a Lombardi Trophy to western New York.

A lack of upper-echelon skill-position talent is hamstringing the Bills' ability to become a consistently elite squad this year. While Stefon Diggs remains one of the league's top wideouts and there's hope that rookie Dalton Kincaid evolves into a top-tier tight end, the backfield lacks a standout star right now. James Cook hasn't been bad by any means—he's put up 363 yards and a score on 75 carries while chipping in another 140 yards on 14 receptions—but the second-year rusher isn't yet on the level of truly elite talents like Derrick Henry.

Cook isn't getting much help either. Latavius Murray has surprisingly emerged as the second-most productive back on this roster during a resurgent season, but he still has just 131 yards and two scores across 31 carries.

Trading for Henry would give Buffalo one of the most potent running back platoons in the league. He'd add the edge and depth that the team needs to keep pace with the surging Dolphins, a squad that leads the league in rushing by a wide margin right now. Miami has used that strength to reach the top of the AFC East standings at 5-1, and the Bills cannot afford to squander the tiebreaker advantage they currently have over their rival.

While the Bills aren't flush with cap space—they have just under $2 million available—they could make a Henry trade work with some creative maneuvers. Shipping over Murray would both clear up a roster spot and take some salary off the books while giving Tennessee a veteran replacement for Henry. The rest of the cap room required could be made up for in the form of various restructures, cuts and through negotiations with the Titans to assume some of the financial burden.

Cincinnati Bengals

Cincinnati Bengals get: RB Derrick Henry

Tennessee Titans get: 2024 second-round pick, 2024 fifth-round pick

The Cincinnati Bengals have been one of the more disappointing teams of the 2023 season thus far.

Although Cincinnati is in the AFC North basement, the season is far from over. The squad has managed to shake off a 1-3 start by clawing to .500 thanks to back-to-back victories. Joe Burrow seems to be steadily improving after he looked like a shell of his superstar self upon re-aggravating a calf injury that plagued him since training camp. The quarterback has thrown for five touchdowns during the team's current win streak, three more scores than he accounted for over the first month of the campaign.

While this resurgence has led to some optimism in Cincinnati, things could quickly go south again if the ground attack doesn't come alive soon. The Bengals rank dead-last in rushing this season with a pitiful 69.8 per game. The team's decision to retain Joe Mixon following a career-worst year has completely backfired. The veteran running back is averaging a mere 3.8 yards per carry in 2023—even fewer than he did last year—and he's hardly made an impact as a pass-catcher, reeling in 16 passes for 104 yards across six appearances.

Unfortunately for the Bengals, there doesn't seem to be anyone capable of picking up the slack here. Trayveon Williams is the only Cincinnati player aside from Burrow to log more than two carries on the year, but he's totaled just 20 yards on his five totes. With Mixon slumping and appearing washed up at the age of 27, the Bengals have little choice but to swing a trade if they want to fix this backfield in time to salvage the 2023 campaign.

If Cincinnati does elect to become buyers at the deadline, Derrick Henry is likely the best available option by a good margin. He'd be an ideal fit in this offense and would help ease the burden on Burrow while the quarterback continues to rehabilitate his calf. Henry could work as a lead back and potentially even revitalize Mixon's career, allowing the incumbent starter to be inserted into the lineup as a change-of-pace and pass-catching option.

The Bengals even have the salary-cap room to make this trade work almost seamlessly. The franchise has the third-most cap space in the league right now with an estimated $12.6 million in available finances. If Cincinnati is willing to send over some decent draft capital to the Titans in exchange for their superstar running back, this deal should get done.

Philadelphia Eagles

Philadelphia Eagles get: RB Derrick Henry

Tennessee Titans get: RB Boston Scott, 2024 second-round pick, 2024 fifth-round pick

The Philadelphia Eagles were linked to Derrick Henry during the offseason and even reportedly had a trade lined up for the veteran running back. During an appearance on The Rich Eisen Show (h/t Eagles Nation), Akbar Gbajabiamila said his tweet "blew it up" and caused negotiations to break down.

While the Eagles went on to sign D'Andre Swift and Rashaad Penny to replace free-agent loss Miles Sanders and haven't been struggling when it comes to the rush—they're averaging 150 yards per game on the ground, more than any team but the Miami Dolphins—they could still benefit from revisiting that failed deal and adding an elite talent like Henry before the deadline.

As good as Philadelphia has been at moving the ball, it isn't scoring as much as last year. Despite ranking No. 2 in the league with a blistering 395 yards of offense per game, the Eagles are only averaging 25.8 points. While that is still a top-seven mark, it's a drop-off from the 28.1 points per game they put up in 2022. The team also hasn't put up more than 23 points since Week 4 and has benefitted from soft matchups during an easy slate of games to open the campaign.

Philadelphia's offensive woes reared their head during the team's Week 6 loss to the New York Jets, its first defeat of the year. The Jets picked off Jalen Hurts three times despite missing top cornerback Sauce Gardner and limited Swift to a mere 18 yards on 10 carries.

Adding Henry would give the Eagles more firepower out of the backfield. While Swift had been averaging 5.7 yards per carry before being stonewalled on Sunday, he hasn't been able to find the end zone with any regularity. The back has managed to score just two touchdowns on his 86 carries this season. Compare that to Henry, who has punched in a whopping 81 touchdowns on the ground over his seven-plus NFL seasons, and it's easy to see why the veteran can be an asset for Philadelphia.

Henry would take the pressure off Hurts to score with his legs. While the quarterback has been responsible for five of Philadelphia's seven rushing touchdowns this season, defenses are starting to key in on the signal-caller in short-yardage and goal-line situations. The Jets did allow Hurts to notch a rushing score and pick up 47 yards on his eight carries, but they notably didn't let the Eagles get into any 3rd-and-1 or 4th-and-1 situations. By doing so, they avoided the demoralizing and seemingly unstoppable "tush push" sneak play that Philadelphia has utilized to great effect since Hurts became the starter.

Having Henry in the mix to grind out tough yards and keep defenses honest in situations where a Hurts rush is currently obvious would be a major boon for this offense. Taking on the final year of Henry's $12.8 million contract might be tough for a team that is currently over the cap, but having Tennessee agree to pay a portion of the salary and sending over Boston Scott (a player the Titans can use to help replace some of Henry's production) would help clear up some of the financial hurdles, while cuts, restructuring and other financial wrangling could do the rest.