Running back Derrick Henry is scheduled to become an unrestricted free agent at 3 p.m. CDT March 18. But he won’t get there if the Tennessee Titans can help it.

The former Alabama All-American ran for 1,540 yards in 15 regular-season games and 446 in three postseason games for the Titans during the 2019 campaign, and Titans general manager Jon Robinson said at the NFL Scouting Combine on Tuesday that Tennessee wanted to work out a contract extension with Henry.

“Derrick had a great year for us,” Robinson said. “He led the league in rushing. He built off the second half of the 2018 season that he had. He cares about his teammates. He works hard. He’s great in the community. And we’re going to work through that one and do everything we can to try to keep him around.”

Henry has played four seasons for Tennessee on his rookie contract, which totaled $5.4 million. The financial sports website spotrac.com pegged Henry’s market value in free agency as a four-year, $55.3 million contract. Such a contract would be the third largest in total value and average yearly value among NFL running backs, behind the deals held by the Dallas Cowboys’ Ezekiel Elliott and Los Angeles Rams’ Todd Gurley.

Paying big money to running backs and spending high draft choices on the position have fallen out of fashion in some NFL circles. But Robinson said the wisdom of any contract is revealed only in hindsight.

“If we get something done with Derrick,” Robinson said, “and he has a great career, which we expect him to, and continues to build on the foundation that he’s laid here for us, it’ll be good for all of us.”

If Tennessee can’t work out a contract extension with Henry, the Titans still can prevent him from reaching free agency by using their franchise or transition tag to retain him. According to the sports financial website overthecap.com, the franchise-tag salary for running backs will be around $12.47 million in 2020, with the transition tag coming in at $10.19 million. (Under the transition tag, a player can negotiate with other teams, and if he gets a better offer, his original team gets the opportunity match it to retain him. The franchise tag comes in exclusive and non-exclusive varieties, which affects the value, and under the non-exclusive tag, a player can negotiate with other teams, but if he signs elsewhere, his old team owes his new team two first-round draft picks.)

The deadline for applying tags is March 12.

For the Titans, their list of players approaching free agency also includes quarterback Ryan Tannehill.

“That’s a resource that every team is allowed is those tags if you can’t work something out,” Robinson said. “You can say it’s a bad thing. I don’t know if it’s a good thing. It’s just a resource that we have to use. But we’ve got a lot of good players. We want to try to keep as many good players on the team as possible, and we’ll see how it goes.”

When the Titans lost to the Denver Broncos 16-0 on Oct. 13, Henry ran for 28 yards on 15 carries as Tennessee fell to 2-4. Over his next 11 games, Henry ran for 1,501 yards and 13 touchdowns on 254 carries as the Titans won nine times.

That carried Tennessee to the AFC Championship Game, where the Titans lost to the Kansas City Chiefs 35-24.

“He was physical. He was durable,” Tennessee coach Mike Vrabel said on Tuesday about Henry’s performance. “Takes great care of himself and was able to give us that spark that we needed that we felt like was going to help us do some things, not only to get into the playoffs, but to be successful in the playoffs.”

ALABAMA’S TOP 10 NFL RUSHERS: DERRICK HENRY MOVING UP

Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @AMarkG1.

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