Buffalo Bills: Cheering for Seantrel Henderson and his complicated story

Earlier this offseason, the Buffalo Bills signed left tackle Cordy Glenn to a five-year, $65 million deal worth $36 million in guarantees, confirming that they have one of the most stable left tackle situations in the NFL.

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Their right tackle spot, however, is far from settled, and the competition officially began yesterday when Seantrel Henderson returned to practice. In August, there are plenty of players returning from injuries, but Henderson arrives to the practice field after battling with something foreign to just about every NFL player.

Last year, Henderson missed time at the end of the regular season with an unspecified “illness”. As Denver Broncos star DE Derek Wolfe taught us, a vague “illness” affecting an NFL player for multiple weeks can be extremely serious.

The Buffalo News’s Vic Carucci reported in 2015 that Henderson was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease, and a source told Carucci that the offensive tackle “lost nearly 20 pounds”.

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Now, Carucci reports that Henderson has gained most of that weight back, hence why he is on the practice field and able to commence his preseason battle with Jordan Mills.

While Henderson is back on the field, his battle with Crohn’s disease will still be even more fierce than his position battle with Mills. Although former New England Patriots franchise tackle Matt Light successfully played through Crohn’s disease (you can view his foundation here), it would be unfair to expect–  but we can always actively hope for– Henderson to do the same.

Retired oncology nurse and psychotherapist Robyn Mundy, who covers the Bills now, did an outstanding job of explaining the challenges of playing with Crohn’s disease. Seriously, the way she simplifies the science is enviable.

This is what Henderson is up against for the duration of his career, and he will need all the support he can get. Of course, the Bills tight-knit fan base has been doing its best to offer the former Miami Hurricane words of encouragement.

Calling it the “first round” of the fight is a smart way of putting it, because there will be more grueling rounds to come.

Henderson, however, wasn’t always the player the masses rooted for.

Failing a drug test at the Combine is not a situation unique to Henderson, but, yes, it was not the wisest decision of his career. Thankfully, the narrative surrounding such a transgression has changed slightly, because after watching the Josh Gordon and Martavis Bryant sagas unfold, it seems like, as an NFL community, we are more forgiving to those with drug problems who are seeking help.

And yes, Henderson falls into that category.

Back in 2014, the South Florida Sun Sentinel’s Omar Kelly wrote a piece about Henderson, who spoke candidly about his usage of marijuana in college.

But first, let’s set the scene, because it only makes Henderson’s winding, complex story all the more compelling.

Henderson was Laremy Tunsil before Laremy Tunsil…in a way. See, Tunsil was the No. 1 offensive tackle in the country as a recruit and immediately started at left tackle as a true freshman, which is extremely rare.

Yet, Henderson was an even more decorated young athlete before he came to college. Not only did he star in basketball and track-and-field, in addition to football, but he is the ONLY offensive lineman to be the USA Today’s Offensive Player of the Year in high school. This award, by the way, has been around since 1982.

In his first season, Henderson played in 12 games and started at nine at right tackle. The following season, 2011, he played in less games after requiring back surgery in the offseason.

Then, two major events happened to Henderson in 2012. Firstly, he was suspended for Miami’s opener due to a violation of team policy. I wonder what it was for…

In August, Henderson was arrested for driving with an expired license and running a red light. He crashed into a car with six people, injuring two children and missing practice sessions with a concussion that he suffered in the accident.

But there’s a twist. Henderson likely got into the accident because he was so distraught. This incident happened as he was driving to the funeral of a close friend, who was murdered. Worse yet, not long after the murder, his aunt passed away from cancer.

You can see that Henderson’s disappointing college career was filled with suffering, tribulations, and perhaps errors of his own, which likely stemmed from all of the issues surrounding him. There are so many different articles mentioning that Henderson was homesick, and I doubt that helped matters.

So let’s get back to what Henderson told Kelly.

Henderson told NFL teams that his three suspensions while at Miami were the result of marijuana, and I can’t blame him. I don’t know why he used weed, but perhaps it was because he felt the need to use it to relax and get over some of the feelings of homesickness. I also wonder if the pressure of being a touted five-star recruit and potential high draft pick weighed on him. How many offensive tackles will have a “Rise and Fall” piece dedicated to them?

"“I’m just being honest with every team and letting them know exactly what the situations were, and that I’m putting all the negative things behind me moving on to the next level,” Henderson said. “I want to be a starter and play in the NFL.“I’m showing my character. Showing them that I’m responsible, reliable, dependable,” Henderson said. “I want to keep letting them know all the negative things are behind me.”"

This is what Henderson said to Kelly.

And here’s what an NFL exec said.

"“As long as he doesn’t fail the combine’s drug test, we can get past that,” the executive said before pointing out UM cornerback Sam Shields had similar issues before turning in an impressive career with the Packers. “Plenty of teams take chances on players with his talent.”"

Henderson failed the test.

After being compared to Jonathan Ogden and Orlando Pace as a high schooler, Henderson was a mere seventh-round pick by the Bills in the 2014 NFL Draft.

Maybe nothing represents Henderson’s career as a player better than this thought-provoking passage about him as a high schooler from Neal Coolong, back when Coolong wrote for Behind The Steel Curtain.

"He had flawless technique for his age, and it was clear whichever school he was going to pick, he would start from Day 1. Three years of college football, he’d be a top five pick in the draft. There was no doubt. He was as sure a prospect as could be imagined.Except, I couldn’t get the feeling he really cared much.My scouting report read as follows:“78 is everything you’ve heard, except doesn’t seem to care. Wonder if you had someone who could challenge him, what would he do? Collapses the line left to right, but does not go straight at players. Seems almost like he wants to be there but doesn’t want to hurt anyone.”"

Even though the prevailing opinion around Henderson has always been that he doesn’t care, Bills fans embraced him when he was drafted. Though many understood how unlikely it was for him to become a quality player, they believed drafting him in the seventh was a worthy “risk”, given his potential. At the time he was drafted, 80% of the 1,992 responders to a Buffalo Rumblings poll stated their approval of the pick.

Optimism is easy for a fan base to project immediately after a player is drafted, but that hope has not waned. Many were encouraged by his rookie season.

That said, he received an embarrassingly low grade– even lower than Mills’s– from Pro Football Focus in the ten games he did play last season.

What makes Henderson such an interesting player, however, isn’t his actual play on the field. Most people who have watched him play, including me, believe he is a well below-average starting offensive tackle. He didn’t play particularly well as a rookie despite having some moments, and he was a major liability in 2015.

However, before he missed time with Crohn’s disease, he reliably played in every game and kept himself out of trouble. Those are things he didn’t do at Miami, and they represent an important shift for Henderson on the field.

Now that Henderson has returned to the practice field, he has reminded us that an athlete’s story is more than just failure, mistakes, and struggles on the field. We have to examine why someone busts, and we have to reframe our expectations. Henderson’s battle with Crohn’s disease, the tragedies he faced as a college student (two deaths to people in his life that occurred in a short period of time), and his drug issues are pieces of a story that mean more to some fans and writers than PFF grades or film breakdowns.

As you can see, what Henderson has fought through– and is currently fighting– are things people can relate to. People can relate to hurting their status at their jobs because of marijuana, people can relate to suffering from a painful disease, people can relate to feeling homesick in college, people can relate to feeling grief after tragedies (such as a close friend being murdered), and people can relate to failing to meet expectations.

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Sometimes, we don’t root for players because they have Derek Jeter’s pristine image or Antonio Brown‘s stats. Sometimes, we root for people with difficult and layered stories that expose their flaws and humanize them.