In 2021, Tennessee Titans running back Derrick Henry sustained a broken foot in the eighth game that caused him to miss the rest of the regular season.

This week, Tennessee came out of its eighth game and Henry appeared on the injury report as a limited participant in Wednesday’s practice. The listed reason was “foot.”

Then Henry didn’t practice at all on Thursday. But “not injury-related – rest” was listed as the reason, and the former Alabama All-American wants Titans fans to take a deep breath.

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“My foot is fine,” Henry said on Thursday. “There’s nothing wrong. I’ll be out there on Sunday playing. The foot is fine. There’s nothing to panic about. Everybody have a great Thursday.”

That’s particularly good news for Tennessee this week. While the Titans’ preferred method of attack is built around Henry, Tennessee might serve an extra helping of Henry to their opponent for the second straight game.

Quarterback Ryan Tannehill missed Sunday’s 17-10 victory over the Houston Texans because of an ankle injury, and Henry reached season highs with 32 rushing attempts for 219 yards and two touchdowns with rookie quarterback Malik Willis making his first NFL start.

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Against Houston, Tennessee had 45 rushing attempts for 314 yards while Willis completed 6-of-10 passes for 55 yards with no touchdowns and one interception.

“I think that he handled things well from a maturity standpoint not knowing that he was going to be the starter until later in the process, obviously,” Titans offensive coordinator Todd Downing said of Willis’ performance. “There were some great learning opportunities, which there are for every young quarterback that plays in this league, and then there are some things that he did well and managed the game well, so a lot to improve on and grow from, and I think he did a nice job.”

This week, Tannehill participated on a limited basis on Wednesday and Friday and did not practice on Thursday. He’s listed as questionable on the injury report, and Tennessee coach Mike Vrabel said Tannehill’s availability against the Kansas City Chiefs would be a game-time decision.

Because they’re playing in the Week 9 Sunday night game, the Titans will have about seven more hours than usual to get Tannehill ready.

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“The more time that you have to treat and recover and make decisions, the better,” Vrabel said.

Willis said Sunday night’s game isn’t really different from any other for a backup QB.

“It’s the same as not knowing any other week, I mean, truly,” Willis said. “If Ryan goes down, I go down, Logan (Woodside) doesn’t know if he’s going to have to play. We just have to always be expecting to play and always be ready to play at least.”

A former Auburn signal-caller, Willis said he had learned from his first start.

“It’s just understanding how to prepare and what you need to prepare for, especially knowing, like, you don’t know,” Willis said.

Against the Texans, Willis operated an offense that finished the game with a 9:36 advantage in time of possession – a stat that Henry said the Titans would want to dominate again against the Chiefs.

“You want to do that because they’re so explosive,” Henry said. “They can score at any point in the game. The type of player Patrick Mahomes is and they have fast receivers, Travic Kelce, so they’re an explosive offense, so we need to make sure we’re doing what we do to keep the ball out of their hands.”

If Tennessee follows its Houston formula in Kansas City, it won’t be a surprise to the Chiefs. But it wasn’t a surprise to the Texans either. According to the NFL’s Next Gen Stats, Henry carried the football 18 times against Houston with at least eight defenders in the box, the most by any player in two years. He gained 118 yards on those carries.

Since he entered the NFL as a second-round draft choice in 2016, Henry leads the league with 568 carries for 2,646 yards and 45 touchdowns against stacked boxes.

“You got to have the mindset if they know it, just make something happen,” Henry said of running against defenses expecting the run. “That’s just us all being tied in and locked in and executing our job and me trying to run hard and make a play. When everybody knows, you just got to go out there and do it.”

The Titans and Chiefs will square off at 7:20 p.m. CST Sunday at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, Missouri. NBC will televise the game.

“A great environment, a real football environment, going to have 80,000 people there yelling at us, but that’s cool,” Willis said. “That’s what you play for. And they have a really good defense, so we just got to go out there and try to execute the game plan.”

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