Derrick Henry says leaving the Titans was ‘bittersweet.’ For the first time, he gets to face them.

Join the huddle. Sign up here for Ravens updates in your inbox.

After eight seasons, four Pro Bowls and five 1,000-yard seasons, the Tennessee Titans “shipped” Derrick Henry out, the running back joked Wednesday.

The Ravens star said he could see the writing on the wall last season, so it wasn’t a surprise when they didn’t extend him an offer at the end of his contract. Even so, ahead of his first game against his former team, Henry said it’s “all love” between him the team that drafted him.

“It was bittersweet,” he said. “Good things don’t last forever, so it was time for me to find a new home. And I know with that home, what I wanted it to be, and it was here.”

Even while he was with the Titans, Henry knew he wanted to play with Lamar Jackson.

General manager Eric DeCosta has said before that they tried to trade for Henry. When that didn’t happen, Henry was prepared for free agency. He knew exactly where he wanted to go: wherever Jackson was.

With his mobility, Jackson takes the pressure off a running back, Henry said, and it’s allowed him to find success beyond what he was able to do for the Titans in his final three years with them.

Henry rushed for 1,927 yards in his first year as a Raven. It was the second-best season of his career, and it came at age 30, four seasons after his career high of 2,027 yards.

Last year, he rushed for 1,595 yards, his third-best season. He also broke both NFL and Ravens records along the way.

In the last two years, the Ravens have not faced the Titans. Perhaps if they had, Henry might have felt more strongly about this upcoming game, he said.

But since he’s now in his third season as a Raven, he said it feels like it’s been a long time since he was a Titan.

“It’s a whole different logo,” Henry said. “They got a whole different thing going now. ... That’s why everybody been texting me, talking to me about it. I’m like, I’ve been here, this is my third year here.””

But two years and some change does not erase eight years of history or the gratitude for the team that drafted him.

“It’s going to be a crazy moment to be playing against the team that I came in the league playing for,” Henry said. “But I ain’t trying to make too much of it.”

He’s been hearing about it, though, from one of the Titans’ security guards, Jeff, whom he keeps in touch with. He has been texting Henry about it for the last two weeks, which Henry said was funny.

To Henry, the storyline is as much or more about the location than the opponent. They haven’t won at M&T Bank Stadium since Week 12 of last season.

“Obviously, we’re playing Tennessee, the franchise I used to play for,” he said. “But we’re 0-4 in our home stadium. That’s got to be the key emphasis.”