After losing Antonio Gibson to a season-ending injury, the thought was that the New England Patriots might start unleashing second-round pick TreVeyon Henderson more.
Henderson entered the 2025 campaign with as much hype as any rookie in the NFL after an impressive offseason. However, through six games, Henderson’s role hasn’t matched the hype.
The rookie hasn’t seen more than 11 carries in any game and has been on the field for just 38% of the snaps. Rhamondre Stevenson has been the clear lead back for the Pats despite his fumbling issues, and Gibson had a big enough role to siphon off even more snaps from the rookie.
In a recent article from ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler and Dan Graziano, Fowler offers up a trade rumor that is bad news for Henderson. Fowler reports that the Patriots are thought to be in the market for a running back ahead of the deadline.
“Team execs have also pegged the Patriots among teams that could look to add a back in the coming weeks,” Fowler said.
One reason the Patriots haven’t utilized Henderson more is his pass protection woes, something head coach Mike Vrabel pointed to recently.
“Well, we practice it. I mean, you have to practice it, and again, we believe in TreVeyon. We’ve seen him protect a bunch in college, identifying who to block, then going to close the distance, coming to balance, not catching and all those things that are important. So, we’ll give him the tools, we’ll practice with him, he’s willing and I’m confident that that will continue to improve,” Vrabel said.
Adding another running back would be the opposite of a ringing endorsement for Henderson and would only further show the Pats don’t trust him.
Granted, we wouldn’t expect New England to make a significant addition at the position, but any addition would amount to yet another hurdle Henderson must jump to get more playing time.
