- TreVeyon Henderson‘s speed should lead to huge plays: Henderson is among the fastest running backs of the last few draft classes, which should help him in the run and passing games.
- How many carries will Henderson receive?: While Henderson will likely play on third downs, his playing time on early downs could be limited with the New England Patriots.
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Estimated Reading Time: 5 minutes
PFF’s Fantasy Football Player Profile series delivers the most in-depth fantasy football analysis available for the 2025 season.
Using PFF’s exclusive data, we evaluate player performance, competition for touches and how teammates and coaching staffs will impact each player's fantasy football outlook.
Last updated: 7:15 a.m. Tuesday, April 29
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Player performance
TreVeyon Henderson spent the last four seasons as a lead running back for Ohio State. He led the backfield in snaps in three of four years, only missing out in 2022, where he played 10 fewer snaps than Miyan Williams, who graded higher than Henderson early in their careers. However, injuries cost Williams most of 2023, allowing Henderson to take a big step forward in his career. While he seemed destined for an even more significant role in 2024, Quinshon Judkins transferred to Ohio State, forming a championship-winning backfield.
Henderson was an elite runner when the situation was in his favor. He ranks among the top 20 fastest running backs in the FBS from the last eight seasons, according to PFF's tracking data. This meant he could shine if given room to run. Henderson has the most significant gap between how much better he plays on gap runs compared to zone, finishing with a 96.3 career grade on gap plays compared to 85.7 against zone. His speed also helped him to an excellent rate of breakout runs in his final season.
While a few other running backs in the class have more experience as a receiver, Henderson has shown more flashes than most. Henderson graded well the last two seasons despite relatively low target shares while competing for targets with future NFL wide receivers.
Projected role
Henderson finds himself in a crowded backfield that struggled to produce last season, in part due to the offensive line. The Patriots' runners averaged 0.7 yards before contact per carry, which was the lowest in the NFL.
Rhamondre Stevenson is the incumbent starter who has had issues with ball security and pass protection. Stevenson has a 90.0 rushing grade over the past. He is unlikely to play in passing situations going forward with Henderson and Antonio Gibson on the roster. Stevenson didn’t have a problem with fumbles in the first three years of his career, and most of his fumbles occurred in the first four weeks last season. Fumbles aren’t consistent from one season to the next, so that shouldn’t be a major problem this season.
Antonio Gibson has similarly been a well-rounded running back in the NFL. He received the highest rushing grade and lowest receiving grade of his career last season. Gibson could still have a role in the offense, but they may not have drafted Henderson had they been happy with both of their backs.
Henderson was always projected to be a receiving back first, and he is likely to play on third downs almost immediately. How many touches he sees on early downs will depend on the coaching staff and how well Stevenson is playing. One area we shouldn’t expect to see Henderson is at the goal line. He wasn’t seeing many goal-line touches at Ohio State, even before Quinshon Judkins arrived. Stevenson is one of the bigger backs in the league and will likely receive most of the goal-line opportunities.
Impact of teammates
Josh McDaniels is the new Patriots offensive coordinator after spending two years as the Las Vegas Raiders head coach, over a decade as the Patriots' offensive coordinator under Bill Belichick, a brief stint as the Denver Broncos head coach from 2009 to 2010, and serving as the St. Louis Rams‘ offensive coordinator in 2011.
Throughout McDaniels’ coaching career, he has consistently utilized a committee at running back. In 18 years as a head coach or offensive coordinator, there has only been one season where the back leading the team in carries was also the back receiving the most third-down snaps. The exception was in 2011 with three-time Pro Bowl running back Steven Jackson. His last running back was Josh Jacobs, who received more third-down snaps before McDaniels arrived and after McDaniels left than when McDaniels was there.
McDaniels has often turned to three-back committees. His last year with the Patriots was 2021, where Stevenson and Damien Harris were used on early downs, and Brandon Bolden was used on third downs. His third-down backs have, at times, been fantasy-relevant, including James White in 2018 and Shane Vereen in 2014. Still, those teams were Super Bowl champions that had Tom Brady at quarterback, throwing to Rob Gronkowski and Julian Edelman.
Given McDaniels' history, we seem destined for a three-back committee that could feature a lot of big plays by Henderson but not enough touches. Henderson fits closest as the team’s third-down back, while Stevenson plays on clear run situations and Gibson plays on other early downs. The one bright side with McDaniels is that his offenses have been on the extreme with how little they use zone concepts, which should help Henderson when he’s running.
While the Patriots had the lowest team run-blocking grade last season, they’ve taken some steps to improve. This includes selecting Will Campbell with the fourth overall pick and bringing in veterans Morgan Moses and Garrett Bradbury. Both Moses and Mike Onwenu had down years last season compared to previously in their career. It seems unlikely the line will be average next year, but they’ve hopefully done enough not to be in last again. Henderson was generally good even when the offensive line wasn’t great, so the line might not be as big of a liability for Henderson as it is for the other running backs.
Bottom line
Henderson is arguably one of the most talented rookie running backs. Still, it will take Josh McDaniels changing a decades-old philosophy at running back for Henderson to see enough touches to be relied on.
Footnotes
- Statistics in tables and charts were chosen based on their ability to predict future fantasy performance on a per-game or per-opportunity basis or to describe the player relative to others at the same position.
- “Opportunities” are defined as passing dropbacks, rushing attempts and routes run as a receiver.
- Numbers are provided either by season or based on the past three years. For rookies, only college statistics are included. For non-rookies, only NFL statistics are considered, regardless of whether they played in college within the previous three years.
- As college competition is easier than NFL competition, most rookies are likely to see a decline from their historical numbers.
- Only FBS data is considered for college players and comparisons.
- Kneel-downs are removed from rushing data to provide cleaner quarterback rushing rate statistics.
- The table colors in this article range from blue (indicating good/high) to red (indicating bad/low).
- All percentiles and color codings compare the given player to others with a high sample of opportunities. Generally, the cutoff is one-third of the possible opportunities in the sample. If a player does not meet the threshold, they are still included in the comparison, though their results may appear better or worse than expected due to the smaller, less predictive sample size.
- Information on utilization classifications and their importance can be found here for running backs, wide receivers and tight ends.
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