Who Will Lead The Patriots Backfield, Rhamondre Stevenson Or TreVeyon Henderson?
Ian Hartitz ponders the debate as to whether TreVeyon Henderson or Rhamondre Stevenson will lead the New England Patriots backfield.
The question rang out repeatedly last season: Why isn't TreVeyon Henderson getting the ball more? The fantasy community wanted to know, especially when he had a great stretch of games when backfield mate Rhamondre Stevenson was out with an injury. Will the touches be more evenly split in 2026? Ian Hartitz breaks it down as part of his New England Patriots Team Preview.
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Are both Patriots running backs good clicks at cost?
- RB1: TreVeyon Henderson (RB26 in Fantasy Life ranks)
- RB2: Rhamondre Stevenson (RB27)
- RB3: Lan Larison
- RB4: Jam Miller
TreVeyon Henderson's up-and-down rookie campaign still featured him showing off some tantalizing big-play upside with 17.6 PPR points per game (RB7) during Weeks 10-18 last season. The problem was that New England saw this and in their most important games of the season, largely just told the rookie to get nice and comfy on the bench.
Rhamondre Stevenson was also the de facto lead back more often than not before the playoffs, but out-touched Henderson 162-to-158 in their 14 regular-season games together. The slightly reduced usage down the stretch could have been a case of "can't get the genie back in the bottle" after some of Henderson's big games, or maybe the Patriots were simply playing it safe with Mondre coming off his turf toe injury.
Because that's the thing: As much as fantasy nerds and virgins are dying to see Henderson's explosive pass-catching skill set put to use in a bigger role, you can't exactly blame the Patriots for leaning into the Stevenson experience. After all, those silly numbers tell us that he was kinda sorta one of the best running backs in the league last season.
The pass-game prowess was also very much in Stevenson's favor, despite this being the main calling card of Henderson's game coming out of THE Ohio State University. Among 43 qualified RBs:
- Yards per target: Stevenson (9.3, 1st), Henderson (5.3, 31st)
- Passer rating when targeted: Stevenson (123.5, 2nd), Henderson (96.5, 22nd)
- Receiving success rate: Stevenson (59.5%, 1st), Henderson (47.6%, 18th)
- PFF pass blocking grade: Stevenson (67.6, 5th), Henderson (23.6, 39th)
Stevenson isn't exactly a spring chicken these days (28), but a TreVeyon takeover sure looks unlikely should the veteran manage to play anywhere close to as well as he did last season. And hey, this is reflected in current Fantasy Life Projections:
- Henderson: 163 rushes, 43 targets, PPR RB25
- Stevenson: 163 rushes, 37 targets, RB27
The reasonably split projections thus make it a bit tough to wrap the mind around the current ADP that features Henderson (RB21, 50.8) going more than two rounds earlier than Stevenson (RB28, 75.1). We saw the captivating big-play ability and associated fantasy upside from Henderson in Year 1—and it's legal for young players to improve and earn more playing time in their second season—but it'd certainly be a lot cooler if the Patriots' perhaps overqualified No. 2 RB wasn't going ahead of so many starters in good offenses like D'Andre Swift and Bhayshul Tuten.
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