Amid calls to expand his role in the offense, TreVeyon Henderson played a season-low nine snaps in the New England Patriots' Week 7 win over the Tennessee Titans. Fan responses to his rapidly declining role have ranged from shock to frustration to the question "who is Terrell Jennings?"
Head coach Mike Vrabel is in the business of winning football games, though, not in pleasing fans. He and the coaching staff will continue to do what they think is most prudent for this offense. And in Vrabel's defense, fans should not have been surprised to see Henderson barely touch the field. Vrabel had given us fair warning.
TreVeyon Henderson Clearly Lacks Mike Vrabel's Trust
While Patriots fans may have become accustomed to getting no real information from press conferences during the Bill Belichick era, Vrabel and his staff are a little more open. And it wasn't too hard to piece together some trends in the Henderson comments throughout the week.
Running back coach Tony Dews expressed some concerns around Henderson's ability to adapt to the shift from preseason to regular season play. Vrabel's comments that he'd "like to have (Henderson) get going on kickoff returns" rang hollow when special teams coordinator Jeremy Springer clarified Henderson wasn't about to start returning kicks again.
Nobody on the coaching staff sounds excited about Henderson at this point, and none of them even tried to pretend they think the rookie needs to be more involved in this offense. If anything, the team seems to be actively working to get the first-year RB less involved. Here's how his offensive snap share (percentage of offensive snaps played) and rush share (percentage of the team's running back carries he recorded) have evolved by week:
Week | Snap Share | Rush Share |
|---|---|---|
Week 1 | 35.2% | 38.5% |
Week 2 | 31.7% | 15.8% |
Week 3 | 45.9% | 50.0% |
Week 4 | 30.6% | 31.8% |
Week 5 | 50.0% | 31.6% |
Week 6 | 29.7% | 40.9% |
Week 7 | 13.8% | 8.0% |
This decrease is especially eye-opening when you consider the Week 7 workloads of the other second-round running backs from the 2025 NFL draft:
- Quinshon Judkins, Cleveland Browns: 64.9% (89.3% rush share)
- RJ Harvey, Denver Broncos: 24.7% (22.2% rush share)
- TreVeyon Henderson: 13.8% (8.0% rush share)
The decline in Henderson's workload is obvious, and with the team sitting at 5-2, there's not much reason for the coaches to start changing things up.
Henderson's Role Unlikely to Increase as Long as Patriots Keep Winning
Leading the AFC East with a win over the Buffalo Bills, the Patriots have already blown away the expectations that most fans and media members had entering the season. The schedule has been relatively easy, but they're proving themselves to be a real threat not only in the AFC Wild Card picture, but in the divisional race as well. And while "don't mess with success" is probably a little more simplistic an approach than an NFL team is actually taking, it's also going to be a factor for Henderson.
It's not like Rhamondre Stevenson has been especially good this year, but the offense is certainly clicking well enough with him. And Henderson has done nothing to show that the offense is better off with him involved. Consider his splits in the Patriots' wins compared to their losses:
Snap Share | Rush Share | |
|---|---|---|
Wins | 30.9% | 25.2% |
Losses | 40.7% | 45.7% |
When things aren't working, they've been willing to give Henderson a shot, and he hasn't capitalized. When things are going well, there's less incentive to change away from the personnel having success.
The Terrell Jennings Situation
One thing that is worth noting in this situation is what shouldn't add to the panic around Henderson. Terrell Jennings matched Henderson with nine offensive snaps on offense and even out-rushed Henderson, 5-2. But anyone raising this as a genuine concern either didn't watch the game or is just trying to be inflammatory to get attention.
Jennings, who has played more special teams snaps (13) than offensive snaps (9) since making his debut last week, was not a part of the offense for any meaningful snaps. He didn't play until there were less than six minutes left in the 31-13 blowout. Four of his five carries came on the final drive, with Joshua Dobbs at quarterback. Two of his nine snaps were kneeldowns.
Henderson's role may not be a big one at this point, but he does still remain the unquestioned RB2, and with the Patriots' reported disinterest in trading for more running back help, he's in absolutely no danger of losing it.
The looming question will be what happens if the Patriots' offense starts to sputter or Stevenson slows down again. Will the coaching staff change their tune and start featuring their rookie, or will they look to the trade market for outside help? Hopefully we won't need to learn that answer.