The New England Patriots' opening game is a day away, with a Super Bowl rematch to begin the season. New England starts on the road, taking on the Seattle Seahawks. Something working against the Patriots is that they are potentially going to be down running back TreVeyon Henderson after not practicing again on Monday, September 7, per ESPN's Mike Reiss.
Henderson had a solid rookie season, finishing with 911 rushing yards and 221 receiving yards. He scored 10 touchdowns last season (nine rushing and one receiving). It was going to be interesting to see how Henderson was featured in his second season, but an ankle injury has put his availability in question for Week 1.
Lower body injuries are always worrisome for running backs and how they could linger throughout the season. Given the running back room for New England, Henderson's injury should be a cause for concern.
TreVeyon Henderson injury may cause negative ripple effect for Patriots
Opposite of Henderson last season was Rhamondre Stevenson. Stevenson had a down statistical season with New England last year, finishing with just 603 rushing yards, but he had 345 receiving yards (2nd highest of his career) in 14 games. While Stevenson has his fair share of reasons to be questioned (prone to fumbling), he has at least proven to be valuable before and can be a starting-caliber running back. The rest of the room, however, isn't looking great.
Behind Stevenson and Henderson last season was Terrell Jennings, who was expected to be the third-string running back again this season. Unfortunately, Jennings is out for the season with a knee injury. With an opening at that spot, the Patriots looked for a replacement in the preseason, but couldn't find one. Ultimately, New England traded for Arizona Cardinals running back Corey Kiner.
Kiner has only played four games in his NFL career, registering 12 carries for 58 yards(4.8 average). Obviously, maybe Kiner could surprise us, but if Henderson's injury lingers, the running back room easily becomes the position group I'd be the most worried about. Making things worse is if the offensive line continues their poor play from the playoffs.
The other issue would be that the Patriots could turn Stevenson into a three-down running back and almost exclusively use him. Doing this risks Stevenson's health, and he has his own injury concerns(played in every game only once in his career). Having depth at running back has never been more important, and Henderson's injury puts more pressure on the rest of the offense.
Week 1 won't be easy for New England, playing against a Seattle defense that caused all sorts of issues for them in the Super Bowl. New England did make some additions that should help the offense improve. Hopefully, Henderson's injury doesn't linger and lets the Patriots' offense be 100% sooner rather than later.
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