TreVeyon Henderson vs. Rhamondre Stevenson: Solving the Fantasy Football Debate in New England

The New England Patriots return both running backs from their Super Bowl LX roster, and fantasy football managers have to pick one. Well, you can pick both but you don't want to put all your fantasy eggs in one basket.

Rising second-year back TreVeyon Henderson carries a consensus half-PPR average draft position of 48th overall, the RB22 off the board. Rhamondre Stevenson goes 74th as the RB31.

That is a gap of 25 picks, or about two rounds in a 12-team league. The gap between the two in speed, explosive runs and long touchdowns is much wider than two rounds.

I think we can all agree that Henderson is the better option, hence why his ADP is what it is. But drafting is about mixing ceiling plays, like Henderson, where upside is the priority, versus floor plays, like Stevenson, where you want the safer or more established player.

Rhamondre Stevenson's 2026 fantasy value

Stevenson played 14 games with 13 starts in 2025. The Oklahoma product ran 130 times for 603 yards and seven touchdowns, caught 32 passes for 345 yards and two more scores and set a career high with nine total touchdowns. He missed three games with a toe injury and still reached 948 yards from scrimmage.

The 227-pound back was efficient on the ground. He averaged 4.6 yards per carry and 3.8 yards after contact per attempt and forced 33 missed tackles.

Drake Maye makes a play to Rhamondre to pick up 55 yards!

NEvsMIA on CBS/Paramount+https://t.co/HkKw7uXVnt pic.twitter.com/LlK74q7x5G
— NFL (@NFL) September 14, 2025

Over the final eight games of the season, including the playoffs, he averaged 5.7 yards per carry on 87 carries. He had 12 plays of 20 yards or more (seven runs & five catches).

Stevenson is the better blocker of the two right now. Head coach Mike Vrabel said at the start of camp, "I love the way that Rhamondre protects." That trust showed up in the postseason (real life, not fantasy) when Stevenson played more than twice as many snaps as Henderson across four games.

TreVeyon Henderson's rookie season, Next Gen Stats speed

New England drafted Henderson 38th overall in 2025. The Hopewell, Virginia native played all 17 games and led the team with 1,132 combined yards, 10 touchdowns and 35 catches on 215 touches. He ran 180 times for 911 yards and nine scores and averaged 5.1 yards per carry, seventh in the league.

The 5-foot-10 back scored four touchdown runs of 50 yards or more. That tied Saquon Barkley for the most by a rookie since 2000, and no other player had more than two in 2025. His 69-yard score was the longest run for the Patriots since Sedrick Shaw went 71 yards in 1998.

.@TreVeyonH4 full extension 😳 pic.twitter.com/xd0xaI36pZ
— New England Patriots (@Patriots) July 30, 2026

Next Gen Stats clocked Henderson at 22.01 mph on a 55-yard touchdown run against Tampa Bay in Week 10. That was the fastest mark by a Patriots ball carrier since 2018, the fastest by any rookie in 2025 and the fifth-fastest by any ball carrier in the league that season. He ran a 4.43 40-yard dash at the combine.

Henderson also forced 30 missed tackles as a runner and produced the third-highest rate of explosive runs among qualified running backs.

Why TreVeyon Henderson is the better fantasy football pick in 2026

Henderson has already shown what happens when the touches arrive. Stevenson missed Weeks 9 through 11, and Henderson logged at least 51 offensive snaps in each of those games and ranked third in fantasy points scored among running backs during that span, behind only Christian McCaffrey and De'Von Achane.

From Week 9 through Week 18, setting aside an injury-shortened Week 16, he averaged 15.3 carries, 85 rushing yards and 18.9 fantasy points in full points per reception scoring, sixth among running backs in points per game over that window.

The one real argument for Stevenson is blitz pickup.

New England Patriots running back Rhamondre Stevenson (38) runs against the Seattle Seahawks during the second quarter in Super Bowl LX. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Vrabel was asked about that recently and said, "I don't think protection is ever going to be 100%." Henderson named it as his own priority in June, saying, "The biggest thing I want to continue to develop, blocking and just during this time running routes out of the backfield, catching the ball out of the backfield."

On Day 4 of camp, he came across the formation to pick up a backside rusher, which gave quarterback Drake Maye time to complete a pass to tight end Hunter Henry.

Pass protection is a technique that coaches drill every day, while a 22.01 mph top speed is not something a coach can install.

Henderson costs about two rounds more than Stevenson in half-PPR leagues and scored like a top-six back the last time he handled a full workload, so taking him a round ahead of his average draft position is a fair price.

Ultimately, when you get to the fourth round of your fantasy draft, do you need the upside of a player like Henderson?

New England Patriots running back TreVeyon Henderson (32) warms up before an AFC Divisional Round game against the Houston Texans. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Players disappear, and second-year slumps happen. Meanwhile, Stevenson has been steady and sometimes steady is good.

I would love to take Henderson as my third running back if I were using an RB-heavy or robust-RB strategy. Absorbing a down year from the former Ohio State runner is much more palatable if he's my flex rather than my team's top option at the position.

On the other hand, if I faded RB early and need a reliable RB2 or RB3 in Round 7, Stevenson would be a great fit.

This backfield presents a great opportunity to think about roster construction, and while predicting outcomes is more art than science, it's important to sift through the sands of the game to discern how any and every player can fit into a strategy. Henderson is better; the eyeball test says as much, but that doesn't negate Stevenson's fantasy value.

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