Fantasy Football Week 5 Start 'Em And Sit' Em: TreVeyon Henderson Vs. Woody Marks

Patriots RB TreVeyon Henderson and Texans RB Woody Marks are both rookie running backs with a lot of upside for Week 5, but which player should win out in a Start 'Em and Sit 'Em decision? Dig in as we look at the usage and matchup stats that will help lead to the right decision for Week 5.

Sep 7, 2025; Foxborough, Massachusetts, USA; New England Patriots running back TreVeyon Henderson (32) rushes the ball against the Las Vegas Raiders in the first half at Gillette Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Brian Fluharty-Imagn Images | Brian Fluharty-Imagn Images

Welcome to our weekly running back Start ‘Em and Sit’ Em decision! 

In this Week 5 article, we’ll be taking a look at whether fantasy managers should be starting TreVeyon Henderson against the Buffalo Bills or Woody Marks against the Baltimore Ravens. Both players are coming off their best games of their short NFL careers, so the arrow is pointing up for each rookie. The only question is which arrow we hitch our fantasy football prospects to this week!

Matt Brandon has his Week 5 Running Back rankings live, but let’s go through the decision and see if we can come up with our own thoughts on Henderson vs. Marks this week.

RB TreVeyon Henderson, New England Patriots

TreVeyon Henderson might have the most upside of any running back selected in the 2025 NFL Draft. However, he also might be part of the murkiest running back room of any running back selected in the 2025 NFL Draft. 

Henderson has more or less split carries with Rhamondre Stevenson and Antonio Gibson for the first four weeks of the season, and hasn’t seen more than 14 touches in a game all season. The past two weeks, however, have seen Henderson’s usage tick upward, and he even found the end zone for his first NFL touchdown last week.

The Patriots will face a Bills team this week that has allowed 108.8 rushing yards per game to opposing running backs (eighth-worst in the league), but has also limited opposing running backs to 15.5 receiving yards per game (third-best in the league). The former stat bears well for Henderson, but the latter stat is a bit of a red flag as Henderson is the best pass-catching back the Patriots have. 

While Henderson has a chance to do some damage against the Bills this week, starting him for fantasy football purposes is a risky proposition as there’s a very realistic world in which he only sees 10-15 touches that require a touchdown to provide any sort of fantasy value. 

RB Woody Marks, Houston Texans

Did we just see a changing of the guard in the Houston Texans backfield? With Joe Mixon still out, Woody Marks has gone from three carries in Week 1 to 17 carries in Week 4. While Week 4 could be an outlier (he only saw three carries in Week 2 and six in Week 3), I’m more inclined to think that the Texans are turning their backfield over to the rookie out of USC.

We can’t completely forget about Nick Chubb as he still saw 13 carries (which tied his season high) in Houston’s Week 4 win over the Titans, so Marks also has his own version of Stevenson and Gibson. 

Marks gets a plus matchup against the Ravens this week as Baltimore has allowed 116 rushing yards per game (fourth-worst in the league) to opposing backs while also allowing 50.3 receiving yards per game (fifth-worst in the league) to opposing backs. Those averages obviously don’t automatically translate to a good game for Marks, but they’re definitely good numbers to factor into our decision. 

The Verdict

While my heart wants TreVeyon Henderson to be the pick here (I’m a Patriots fan and will be happy to be wrong), my head screams that Marks is the right play. Marks has a better matchup and a clearer path to 15-20 touches, so there really isn’t much that steers me into thinking Henderson is the play other than my hopes and dreams.

I’m locking in Woody Marks over TreVeyon Henderson for Week 5.