TreVeyon Henderson

TreVeyon Henderson finished his rookie season as the number 21 running back in total PPR scoring and the number 25 running back in PPR per game. Here's the fun part — that ranking undersells how good the football was. Henderson stepped into a committee with Rhamondre Stevenson in a Patriots offense that finished first in the league in total offensive expected points added, and he emerged as the lead back by volume, by efficiency, and by trips to the end zone. He played all 17 games, racked up 911 yards on the ground at 5.1 a pop, and added nine rushing touchdowns plus a receiving score on a Patriots team that went 14-3 and rolled to the Super Bowl. The fantasy ranking lagged the real-football impact because this was a true split backfield — and when Henderson hit, he absolutely smashed.

Now let's dig into the numbers, because they explain why a 5.1-yards-per-carry rookie landed at the number 25 running back in per-game scoring. Volume is the headline: 180 carries and just 42 targets across 17 games, with Stevenson siphoning 130 carries and 37 targets when healthy. The efficiency was real — Henderson finished with 149 rushing yards over expected, plus 0.9 per attempt, tenth among qualified runners. He saw a stacked box on roughly 31 percent of his carries and still beat expectation. But the week-to-week profile was boom-or-bust: 12.1 PPR per game, with seven games under 8 points, including a 0.5 dud against Tennessee and a 2.2 against Baltimore. The ceilings were spectacular — 28.0 against Tampa Bay, 32.3 against the Jets, 30.1 against Buffalo in Week 15 — and those three explosions accounted for nearly half his fantasy production. Win you a week, vanish the next.

The play that captures the season came in Week 10 at Tampa Bay. Fourth quarter, 1:43 left, second and nine, Patriots up 21-16, ball at their own 31. Henderson took it left end and ran 69 yards untouched to ice the game. That single carry was worth roughly six expected points — and it's the perfect snapshot of his year. The explosive gear was elite, the home-run touches were league-winning, and four of his nine rushing scores came from 50-plus yards out. When the lane opened, nobody caught him.