Patriots may have quietly hinted at big offensive change for the rest of 2025

The explosive production by TreVeyon Henderson over the last two weeks has been something the New England Patriots have waited for since he was selected in the second round of this year's draft, even if they were partly to blame for his slow rise. It took an injury to Rhamondre Stevenson to catapult the rookie into the starting role, and the offense benefited from it immediately.

Henderson recorded 33 carries for 209 yards and four touchdowns in the two games Stevenson missed, while adding a receiving touchdown just to make his performance that much better.

He looked every bit the part that fans believed he would be coming out of Ohio State, and they wanted to see that continue despite Stevenson's return this past Sunday.

There were a lot of questions about what the Patriots would ultimately decide now that the starter was back in the lineup, and based on their snap counts against the Bengals, we might have gotten the answer about how the rest of the season will go.

TreVeyon Henderson might have stolen the starting role from Rhamondre Stevenson in the Patriots offense

Because Henderson performed like a top-level running back over the last two games, there were many concerns about the Patriots deciding to throw him on the back burner with Stevenson returning from injury.

That wasn't the case against the Bengals, however, as he was on the field for more than double the number of snaps as the veteran.

This may be a sign of what the offense's future will look like, which, to many, would be the best-case scenario. But there is a chance that they were slowly easing Stevenson back into the lineup as he still nurses a toe injury.

That seems more likely what we're seeing, given their apparent loyalty to him remaining the starter, which will disappoint a lot of fans. There is a chance Henderson will continue to impress, but it will be impossible for them to hand the keys back to Stevenson; we just won't know until we see the pair play more games.

It's clear that Stevenson is the better option in the passing game, so he shouldn't be completely eliminated from the game plan, as some fans have suggested.

But there has been good reason to have Henderson be the primary backfield option, and that shouldn't change unless something catastrophic happens.