Henderson’s Absence Turns the Patriots Backfield Into One Job

The New England Patriots ruled out running back TreVeyon Henderson for Wednesday’s season opener at Seattle after he missed every practice since Aug. 24 with an ankle injury. The Tuesday injury report listed him out for the Super Bowl rematch at Lumen Field, a 8:20 p.m. ET kickoff on NBC and Peacock.

Backup center Ben Brown (knee) also is out and did not make the trip. Rhamondre Stevenson becomes the entire plan on the ground against the defense that already took this matchup in February.

Patriots RB TreVeyon Henderson (ankle) ruled out Week 1 vs. Seahawks. pic.twitter.com/9wSfsT37Qs

— NFL (@NFL) September 8, 2026

TreVeyon Henderson Is Out for the Super Bowl Rematch

Henderson, 23, slipped on a run play at practice on Aug. 24, a session Stevenson later described in blunt terms. “Everybody was slipping,” Stevenson said that day. Henderson has not taken a team period since, including all three sessions this week, and the club still let him travel west before shutting the door on Tuesday.

The Patriots drafted him in the second round, 38th overall, out of Ohio State in 2025. He is 5-foot-10 and 202 pounds, and he is listed as a second-year back. The ankle is the same body part Seattle safety Nick Emmanwori is managing on the other sideline, which is the only symmetry in an otherwise lopsided injury week for New England’s offense.

THE ANKLE CLOCK

1. Aug. 24, 2026: Slips on a run play in practice and leaves with an ankle injury.
2. Sept. 6, 2026: Does not participate in Sunday’s work, still on the report with the same ankle.
3. Sept. 7, 2026: Sits again on Monday, then travels with the club to Seattle.
4. Sept. 8, 2026: Ruled out on the final report after a third straight DNP this week.
5. Sept. 9, 2026: Patriots open at the Seahawks without him.

Injury listings have pointed at a Week 2 return, but that is a projection, not a clearance. Two full weeks without a practice snap is a long gap to close against the defending champions.

Four 50-Yard Scores, Then 2.5 Yards a Carry

The regular-season tape is why this ruling lands hard. Henderson led the Patriots with 180 carries for 911 yards and nine rushing touchdowns, a 5.1-yard average that set a franchise rookie mark. He added 35 catches for 221 yards and one score, 1,132 scrimmage yards on 215 touches, and 10 total touchdowns in 17 games with four starts.

He scored four rushing touchdowns of 50-plus yards, the first Patriot to do that in a season, and he is the second NFL player with two games of multiple 50-yard rushing scores in one year, after Chris Johnson in 2009. Those long ones were 55 and 69 yards at Tampa Bay (147 yards on 14 carries) and 52 and 65 yards against Buffalo (148 yards on 14 carries). The 69-yarder was the longest run in the league last season.

The postseason is a different file. Over four playoff games he ran 30 times for 76 yards, a 2.5-yard average, and caught five passes for 33 yards. In Super Bowl LX on Feb. 8, a 29-13 loss at Levi’s Stadium, he had six carries for 19 yards and three catches for 26 yards, 45 scrimmage yards, plus a 38-yard kick return. Seattle missed one tackle on New England’s rushing attempts that night.

HENDERSON AND STEVENSON, TWO SEASONS IN ONE BACKFIELD

He finished third in Associated Press Offensive Rookie of the Year voting and made the PFWA All-Rookie team. Those honors were built on the 5.1-yard season, not on February. The Super Bowl rematch is the same opponent, in the same scheme, with the breakaway back now in street clothes.

The Playoff Snap Chart Already Chose Stevenson

Mike Vrabel’s staff did not wait for an ankle to settle the hierarchy. A July running-back snapshot on the team site noted that Henderson played 31.4 percent of playoff snaps (83) while Stevenson took 70.1 percent. Stevenson started all four postseason games, ran 58 times for 217 yards, and caught 12 passes for 126 yards and a touchdown.

In the Super Bowl he had seven carries for 23 yards and five catches for 40 yards, including a 7-yard touchdown from Drake Maye with 2:21 left. Combined, the two backs ran 13 times for 42 yards that night. The whole offense managed 18 rushes for 79 yards, and Maye’s five carries for 37 yards led the team. New England had two rushing first downs.

Over the last eight games of 2025, playoffs included, Stevenson averaged 5.7 yards on 87 carries, second among NFL backs in that window. He ranked fourth in PFF pass-blocking grade among running backs at 69.9, forced 33 missed tackles, and averaged 3.8 yards after contact. The between-the-tackles work that Seattle sold out to stop in February is the work he is being asked to do again.

I’m ready to go to war with our new group of offensive guys. I’m very confident. I feel like this is one of my better camps, more healthier camps. So yeah, I’m ready to go.

Rhamondre Stevenson, Patriots running back, this week in Foxborough

Stevenson, 28, is in his sixth season, all in New England, at 6-foot and 227 pounds. He ran for 603 yards and seven scores on 130 carries in 14 games last year, caught 32 passes for 345 yards and two scores, and set a career high with nine total touchdowns. He sits at 3,669 career rushing yards, fifth in franchise history. He needs 131 rushing yards to pass Curtis Martin (3,799) for fourth.

Only Corey Kiner Sits Behind Him on the Roster

The second-order problem is not Stevenson’s usage. It is what happens if he needs a blow, or a series off, against a front that just won a title by living in the backfield. The 53-man roster has two healthy running backs, and one of them arrived in a deadline trade.

On Aug. 28 the Patriots sent a 2028 seventh-round pick to Arizona for Corey Kiner and released Hassan Haskins. Kiner is 24, 5-foot-9 and 209 pounds, an undrafted free agent out of Cincinnati who spent 2025 bouncing from the 49ers to the Vikings practice squad to the Cardinals. He played four games in Arizona, 12 carries for 58 yards and two catches for 15 yards. He is now the only other running back on the active roster.

WHO CAN TAKE A HAND OFF ON WEDNESDAY

• Rhamondre Stevenson: The lead back in every down type, including passing downs, after a camp he called one of his healthier.
• Corey Kiner: The 53-man backup, in the building a little more than a week, with four career regular-season games.
• Practice squad: Lan Larison and Hassan Haskins can be elevated, two spots the club can use on game day.
• Reggie Gilliam: The fullback, a Buffalo import, is a short-yardage and lead-block option more than a carry machine.

New England spent last summer with Antonio Gibson as a clear third back. Gibson is gone. Terrell Jennings is on injured reserve. The July snapshot already called the third-back job an open camp fight on special teams. That fight produced a trade instead of an in-house winner, and the trade is now the injury plan for a Super Bowl rematch.

What Henderson’s Absence Changes for Drake Maye

Josh McDaniels wanted more consistent running, not just the long ones that padded a 4.4-yard team average (14th in the NFL) while New England ranked 25th in EPA per rush and in power success. Henderson’s breakaway rate was the third-highest among qualified backs. Those 50-yard scores are the layer that disappears on Wednesday. The Patriots still have Maye’s legs (450 rushing yards and four scores last season) and a new wideout pair in A.J. Brown and Romeo Doubs, but the play-action threat changes when the defense no longer has to honor a 69-yard shot from the backfield.

The hidden trade is pass protection. Team writer Evan Lazar wrote in July that Henderson’s blitz pickup, elite at Ohio State, did not travel as a rookie and limited him on passing downs. Stevenson’s 69.9 PFF pass-block grade ranked fourth at the position. In Super Bowl LX, Seattle sacked Maye six times, intercepted him twice, and won the turnover margin 3-0. Uchenna Nwosu took one of those interceptions back for a touchdown. A one-back plan that keeps the better protector on the field is the one detail of this injury that cuts in New England’s favor.

Maye still has to move the ball without the extra back who stretched the second level. Seattle blitzed him early in February, then sat in a four-man rush that the offensive line could not handle. Taking Henderson off the call sheet does not fix that math. It just means Stevenson, not a 5.1-yard rookie, is the back who has to make the remaining run plays look like passing plays.

Seattle’s Run Defense Did Not Need Extra Help

The Seahawks allowed 3.7 yards per carry in 2025, the lowest mark in the league, and 16.9 points per game, the lowest scoring figure since their 2015 title defense. PFF graded their Super Bowl run defense at 84.9, third among Super Bowl units in the tracking era behind only the 2013 and 2014 Seahawks. They allowed minus-0.196 EPA per run in the regular season, first in the NFL and first among the last 20 Super Bowl teams.

WHAT SEATTLE ALREADY DID TO THIS RUN GAME

• Yards per carry allowed: 3.7 in the regular season, lowest in the NFL.
• Super Bowl rushing: Patriots 18 carries, 79 yards, two rushing first downs.
• Pressure: Six sacks of Maye, one off the Super Bowl record.
• Score: 29-13, with New England’s first points arriving in the fourth quarter.

Kenneth Walker III ran 27 times for 135 yards in that game. Ernest Jones posted an 86.6 PFF run-defense grade. Mike Macdonald’s front can stop the run in split-safety looks, which is why stacked boxes were rare (12.6 percent, second-lowest in the league) and why a one-back, no-breakaway plan walks into the hardest version of this defense.

Henderson’s regular-season edge over Stevenson was real on those four 50-yard scores and thinner on everything else, which is why the playoff snap chart already looked like Wednesday’s depth chart. Taking him out does not flip a timeshare so much as it deletes the one thing Seattle had to account for on the perimeter. The remaining back is the one they already tackled in February, with no second look to keep the linebackers honest.

Nick Emmanwori’s Ankle Is Still a Game-Time Call

Seattle is not fully healthy in the secondary. Safety Ty Okada is out with a hamstring. Emmanwori, the 22-year-old who finished as AP Defensive Rookie of the Year runner-up, is questionable with an ankle after limited work all three days (Tuesday’s listing was an estimate from a walkthrough). He had 81 tackles, nine for loss, 2.5 sacks, 11 pass breakups and one interception as a rookie, then played through ankle sprains into the Super Bowl and had an arthroscopic procedure in the offseason. He has not been a full practice participant since minicamp in June.

Wide receiver Tory Horton (hamstring) is also questionable. Tackle Josh Jones (knee) carries no game designation. Christian Barmore, New England’s defensive tackle, is cleared after a full practice Monday following a load-management sit on Sunday. Brown, a former Seahawk in 2023, remains the backup center who stayed in Massachusetts with a knee sprain from the preseason opener. The starting five on the offensive line is expected to play.

WEEK 1 GAME STATUSES

Wednesday’s opener is the first Super Bowl rematch to start a season in a decade. Stevenson will take the first handoff in a stadium that already measured this backfield, with Kiner as the next man up and Henderson in a cap on the sideline. The Patriots ran for 128.9 yards a game last season, sixth in the league, behind a 14-3 team that got to Super Bowl LX. They will try to do it again without the back who supplied the 69-yard runs that made that average look kinder than the down-to-down tape.