Patriots Predicted to Cut Ties With $36 Million Belichick Pick After Day 2 Move

The New England Patriots held the No. 4 overall pick in the 2025 NFL Draft, and used it on a pick that may not have exactly thrilled Patriots fans, but filled an urgent need. Sophomore quarterback Drake Maye was sacked 34 times in just 11 full games in his rookie season, so the Patriots used their pick to get Maye some solid protection.

New England selected LSU offensive left tackle Will Campbell in the first round. But on Day Two of Friday, the Patriots had a surprise in store. Rather than find more support for Maye in the form of a wide receiver — such as Missouri’s Luther Burden III who tallied 2,263 receiving yards and 21 touchdowns through the air in his three-year career with the Tigers — New England opted to upgrade their ground game.

But in an otherwise disastrous 4-13 season, the Patriots 2024 running attack was one of the more credible aspects of New England’s game. The team’s 1,969 yards were good enough for 13th in the league, one of the few categories in which the Patriots ranked in the top half of the NFL’s 32 teams.

On the other hand, Patriots runners got into the end zone just 11 times, ranking them 25th.

But the Patriots runners had one serious flaw. Of the team’s league-worst 30 fumbles, the Patriots two lead running backs, Rhamondre Stevenson and Antonio Gibson, were responsible for nine of them. Stevenson alone put the ball on the ground seven times — more than any non-quarterback in the NFL.

In the weeks prior to the draft, new Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel expressed support for Stevenson, who was drafted by former coach and general manager Bill Belichick in the 2021 fourth round out of Oklahoma.

“I think Rhamondre and [Antonio] were a good one-two punch. People are going to talk about Rhamondre and putting the ball on the ground and he knows that, but we’ll help them there,” Vrabel said, speaking at the NFL Owners Meeting in early April.

But on Friday, the Vrabel and Patriots executive vice president of player personnel Eliot Wolf engineered a draft pick that appears to designed to replace Stevenson. The Patriots with the 38th overall pick took Ohio State running back TreVeyon Stevenson — a dynamic runner who, according to Patriots.com writer Evan Lazar, “is a loose, explosive mover with breakaway speed and instant acceleration. He’s a blur in the open field with the ability to destroy pursuit angles and fluidity to stop on a dime.”

But perhaps the most intriguing aspect of Henderson’s game, and the one that appears to point toward an exit from New England for Stevenson despite being in the first year of a four-season, $36 million contract extension.

Zero fumbles.

In four seasons for the Buckeyes, Henderson dropped the ball only twice, once each in his freshman and sophomore seasons — and in his entire four-year college career, carrying the ball either as a runner or receiver 667 times, Henderson did not lose a single fumble.

In fairness, Stevenson fumbled only seven times in his first three seasons with the Patriots before matching that total in 2024 alone.

Henderson “is the complete running back who should make quarterback Drake Maye’s life easier. He might also prove to be the sign that Stevenson is on borrowed time in New England,” wrote Jordy McElroy of USA Today Patriotswire. “The team wouldn’t have wasted a second-round draft pick on a player they viewed as a third option behind Stevenson and Gibson.”