The Rave Reviews for TreVeyon Henderson Keep Rolling in and I'm Here for All of Them

One of the great storytelling devices ever invented in the Unreliable Narrator. Think Tyler Durden in Fight Club or Patrick Bateman in American Psycho, leading you to believe in their version of events until the objective truth is revealed an you realize you've been spoon fed the ravings of a lunatic the entire time. 

I mention this because there's not a man, woman or child among us that hasn't been our own Unreliable Narrator this time of year. The first impressions you get from a rookie in preseason are often about the most undependable you can have of anyone, short of being 12 beers and a couple of shots into your night in a dimly lit bar. And like then, we've all gotten burned a few times falling in love too soon. 

As a matter of fact, in both scenarios, I've made a bit of a career out of doing exactly that. As my mid-20s and this little waste of 100 bucks will attest:

But sometimes, you just know. To a moral certainty. Where the talent on display is just too obvious to ignore. Certainly it happens with a lot of 1st round picks. But gets exponentially harder with each round after that.

To go way back, to 1995, Curtis Martin was a 3rd rounder who immediately showed he could get something out of nothing and a lot of out a little right from the start. Though I'm relying solely on memory because preseason stats from that era are hard to come by. In 2010, it was Rob Gronkowski, who produced a league preseason high four touchdown catches, including one against the Rams where he dragged LB James Laurinaitis 14 yards like a sled dog. 

Well it seems as though unmistakable Draft Day 2 greatness returns to the Patriots on a regular basis. It's like cicadas coming back in 17 year cycles, only this case it's every 15 years. Because 30 years after Martin and 15 years after Gronk, there's TreVeyon Henderson. Who didn't just announce his arrival with authority on his first professional touch:

… he's put the entire football world on notice. From the betting markets:

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… to the Fantasy punditry class:

… to the national media:

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… to the Analytics geeks. Through two games, Pro Football Focus has Henderson graded fourth among all running backs in overall offense, fifth in run grade, and sixth at his position in receiving among all backs with four or more targets.

Perhaps just as impressively, TVH's (I don't know if he would answer to this airport-like abbreviation; I'm just workshopping it for now) skill set has Josh McDaniels adding new schemes to the offense he's been mastering for 20 years. From Evan Lazar on Patriots.com - 

[O]ne possible schematic shift in this iteration of the McDaniels offense is incorporating more outside zone run schemes rather than the downhill/gap runs we are accustomed to seeing from McDaniels … smash-mouth football. …

Henderson's touchdown run was an excellent blend of patience and burst. It's so rare for a young running back to remain poised behind his blocks to wait for a crease to form, and then Henderson did the rest with his acceleration and contact balance to run through tackles. …

 Henderson is so much fun to watch.

There is no lie in these words. Henderson himself would agree. Sort of:

Combined with Will Campbell's performance through two fauxball games:

It's quite possible that the 2025 Patriots got more out of the first 38 picks than some Pats draft classes have yielded over the course of like, four years. (See 2019-22.)

I say again, first impressions can lead to some really unreliable narration. But if I'm wrong about TreVeyon Henderson, then the entire world is wrong. 

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PS. I'm just not going to buy a Henderson No. 32 jersey. I've cause enough damage to enough careers with that.