The New England Patriots are one of the two most recent Super Bowl finalists. Despite this, coach Mike Vrabel knows they can do much more in a key area: the rushing attack.
“We want to be more consistent running the football,” Vrabel said, per MassLive’s Karen Guregian. “This isn’t like we’re going to run it every single play. It’s just that I felt like there were too many times where we wanted to run it, and it was just inefficient.
“Now we popped some, which was great. We had some explosives. … But I want to be able to do it more consistently to allow for some of the run actions in the passing game to really come alive. It’s a tough league if you have to sit there and drop back and throw the football as much as we did in the last game of the season.”
The Patriots were sixth in rushing yards in the regular season and ranked 13th in yards per attempt. Definitely, Vrabel will have a lot of work ahead if he wants to improve these statistics.
Mike Vrabel of the New England Patriots.
Two key rushers for New England
In the 2025 season, the Patriots’ backfield was led by the duo of Rhamondre Stevenson and rookie TreVeyon Henderson. Stevenson concluded the regular season with 603 rushing yards and 7 touchdowns on 130 carries, while also proving his versatility with 345 receiving yards and 2 scores.
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Meanwhile, Henderson made an immediate impact by tallying 911 rushing yards and 9 touchdowns on 180 attempts, adding 221 yards through the air. Despite a dominant 14-3 record and a Super Bowl LX appearance, Vrabel demanded even greater efficiency from his ground game to ensure New England remain the AFC’s physical benchmark in 2026.
Drake Maye hands off to Rhamondre Stevenson.
Opportunities to strengthen the Patriots’ backfield
With the goal of once again winning the AFC East and returning to the Super Bowl for revenge, the New England Patriots will have 11 opportunities in the upcoming draft to continue strengthening their roster:
- Round 1: Pick 31
- Round 2: Pick 63
- Round 3: Pick 95
- Round 4: Pick 125
- Round 4: Pick 131
- Round 5: Pick 171
- Round 6: Pick 191
- Round 6: Pick 198
- Round 6: Pick 202
- Round 6: Pick 212
- Round 7: Pick 247
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