The consensus RB1 of the 2025 draft was Ashton Jeanty. Boise State's do-everything back went sixth overall to the Raiders — the highest running back pick in years — and the pre-season narrative was that Las Vegas had landed a foundational offensive piece. Thirty-two picks later, the Patriots quietly took TreVeyon Henderson out of Ohio State at #38.

By January, the "consensus" looked wrong. On every efficiency metric that matters, Henderson was the better rookie back in 2025 — and it wasn't close.

Table of Contents

• The topline: same touchdowns, better everything else
• Efficiency: Henderson tied for the class lead in rushing EPA/play
• Context: was Henderson just riding a better offense?
• What the Patriots actually got at pick #38

The topline: same touchdowns, better everything else

Here's the head-to-head, straight from 2025 regular-season play-by-play:

Henderson finished with more rushing yards on 57 fewer carries. He matched Jeanty's ten total touchdowns despite touching the ball less as a receiver, and he did it while running behind an offense the No. 6 overall pick would probably kill for.

Read the yards-per-carry line twice: 4.70 vs 3.65. That's not a rounding-error gap — that's more than a full yard per attempt, sustained over 200+ carries each. On the explosive end, Henderson had six runs of 20+ yards to Jeanty's three, with a long of 69 yards to Jeanty's 64. Jeanty had more 10+ yard runs (24 to 19), but Henderson generated bigger plays on lower volume.

Efficiency: Henderson tied for the class lead in rushing EPA/play

If you rank every 2025 rookie running back with at least 100 carries by EPA per rush, the top of the list looks like this:

Henderson and Hampton are separated by 0.0013 EPA per rush — a functional tie — and Henderson got there on 68% more volume than Hampton (210 carries vs 125). Jeanty finished dead last of the nine rookie RBs with 100+ carries, at −0.244 EPA/rush. That's the least efficient rushing profile in the entire rookie class, by a wide margin, on the most carries.

Success rate tells the same story: Henderson moved the sticks on 39.0% of his carries, Jeanty on 31.8%. Every RB on the leaderboard above beat Jeanty in success rate too.

Was Henderson just riding a better offense?

Rookie backs live and die by their offensive line.

the Patriots' offense was better than the Raiders' offense. That's not in dispute, and it helps Henderson's counting stats. But the Raiders' team run EPA/play was −0.260 and Jeanty's individual rush EPA was −0.244, meaning Jeanty was actually slightly better than the Raiders' overall run game. The Patriots' team run EPA/play was −0.003, and Henderson beat that at −0.013 (essentially matching it). Both backs performed roughly at their team's run-game baseline; Henderson's baseline was just three orders of magnitude higher.

The more important point: EPA-per-play already controls for down, distance, field position, and score. Jeanty didn't just have worse blocking — he generated worse outcomes than league-average on the plays he was handed, at higher volume than any rookie in the class.

What the Patriots actually got at pick #38

• Henderson led all 2025 rookie RBs with 100+ carries in rushing yards (987) and yards per carry (4.70).
• He essentially tied for the best rookie rushing EPA per play (−0.013), and did it on nearly double Hampton's carry load.
• He matched the consensus RB1 in total touchdowns while trailing him by 57 carries and 15 targets.
• His EPA/rush was 0.231 points per play better than Jeanty's — an enormous gap at the position.

None of this makes Jeanty a bust after one season — usage, blocking, and role all matter, and rookie samples are noisy. But on the efficiency numbers that predict future production, Henderson — not Jeanty — looks like the actual RB1 of the 2025 class.