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Should you draft TreVeyon Henderson or Kaleb Johnson in 2025 dynasty fantasy football rookie drafts? John Johnson breaks down the profiles and landing spots for Henderson and Johnson.
New England Patriots running back TreVeyon Henderson and Pittsburgh Steelers running back Kaleb Johnson were selected in the second and third rounds of the 2025 NFL Draft by their respective teams. Both running backs put up impressive statistical production in their final seasons of college.
Yet they are very, very different as prospects, and many dynasty fantasy football managers who are interested in taking a running back in the early rounds of their rookie drafts might be having trouble deciding whether they should draft Henderson or Johnson.
Of course, their ADPs are different, so that will be taken into account in the conversation. Perhaps you aren't in a spot to draft the higher-ranked of these two players, but that's where trades come in! We'll evaluate everything below, don't worry. So, should you draft Henderson or Johnson in rookie drafts in 2025?
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TreVeyon Henderson Fantasy Football Outlook
I have a hard time not believing that those who drafted Henderson won't be disappointed within his first season as a Patriot. New England retained their starting running back from last season, Rhamondre Stevenson. It takes a large hit of hopium to genuinely believe that his fumbles last season will cause him to lose his job.
Stevenson will be in the first year of the four-year extension that he signed ahead of the 2024 season. He's signed with the team through the 2028 league year, and the Pats don't even have a solid way to exit the contract without consequences until after 2026.
I know Rhamondre Stevenson has a fumbling problem, but he'll be on the first year of his 4 year deal in 2025. The team can't get rid of him until after 2026 unless they want a solid dead cap hit. TreVeyon Henderson is being drafted like he'll be a workhorse back, but I doubt it. pic.twitter.com/zR7ZXrDbtM
— JohnJohn Analysis (@JohnJohnalytics) June 3, 2025
In addition, while Henderson had workhorse usage with the Ohio State Buckeyes in his freshman season back in 2021, he really hasn't had anything like it since. Last year, he shared a backfield with RB Quinshon Judkins and operated as the primary pass-catching back. He only averaged nine carries per game.
Could he operate as a workhorse in the best-case scenario? Maybe. I'm not super confident in that analysis, though. Sure, Henderson's ACL injury might have been the reason he never returned to being a bell-cow back, but he has just six instances of over 20 carries in 47 career games.
This is by biggest issue with TreVeyon Henderson. Just doesn't play well through contact. It's a part of his game he can work on, but it should be a problem his rookie season. Great analysis by Angelo. https://t.co/w4qVvlTfq6
— JohnJohn Analysis (@JohnJohnalytics) April 12, 2025
I really, really don't think the Patriots plan on using Henderson as a workhorse back any time soon, and the biggest reason is that he's just not a great player through contact. He's at his best in open space, where he can leverage his elite top speed, and as a pass-blocker, but not a between-the-tackles runner.
Drafting Henderson at his ADP, as the RB4 and sixth player overall, is risky. It's interesting that Denver Broncos running back RJ Harvey has finally flipped Henderson in ADP, at least according to FantasyPros. Harvey is a much, much better pick to make, because he's set to be a workhorse back and is more elusive than Henderson.
Watch the burst and acceleration here when TreVeyon Henderson clears those blocks at the 35-yard line
Hits the gap, then pulls away pic.twitter.com/tAU1Fb7DOJ
— Alex Barth (@RealAlexBarth) April 26, 2025
In order for Henderson to be worth drafting at his ADP, I fear that the Patriots will need to execute some of the league's best run-blocking schemes and get him the ball over and over again in screens with good blocking ahead of him. Henderson needs space to accelerate to utilize his speed properly.
That's a tall order for New England, who had the worst offensive line group by a wide margin in the NFL last season. Henderson would have to break off multiple huge plays each season as part of the committee he'll be in. I'm not very interested. He's just too expensive.
Kaleb Johnson Fantasy Football Outlook
At least there are positives for Henderson. The only thing Johnson did that impressed me was put up big numbers in the BIG 10. That was only impressive before I looked at the tape. Johnson is the most fraudulent RB prospect I've seen in all my time watching football, and it's really not close.
I was shocked to learn how highly people thought of Johnson after breaking down his film, but that's what big production does -- it funnels people into thinking they need to draft players who are, in reality, absolutely terrible. Johnson has gargantuan red flags, screaming sirens, and warning signals on his tape.
Pause most of his big runs and see how much green grass he has in front of him. Iowa's offensive line and run blocking were insane. pic.twitter.com/tLezUglVN9
— JohnJohn Analysis (@JohnJohnalytics) March 20, 2025
Many fantasy football managers might see the above run and think I'm drawing the wrong conclusion about Johnson. Why am I punishing him for having good run-blocking? Sure, he had the best run-blocking of any team in the Power 4 conferences last season. But is that really a bad thing for him?
Kaleb Johnson with good run-blocking vs. Kaleb Johnson with average run-blocking vs. Kaleb Johnson with the best run-blocking of any Power-4 school. 2023 Johnson is probably the Johnson you're getting in the NFL, so you should really consider staying away. pic.twitter.com/ryEAnDPToO
— JohnJohn Analysis (@JohnJohnalytics) June 3, 2025
Well, yeah, it's a terrible thing, because we saw what a Johnson without elite run-blocking looked like in 2023, and it was absolutely, completely unremarkable. That's unsurprising, considering Johnson is a terrible athlete -- he ran a 4.57-second 40-yard dash, tied for fifth-worst among RBs at the 2025 NFL Combine.
He also logged a 1.62-second 10-yard split, which was tied for the worst among all running backs. The poor athleticism really shows up on tape. Unfortunately, many are fooled by the elite run-blocking opening up such gaping holes for him and allowing him to get to full speed at the line of scrimmage with few impediments.
My biggest problem with Kaleb is that when the offensive line doesn't open up big holes for him, he does basically NOTHING. He's praise for his vision, but he can't even try to bounce this one outside. The correct play is to follow No. 85 and try to make the 1st defender miss. pic.twitter.com/PU2bnTc8Ro
— JohnJohn Analysis (@JohnJohnalytics) March 20, 2025
I haven't noticed this for any other RB prospect hyped as much as Johnson, but it was truly shocking how I could simply open up one game's worth of tape and find between five and 10 absolutely disqualifyingly horrific reps from Johnson. He plays with such little juice.
He's slow, has awful vision, and is a horrendous tackle-breaker on film. The stats look good, but the film shows that many of his missed tackles weren't even remotely strong attempts. The one clip of him staying upright while a horrible tackler hangs off of him has everyone convinced this isn't true. But one highlight play can be remarkably misleading.
For how much he's praised for his tackle breaking, Kaleb Johnson seems to go down every time he's tripped. Just get a hand on his leg and you can bring him down. OL opens up a huge hole that could've been a massive run here. pic.twitter.com/gbzjyHTJ17
— JohnJohn Analysis (@JohnJohnalytics) March 20, 2025
I've seen mountains of excuses for Johnson's inability to break trip attempts, as if that won't be a MASSIVE problem at the next level. The NFL doesn't really care about these excuses. Johnson, in my mind, is set to be a gargantuan bust and one of the worst fantasy football picks in rookie drafts of all time.
There is no reason to select him. He's a horrible athlete and a horrible running back, even though he put up big numbers at Iowa courtesy of his offensive line. Without incredible volume, incredible touchdown luck, or an elite offensive line, it's hard to see him paying off at his ADP of RB6.
Should I Draft Henderson Or Johnson?
Regarding Johnson, I would recommend that you avoid him as if he's the second coming of the plague. My analysis has led me to believe that he's one of the most overrated running back prospects in years, and his poor skill set will make it incredibly difficult for him to succeed at the next level.
Regarding Henderson, while I think he's a more talented player, I just can't be swayed at his ADP. It's too high. He's a fantastic athlete and great as a pass-catcher, but he's set to enter a committee backfield for at least his next few seasons, and his through-contact skill set is lacking. I'd look elsewhere.
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