Patriots mailbag: Should TreVeyon Henderson keep starting running back role?

The Patriots are riding a seven-game winning streak heading into Thursday Night Football against the Jets Let s answer your questions in this week s mailbag nepatriots Should TreVeyon be above Stevenson on the depth chart moving forward Will he Patriots fans and fantasy football managers are going to absolutely despise me for this but no I think Rhamondre Stevenson should regain his starting role when he returns from his toe injury I do believe TreVeyon Henderson has shown that he deserves a bigger role than he had in the first eight weeks of the season but outside of the explosive plays the Patriots have really struggled to run the ball between the tackles in the two games Stevenson has been out On non-explosive plays the Patriots averaged less than a yard on carries against the Buccaneers The Patriots still need Stevenson s power and blitz pickup and Henderson is ostensibly best utilized as more of a change-of-pace back until he improves in pass protection and between-the-tackles running jonothorpejazz This season has been fantastic but I still don t feel great about matchups against the Bills Chiefs Ravens in the playoffs how do you feel about it I just don t want to get cocky or overly optimistic this early in a new regime I think that s fair and I also think it s fine to think that way Patriots fans should enjoy this season for what it already is Their success has been a surprise and I m still not thinking about a Super Bowl run right now It feels too early If the Patriots literally beat teams like the Bills Chiefs and Ravens in the playoffs that s great but I don t think it should be expected Missing the playoffs at this point would be a massive disappointment but anything else is gravy DanaKChilds Other than Maye s massive second year leap what has been the biggest surprise to you that s fueled the turnaround That s tough between the success of the offensive line and the performance of the wide receiver corps I guess I would say the offensive line has been a bigger surprise Maye has been sacked a lot but only a fraction of those have been the offensive line s fault Will Campbell and Garrett Bradbuy have exceeded expectations so far BillKn wsBest Borregales a guy you can trust He has been since Week BOSunofficialGM What do you think the priorities are for the Pats in their next draft Should they even care about position to an extent or just draft best available Positionally my priority list would be OL Edge ILB TE CB WR Drafting as late as they will be in the first round drafting the best available performer while weighing certain positions is the best method The Patriots still need more youth depth at wide receiver tight end center right tackle edge linebacker and cornerback If I were to rank those positions I would go edge offensive line wide receiver cornerback tight end and linebacker given the age and contract situations of current players on the roster tsk The draft class is by the numbers likely one of the worst ever by any association with all but two players having been cut in a little over one season So would you rather keep the class as is or redraft entirely picking none of the same players Obviously no Drake I would keep the class as is if that means Drake Maye is on the roster It s kind of funny because the Patriots draft class was also pretty terrible outside of Tom Brady Maybe that s the key to hitting on a franchise QB jpas The Pats had a really high hit rate on their lower dollar free agents Tonga Chaisson etc How sustainable is that year over year I would say not very sustainable but it speaks to the Patriots pro scouting to be able to identify those players sign them to lower-cost contracts and get more out of them than expected Here s what head coach Mike Vrabel declared about signing Chaisson on Tuesday Smitty outside linebackers coach Mike Smith came back with his review I kind of came back with mine and I was like Alright he plays hard he s got a few speed and it looks like he tries to finish And that s what jumped off the screen was the effort and the speed Let s see if they can have similar success next offseason Jsalerno When do you think they lose again Obviously there could be a trap match somewhere here in the next three weeks against the Jets Bengals and Giants but the Patriots also have been amazing at avoiding those over their seven-game winning streak The next real likely loss on the schedule is after the bye in Week against the Bills The Patriots have a tough two-week stretch there against the Bills and Ravens genenowak Why isn t Chism getting snaps as WR He looked great in preseason The rest of the wide receiver corps is playing too well Who are you taking snaps away from Mack Hollins has led the gang in receiving in two of the last three weeks DeMario Douglas led the association in receiving in Week Stefon Diggs is their best wide receiver Kyle Williams made a huge play against the Buccaneers And when healthy Kayshon Boutte is one of the NFL s best deep threats So Chism stays on the bench for now BrayallPatrick Bradbury has a hip injury would their run offense benefit from Brown starting As long as everyone can suit up I m not messing with the offensive line right now Bradbury hasn t been perfect at center He struggled at times in Sunday s win over the Buccaneers against defensive tackle Vita Vea but as a whole Bradbury has played much better than anyone anticipated this season and he has a strong rapport with Drake Maye