TreVeyon Henderson looks like the game-breaker the Patriots need

As tempting as it might be when a participant’s expertise is as apparent as TreVeyon Henderson, we’ll do our greatest prudent and sensible and measured right here.

We are going to give no accolades earlier than their time.

That’s a lesson discovered 30 years in the past — sure, it has been that lengthy, and no, my more and more rickety self doesn’t wish to speak about it — when a sure imposing and successfully sarcastic coach tried to mood enthusiasm for a rookie operating again who instantly appeared like a star at a place the place particular expertise turns into obvious in a rush.

On Sept. 3, 1995, Invoice Parcells’s Patriots beat Invoice Belichick’s Browns, 17-14, within the season opener at Foxboro Stadium. The successful landing was scored on a second-effort, 1-yard plunge with 19 seconds left by rookie operating again Curtis Martin, a third-round decide who had been restricted to 2 video games due to an ankle harm throughout his remaining season on the College of Pittsburgh.

(Martin ran for 282 yards and averaged 7.1 yards per carry in these two video games, and ran for greater than 1,000 yards the earlier season, so his expertise was not precisely a thriller. The well being of that ankle was.)

It was an inspiring debut, so naturally, Martin — who busted free for a 30-yard run on the Patriots’ first play from scrimmage, and completed with 102 yards in his NFL debut, essentially the most by a New England rookie in a season opener — was the main target of a lot media consideration within the locker room after the sport.

Parcells, after all, was thrilled by this. “One-game surprise,” mentioned Parcells, strolling by the scrum across the soft-spoken Martin’s locker. “Inform these guys to get out!”

When Martin was nonetheless answering a reporter’s questions when Parcells circled again a couple of minutes later, he barked, “Hey, you don’t have to speak to him for an hour!”

Parcells did his gotta-keep-‘em-humble routine on the podium when requested about Martin’s debut. “I assumed he did an excellent job for a rookie,” he shrugged. “I don’t know. He’s only a younger child attempting to get alongside. He received free on that first run. The play was well-blocked.”

It ought to be famous, significantly for at the moment’s functions, that Parcells had a extra enduring quote about Martin early in his profession, enduring sufficient that my fellow old-timers and middle-aged-timers are most likely reciting it earlier than studying the phrases: “Don’t put him in Canton simply but, fellas.”

The timeframe of this quote is a bit murky — some attributions seek advice from Parcells saying it after this Browns sport. Others attribute it to the preseason. At any time when it occurred, it’s endlessly amusing, contemplating that Martin did make the Corridor of Fame, within the Class of 2012, after an 11-year profession wherein he ran for 14,101 yards and 90 touchdowns.

Martin is the perfect operating again the Patriots have ever had. He’s fourth in franchise historical past in speeding (3,799 yards) regardless of being a Patriot for simply three seasons — he was stolen by Parcells and the dastardly Jets after the 1997 season. He’s additionally the one I loved watching essentially the most — he was powerful and intelligent and shifty, typically flashing strikes that appeared like they got here from Barry Sanders’s NFL Movies highlights bundle.

I’ll at all times surprise why Parcells gave Martin simply 11 carries in Tremendous Bowl XXXI in opposition to the Packers, as a result of nobody appreciated him extra. On reflection, Parcells knew Martin was headed for the Corridor of Fame, good well being prepared, whereas we had been nonetheless heeding that early admonishment.

In my regular got-sidetracked-there sort of manner, that brings us to Henderson. And that previous acquainted feeling that an electrifying operating again is the simplest factor for soccer followers and media to acknowledge, even after they’re attempting or instructed to mood expectations.

This is what we know about Henderson: He was a pressure for nationwide champion Ohio State final season, operating 144 occasions for 1,016 yards and 10 touchdowns whereas averaging 7.1 yards per carry.

We all know the second-round decide has been the Patriots’ greatest participant in coaching camp, whereas packing a number of memorable highlights (together with a 100-yard kickoff return in opposition to the Commanders, and a gritty 10-yard landing run in opposition to the Vikings wherein he ricocheted off a number of defenders) into his two preseason video games.

We all know the Patriots haven’t had a very dynamic playmaker on offense since — I don’t know, Julian Edelman or Rob Gronkowski’s final wholesome Sundays?

And we all know Henderson, along with his breakaway velocity, appears to be like each bit just like the actually dynamic playmaker the Patriots desperately want.

I don’t understand how offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels intends to divvy up touches amongst Henderson, Rhamondre Stevenson, and Antonio Gibson. Nevertheless it’s clear Henderson provides them one thing nobody else has in a very long time: a real game-breaking menace. He’s going to make Drake Maye’s diploma of issue a lot simpler than it was a yr in the past.

Typically you may simply inform {that a} operating again has it. We might inform with Martin 30 years in the past. And also you’d higher imagine we are able to inform with Henderson now.

With apologies to seaside soccer sufferer Robert Edwards, Henderson is the Patriots’ most enjoyable rookie again since Martin, and I count on him to have a debut that spurs the same stage of optimism and perception.

I’m not suggesting his profession will even come near approaching Martin’s, whose excellence whereas establishing longevity was particularly exceptional contemplating the Patriots claimed to be nervous about his well being when Parcells stole him.

All operating backs are an harm threat, after all, and in the event that they do keep wholesome, put on and tear catches as much as them within the open subject round their thirtieth birthday. In case you don’t imagine that, let me remind you that Ezekiel Elliott was in his age-28 season throughout his stint with the 2023 Patriots.

Now, I’m not going to place Henderson in Canton simply but, fellas. After all not. That might be foolish. Absurdly untimely. Let’s let him get an official NFL carry first, possibly even two, after which see how this promising profession builds from there.

However maybe he would get pleasure from a tour of the Patriots Corridor of Fame?

I’m simply saying it may’t harm to not less than get a have a look at the place.