Wednesday Patriots Notebook: A Couple of Surprising Trends
Injuries caused some interesting changes and other notable Patriots numbers after Week 18.
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Clearing out the notebook following Sunday’s finale:
1) Looking at the Patriots Snap Totals over the final couple of weeks, it’s been interesting looking at the defensive side of the football, where Marcus Jones has seen a dramatic drop off in playing time.
That drop off has come largely due to the fact that New England has been more linebacker heavy in recent weeks. With Robert Spillane sidelined with an injury, it’s led to more action for Jack Gibbens, with both Chad Muma and Marte Mapu seeing more action as New England has clearly been trying to be a little better against opponents’ ground games.
With Spillane out of the line-up, the Patriots have struggled against the run and it definitely feels like they’ve been trying to fill his absence with additional personnel.
Spillane sat out the Bills game in Week 15, where Buffalo’s James Cook put up 107 yards on 22 carries (4.9 avg) along with two touchdowns, which played a role in Buffalo coming back after being down 21-0.
Following that game was when the personnel began to shift, which saw an uptick at that position.
Patriots w/4+ LBs on the Field:
Week 11: 33/57 (57.8%)
Week 12: 27/65 (41.5%)
Week 13: 37/55 (67.3%)
Week 15: 60/70 (85.7%)
Week 16: 47/55 (85.4%)
Week 17: 39/62 (62.9%)*
Week 18: 33/56 (58.9%)*
*Patriots were playing with the lead.
In the finale against Miami, the strategy was a little different as they ended up with three defensive linemen out there for 69.6% of the plays, which was the highest total of the season. On Sunday, Jahlani Tavai also appeared to be the one eating into Jones’ playing time, with Tavai also having seen in uptick in playing time with Spillane sidelined.
The hope is that Spillane might return in time for the postseason. New England did get some help after Milton Williams returned and played 28 snaps (50%) on Sunday. However, Spillane’s absence has definitely been notable these last few weeks, and based on the numbers, the club has seemingly been trying to do some things to fill the hole he’s left behind.
2) It’s a little crazy that TreVeyon Henderson finished his rookie season with 911 rushing yards, essentially 89 yards shy of a potential 1,000 yard season. He scored 10 times, with 9 coming on the ground, along with one receiving touchdown.
Overall, he totaled 1,132 offensive yards in 2025, which was 17.5% of the Patriots overall total net yard total of 6,449 they finished with this season.
For a player who never really felt like he got into a consistent groove running the football, his rushing total is pretty staggering. Granted, 200+ of that came on runs of 50+ yards, which he ripped off four of this season, including one that went for a 69 yard touchdown.
69 yards (TD) – Week 10 at Buccaneers
65 yards (TD) – Week 15 vs Bills
55 yards (TD) – Week 10 at Buccaneers
52 yards (TD) – Week 15 vs Bills
The rookie broke two runs of 50+ yards in two games in 2025, which added his name to the record books after becoming just the third player in NFL history to accomplish that feat. He’s also just the ninth player in NFL history to have four or more 50-yard rushing touchdowns in a single season.
Those four carries alone accounted for 241 yards of his final total, and overall, the rookie accounted for six of the club’s 10 longest Patriots rushing plays of the season.
While Henderson finished with 35 carries for 221 yards and a touchdown in the passing game, New England was never quite able to get him open in space. He averaged just 6.3 yards per reception, among the lowest of all Patriots receivers, with his longest reception of 2025 being for 19 yards.
That’s surprising for a player as explosive as he is, and it remains an area where they’ll likely continue trying to improve on.
For now, it’s an impressive start for a player who hopefully has some big moments still left in him in the coming weeks.
3) One of the best stories of 2025 has been Rhamondre Stevenson’s comeback after a rough start to begin the season.
Stevenson had issues with ball security at the start of the year, losing a fumble three times through the first five games of this season. That included two against the Steelers in Week 3 and contributed to a 5 turnover performance, costing them a game they likely could have won.
But give him credit. After losing one more against Buffalo in Week 5, Stevenson hasn’t fumbled since and he’s been tremendous.
He finished the 2025 season with 130 carries for 603 yards and seven rushing touchdowns, along with 32 receptions for 345 yards and two receiving touchdowns.
That puts his all-around total for 2025 at 948 yards and 9 TDs.
He’s been heating up in recent weeks, with the veteran finishing Sunday’s game with 131 yards rushing, along with two rushing and one receiving TD. He also finished with the third-longest run of the season on the ground for New England on Sunday, which came on a 56-yard carry in the first quarter.
Head coach Mike Vrabel has remained supportive of Stevenson throughout his issues, and has given him credit for how hard he’s worked when it comes to picking up the blitz in the passing game.
His playing time has reflected that, as Stevenson has been out there for 69% of the plays on third down this season.
With Stevenson on the field on third down, Maye’s completed 65.1% of his passes this season with 8 touchdowns, compared to just 59.1% when the running back hasn’t been out there.
Stevenson was named AFC Offensive Player of the Week following Sunday’s performance. Like Henderson, the hope is that he’s also got some big plays still to come when the Patriots kickoff their postseason run this weekend.
4) After leading the team in playtime percentage this season, Garrett Bradbury got leap-frogged by a teammate on Sunday.
Bradbury, who had been the only player to not miss a snap heading into Week 17, was among players who enjoyed being a spectator during both the end of that game against the Jets and this past weekend over Miami.
However, it actually led to one of his teammates surprisingly moving ahead of him for the season.
Mike Onwenu jumped in front of Bradbury in offensive snaps on Sunday after Bradbury again sat down to enjoy the victory.
Onwenu was out there for 14 additional plays, joining Ben Brown as the only other offensive lineman to stay out there after both Drake Maye left the field at the beginnng of the fourth quarter.
Bradbury, Will Campbell, and Morgan Moses each joined him, while Onwenu remained out there and finished the game.
Those players played 45 of the 59 overall snaps, which helped Onwenu jump ahead of Bradbury for 2025.
Onwenu finished the regular season with 1082 offensive snaps (98.9%), while Bradbury ended up with 1072 (98%).
Bradbury has also become one of the nice surprises of the season, which is pretty cool considering that he was among the biggest question marks heading into this season.
Instead, he’s anchored the center position and has definitely been one of the big reasons behind Maye’s terrific sophomore season.
5) In case you missed it, the Patriots finished the 2025 regular season second in the NFL in scoring, which is a massive jump from where they finished last season.
In 2024 they finished 30th in the NFL in points with 289, while in 2025 they ended up with 490.
The Rams finished first in the NFL with 518 points.
New England also finished the season at the top spot in first half scoring, having scored 296 points, ahead of Dallas (269), Rams (257), and Lions (257).
Overall, here’s a breakdown:
2025 Scoring By QTR:
Q1: 122
Q2: 174
Q3: 104
Q4: 90
Total: 490
2024 Scoring By QTR:
Q1: 58
Q2: 82
Q3: 40
Q4: 109
Total: 289
Obviously, it’s a big turnaround from a year ago and a lot of that credit has to go to offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels for his work with helping Maye become one of the top quarterbacks in the NFL.
We’ll see how things play out in the coming weeks, but for a team that was anemic as it was in both 2023 (236 points) and 2024, it’s certainly been one of the more pleasant surprises this season.
The Patriots made a couple of transactions to begin the week, releasing defensive back Brandon Crossley from their practice squad, while bringing back Jeremiah Pharms to that unit.
Pharms had previously been released ahead of Milton Williams’ return last week but cleared waivers, and he’s now back in the fold.
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I believe Tonga playing this week between Milton/Baremore is a key for NE. Tonga did not practice Wednesday. Oye!
If Tonga is in between Milton & Baremore, and they are stopping the Chargers run game, it allows the Pats D to play more nickel/dime coverage scheas the chargers play 3 WR, 1TE, 1RB a lot. The Chargers throw the ball to all those positions.
The pats haven’t had their starting 3 DT’s together in awhile. I would wager that’s why you saw additive LBs etc. Very interesting to see the injury report status on Tonga/Spillane/Landry.