The New England Patriots are taking on the Miami Dolphins in Florida tomorrow, and they will be without two of their best offensive weapons. A. J. Brown, who has been battling a knee injury all week, is officially out. TreVeyon Henderson will miss the game due to an illness that has kept him out of practice.
Brown came over from the Philadelphia Eagles in a blockbuster trade this offseason, in which New England sent a 2028 first-round pick and a 2027 fifth-round pick. Since the trade, he has appeared in parts of only three games.
In those three games, he hasn’t been very effective, managing only nine receptions for yards and yet to find the end zone. In the season opener against the Seattle Seahawks, he sustained an ankle injury that forced him to miss four games. He returned to action against the New York Jets on October 18th; he looked rusty and had a couple of big drops. Last week against the Chicago Bears, he still looked unlike himself, catching just 3 passes for 48 yards.
Henderson was the team’s second-round pick in the 2025 draft, and he had a decent rookie season. He carried the ball 180 times for 911 yards and 9 touchdowns. He also caught 35 passes for 221 yards and another touchdown.
This year things haven’t gone as well as many had hoped. Henderson has played sparingly in six games, getting only 52 carries for 203 yards and 1 touchdown. He’s gone from averaging 5.1 yards per carry last season to just 3.9 ypc so far this year.
New England has struggled to find a role for Henderson, with veteran running back Rhamondre Stevenson the clear favorite as the number one option. Earlier this week, head coach Mike Vrabel was asked if we could see Henderson returning kicks, something he did as a rookie.
“That’s probably something that we’ll always consider and weigh the options,”
Even without Brown and Henderson, the 4-3 Patriots head into Miami as 7-point favorites. They will need to win in order to keep pace with the 5-1 Buffalo Bills. Miami is coming off just its first win of the season and would like nothing more than to make New England’s division title chase a bit harder.
