Pats Pulpit
Antonio Gibson’s 2025 season is over. The veteran running back, who left the New England Patriots’ win over the Buffalo Bills on Sunday night, reportedly suffered a torn ACL and will be out for the foreseeable future.
The injury is a bad break for the 27-year-old, who served as a valuable member of the Patriots’ running back rotation this season and also worked as the team’s primary kickoff returner. Let’s analyze what Gibson’s season coming to an end just five games in means for both those spots and the team as a whole.
Including Gibson, the Patriots currently have three running backs on their active roster plus another on their practice squad. With him set to move to injured reserve, however, the overall depth chart will be down to three options: Rhamondre Stevenson and TreVeyon Henderson as the top two at the position and Terrell Jennings as a depth piece and potential candidate to be promoted to the 53-man team.
In theory, a trio of Stevenson, Henderson and Jennings could be sufficient to survive the season. However, there are major questions attached to all three at this point in time.
Stevenson has had issues holding onto the football, losing three fumbles already this season on just 51 total touches; Henderson has looked every part the rookie he is and needs more time to develop into the do-it-all back his skillset suggests he could be; Jennings has yet to prove himself in the NFL after arriving as a rookie free agent last year. However, all three of them — especially Stevenson and Henderson — will be under pressure to help replace Gibson’s relatively limited but nonetheless important contributions.
Of course, the team could also opt to bring in another RB to help bolster the depth chart. That said, any additions at this point in time should likely not be expected to seriously change the complexion of the group.
Once removed from the 53-man roster and sent to injured reserve, Gibson will become the third running back and fourth backfield player overall to be shut down for the rest of the season. Before him, rookie Lan Larison and third-year man Deneric Prince already found their way to IR. In addition, fullback Brock Lampe also will not be back this year.
Besides those three, New England also has offensive linemen Yasir Durant and Layden Robinson, defensive lineman Isaiah Iton and cornerback Marcellas Dial Jr. on injured reserve. Linebacker Jahlani Tavai was also part of that group to start the season, but he became the first Patriot to return from IR on Saturday.
On Sunday against the Bills, the Patriots turned to Rhamondre Stevenson to fill Gibson’ role as a kickoff returner. In addition, they also continued having TreVeyon Henderson lining up deep as another candidate to field kicks. Both might factor into the mix as well moving forward, but one has to wonder how willing...
