My theory for TreVeyon Henderson's poor usage: Terrible production running between the tackles

At Ohio State, Quinshon Judkins handled most of the A/B gap run duties. Henderson was very bad (among the worst in the class) at forcing missed tackles, gaining YAC, and creating explosive plays on inside runs.

This has pretty much translated to the pros. A-gap runs are between the center and the guard, B-gap runs are between the guard and tackle. On A/B-gap runs, here's how Henderson has done through 5 games:

->14 attempts, 38 yards, 2.71 yards per carry (RB51/55, minimum 10 A/B-gap runs)

->0 rushes of 15+ yards

->64.3% Stuff Rate (RB54/55). A stuff here is defined as any run that doesn't result in a 1st down or touchdown, gains less than 4 yards on first down, or gains less than 3 yards on any other down. Basically a measure of if the run is actually decent.

->Zero missed tackles forced. On those 14 attempts, he hasn't broken a single tackle. On film, this tracks. He always goes down with meaningful contact.

->1.14 Yards After Contact per attempt on these runs. That's last in the league among 55 RBs by a healthy margin. The 2nd lowest is Tyler Allgeier with 1.39.

->42.1% YAC % (i.e. percentage of yards that come after contact

As a side note here, Henderson has carried the ball 32 times and forced 3 missed tackles, all on outside runs, for a 0.09 MTF/Att rate, which ranks 37th of 46 RBs with 25 or more total carries.

I know Rhamondre fumbles, and it's really bad, but with Henderson, you're averaging less than 3 yards per rush with a guy that simply does not break tackles. They've tried running him up the middle with zero success. It's a running back's job to create yards by forcing tacklers to miss and gaining extra yards. Henderson simply does not do that.

There are other good running backs that struggle in these areas, but they're being used much more, and we typically see efficiency regress once volume goes up. Henderson has done nothing to justify the team giving him more work between the tackles, and you need those runs to be a workhorse back.

Rhamondre Stevenson on A/B-gap runs:

->3.43 YPC (RB38/55)

->4.3% Explosive Rush Rate (RB22)

->56.5% Stuff Rate (RB46)

->0.30 Missed Tackles Forced per Attempt (RB2) <-- This is key. Stevenson forces a missed tackle on 30% of his inside runs on average. He simply creates more with these plays and doesn't go down with first contact so easily.

->2.48 YAC/Att (RB16)

->72.2% YAC% (RB9)

On average, Stevenson is gaining around 1.34 extra yards per inside rush than is Henderson, and it really isn't a fluke. And he has nearly double the percentage of his yards after contact in comparison to Henderson.

Henderson is an explosive athlete. That's pretty much it though. He plays horribly through contact, pretty much always goes down when he's hit with a decent tackle attempt that's not an arm/hand tackle from a defender that's out of position, and doesn't have good receiving volume.

Perhaps his pass catching role could improve if he improves his pass blocking, but I'm of the opinion that he's incredibly unlikely to get much work in between the tackles this season.