The Patriots already have a few stars in place, but the next wave could be even more important as they try to keep building on the progress they’ve made. Drake Maye and Christian Gonzalez have already become central pieces, and the additions made since the Mike Vrabel era began have given New England more high-end talent to work with.
A.J. Brown, Milton Williams, and Kevin Byard are already proven names.
Brown owns six 1,000-yard seasons and three All-Pro selections. Williams has been a force since landing the largest contract in team history last offseason.
Byard reached his third All-Pro after leading the league in interceptions for the second time in his career.
But if the Patriots are going to keep stacking wins and stay on top of the AFC East, they’ll need more players to climb into that superstar tier in 2026 and beyond. Three names stand out.
TreVeyon Henderson is the obvious one. New England took him with the 38th pick in 2025, the first time the team used a second-round pick on a backfield player since Shane Vereen in 2011.
His season started slowly. Through the first seven weeks, he averaged only 6.1 carries per game, had just one game with 10 or more carries, and managed 3.6 yards per carry with one touchdown.
Then things began to turn. In Week 5, Henderson logged 10 carries for 75 yards, only the second time all year he reached double-digit attempts. From the Browns game through the end of the season, he topped 10 carries in nine of 10 games, with the lone exception coming against the Ravens, when he left after five carries because of an injury.
Over his final 10 games, Henderson averaged 75.8 rushing yards per game, scored eight rushing touchdowns, and ran for more than 5.5 yards per carry. His receiving role stayed limited, though he did catch his first career receiving touchdown against the Jets in Week 11.
With another year in the system, he could be headed for a top-five rushing season. If you stretch that 75.8-yard average over a 17-game schedule, it comes out to 1,288 yards, which would have ranked sixth in the league and ahead of both Jahmyr Gibbs and Christian McCaffrey.
Jared Wilson is another player set up to take a big step. Last season, he was forced to play left guard, but that won’t be the case in 2026. After Garrett Bradbury was traded to the Chicago Bears, the Patriots moved Wilson to center and brought in Alijah Vera-Tucker on a three-year deal to handle the left guard spot.
Wilson entered the draft with plenty of buzz as the top center in the class and a top-50 talent, but he didn’t come off the board until Pick 95 in the third round. Next Gen Stats still graded him as the most productive center in the class at 82/99, the most athletic center at 96/99, and the best overall center at 82/99. His rookie year wasn’t special, but he finished strong, avoiding a sack over the final five weeks and posting two clean games.
He may not get the same attention as the other new pieces on the offensive line, but Wilson should benefit from the reshuffling around him. With Vera-Tucker to his left, Mike Onwenu to his right, and a return to his natural position, the Patriots should be expecting solid center play from the Georgia alum, much like they did for years from another Bulldog, David Andrews.
Carlton Davis rounds out the group. His first season in New England was uneven after he signed a three-year, $60 million deal last offseason.
The hope was that he would give the Patriots steady play opposite Gonzalez, but that didn’t always happen. In the regular season, he allowed a 61.8% completion rate, gave up 427 yards and four touchdowns, and was flagged nine times.
He did not miss a game.
The postseason told a different story. Davis tightened things up over four games, allowing a 50% completion rate and 88 yards while drawing four penalties, three of them against the Texans in the divisional round. In that same game, he picked off two passes, his first and second interceptions of the season.
Now he gets another year in Zak Kuhr’s system, and that matters. His first season had its rough patches, but the Patriots have seen players settle in after a rocky start before. With Gonzalez on the other side and Byard helping clean up the back end, Davis has a real chance to carry that postseason form into 2026 and make a leap in Year 2.
In Other News...
Patriots Have A Chance To Fix Their Biggest Defensive Question Fast
As the Patriots sort through their roster before training camp, the biggest defensive question remains the same one that has hovered over the group for much of the offseason: where the pass rush is going to come from. There are reasons for concern all over the depth chart, from DreMont Jones to Harold Landrys rehab, while KLavon Chaisson is gone and Gabe Jacas still remains unsigned, leaving New England with more uncertainty than answers on the edge.
One possible fix has surfaced in the trade market, where a veteran pass rusher who is reportedly looking to move on from Arizona has been floated as a fit for New England. The idea is simple enough for a team trying to get ahead of a problem fast, especially if the price lands around a future third-round pick, but for now it remains exactly that - a proposal, not a deal, with the Patriots still weighing whether to solve the issue through a trade or keep their options open elsewhere. [Read more 🡒]
Mac Jones Just Confirmed Patriots Fans Were Right About 2022 Chaos
Mac Jones has added a new layer to the story of how the Patriots offense unraveled after Josh McDaniels left following his rookie season. What looked from the outside like a simple coordinator change quickly turned into a much messier setup, with Bill Belichick stepping into the offensive mix alongside Matt Patricia and the whole operation losing the clarity a young quarterback needs.
The result was confusion that bled onto the field and helped push the offense into a spiral that led to more coaching changes down the line. For Patriots fans who lived through that stretch, Jones account does not so much rewrite the season as confirm how unstable it felt, and it helps explain why the organization kept searching for a fix long after the damage was done. [Read more 🡒]
Patriots Fans Wont Like Whos Being Linked To Super Bowl Prep
Seattle fans are still enjoying the afterglow of Super Bowl LX, but the conversation around how Seattle prepared for New England has taken on a strange twist. On The Dan Patrick Show, Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald said the team had help from someone with a conflict of interest during its buildup to the title game, a remark that immediately sent speculation in a few directions.
Macdonald did move to cool off one of the biggest theories, saying the adviser was not Bill Belichick, even as the mystery around the role lingered. For Patriots followers, it is another frustrating footnote to a game Seattle won with Kenneth Walker III taking MVP honors, and it adds a little more intrigue to a matchup that already left New England looking for answers. [Read more 🡒]