Four players were not spotted during the New England Patriots’ first open organized team activity of the spring. Among them was running back Rhamondre Stevenson, who missed the session as well as previous workouts for personal reasons.
As reported by ESPN’s Mike Reiss, Stevenson’s father, Robert, had passed away at age 54 in March. The Las Vegas native limiting his time at the Patriots’ facility, especially during the voluntary portion of the offseason, is more than understandable given the circumstances — a perspective also expressed by head coach Mike Vrabel on Tuesday.
“We’re extremely excited to have him with us,” Vrabel said about Stevenson. “I’ve been in constant communication with him. Obviously, our thoughts and prayers with him and his family as they heal and they grieve. I want to be a part of that to help them and get to know him. I met him early on and then he went back, and now those conversations have just been over the telephone.”
A fourth-round draft pick by the Patriots in 2021, Stevenson developed into a valuable player for the team early in his career. After gaining over 3,000 scrimmage yards and scoring 15 touchdowns in his first three seasons, the team awarded him with a four-year, $36 million contract extension last June.
However, his 2024 season was one of considerable ups and downs. While he did score a career-high eight touchdowns and finished with 969 yards from scrimmage — ranking first on the team in both categories — he also averaged his lowest yards per carry (3.9) and fumbled on seven separate occasions, including in four straight games to open the season.
Despite those issues, the Patriots continue to show belief in the 27-year-old.
“He’s going to be a large part of what we do,” said Vrabel. “We’ll just have to determine where he’s at when he’s back here.”
One area of Stevenson’s game left a particularly positive impression on New England’s first-year head coach. Vrabel, whose team spent a second-round selection on fellow running back TreVeyon Henderson in this year’s draft, pointed toward the effort shown by the fourth-year man in 2024.
“When you start to evaluate this season and you watch the effort that he played with when he didn’t have the football, he played extremely fast without the football,” Vrabel said. “His ability to step up and protect is taking care of a teammate. It’s protecting the guy with the ball. He did that on numerous occasions. You always saw him downfield when he didn’t have the ball.”
With Stevenson absent, the Patriots have five pure running backs present at offseason workouts. Besides the aforementioned TreVeyon Henderson, the room also consists of Antonio Gibson, Terrell Jennings, Trayveon Williams and undrafted rookie Lan Larison.