The 2025 NFL Draft has come and gone with new faces in places. Depending on your Dynasty Fantasy Football league settings, you may have only a few days -- or hours left to go before your rookie drafts. Some of you may already be on the clock in a slow draft and debating which rookie you want to select from the 2025 NFL Draft class. Some of these decisions are tougher than others and we're going to start tackling a few of them here. Earlier, I did a deeper dive into some of the draft prospects selected on Day 3 of the NFL Draft who could serve as Dynasty gems later in your rookie drafts -- you can find that here. Today, we'll look at one of the toughest decisions a Fantasy Football manager has to make in the middle of the first round of his rookie draft -- Ohio State running back TreVeyon Henderson or .. fellow Ohio State teammate and running back Quinshon Judkins.
I was faced with this exact decision in our CBS Sports Fantasy Football Today (and friends) YOLO Dynasty rookie draft recently. I grabbed Henderson but it wasn't without a second thought. Henderson was my RB3 overall in this draft class before the NFL Draft and Dave Richard's pre-draft scouting report shines light as to why:
Henderson has evolved into a speedy, make-you-miss running back with upside tied to third-down development and endurance. No doubt his game will work in the NFL, but for his career to be a huge success, a team will have to commit to using his playing style as a regular component of their offense, not a part-time feature. Today's NFL is littered with backs like Henderson who get a large share of touches without the heavy snap workload, and any team that takes Henderson with a top-50 pick will likely see him in that mold. If he struggles in such a role, a team could always scale back his reps further and use him as a part-timer.
My evaluation on Henderson is a bit more bullish than Dave. Parsing through the All-22 film of Henderson at Ohio State, dating all the way back to his early age breakout season with the Buckeyes (a great indicator of future success) has me projecting him as a future every-down back. Henderson was my highest-graded running back in pass protection behind Syracuse's LeQuint Allen and that should make him a favorite for the new Patriots coaching staff. The objective is to keep Drake Maye upright at all times. Henderson's passing downs prowess goes beyond that. At Ohio State, he fluidly produced on a variety of routes as a receiving option out of the backfield. He reminds me some of Jahmyr Gibbs in his ability to impact the passing game but also to make big plays in the run game on a variety of schemes -- he has the one-cut burst for an outside zone play but can also dart in and out of confined spaces in the tackle box to operate behind power/gap blocking plays.
Henderson has a more complete profile than it appears if you just look at his size and the fact that he shared a backfield with Judkins in his final season at Ohio State. He averaged 7.1 yards per carry in 2024 and 6.4 over his career -- twice he led the Big Ten in this metric. He is an explosive big play Fantasy threat in the run game, pass game, and complete passing downs profile every coach dreams of because he can block, run routes, and is a natural hands catcher.
The appearance of a profile that is more likely to receive a workhorse role at the NFL level is one of the key factors for those who draft Judkins ahead of Henderson. Judkins operated in a workhorse role at Ole Miss before transferring to Ohio State in his final season. With that said, Henderson proved he too could operate in that role before Ohio State brought in Judkins. As Jacob Gibbs broke down in the Fantasy Football Today newsletter, "Henderson logged a snap rate above 70% in 10 games prior to Ohio State emulating the Jahmyr Gibbs-David Montgomery approach in 2024, and he handled that workload well. Henderson averaged 22.6 touches and 128 scrimmage yards in those games. Three of those games came as a true freshman at Ohio State, and Henderson logged 22, 27, and 29 touches across those games."
For more excellent data nuggets and film observations on the rookie class, you need to sign up for Jacob Gibbs' Fantasy Football Today newsletter:
Although I've already waxed poetic about Henderson, one of my favorite prospects in the entire class at any position, I can't leave this debate without mentioning the NFL fit. Henderson joins a Patriots offense that just hired Josh McDaniels to run the offense. McDaniels has a history of getting the most out of his running backs in the pass game. Henderson could be headed for a lot more targets -- specifically designed targets (screens, swings, wheel routes) than any back in this class if he proves he can translate his gaudy pass protection production to the NFL level.
While I am certainly in the camp of drafting Henderson over Judkins, a case can be made for the latter landing in a better spot. The Browns can be argued as having the advantage on the offensive line, with their blocking scheme and commitment to the run game (plus past success of Kevin Stefanski offenses in the run game) and in role. Judkins faces less competition than Henderson, even after the Browns selected running back Dylan Sampson later in this draft class.
Judkins' skill set isn't without merit of its own. Judkins has a history of handling the workhorse role, as mentioned earlier, and here are the numbers behind it. Judkins had 289, 293, and 216 touches at SEC and Big-10 programs.
In Fantasy Football, I've long argued that touchdowns and scoring opportunities are often overlooked by managers. Last year, this led me to rank Derrick Henry at least 20 spots overall higher than my colleagues. Simply put, I didn't understand how a Ravens offense that allowed Gus Edwards to produce 13 rushing touchdowns in 2023 wouldn't put Henry in position to score at least 17 in 2024. Henry ended up rushing for 16 and fell one short of my projection.
Judkins has a history of scoring touchdowns too. He has enjoyed an incredible amount of success in red-zone situations over the course of his college career. He scored 50 touchdowns in 42 games and he did all of this while averaging over 100 scrimmage yards per game in the SEC and Big Ten. The production profile is there for Judkins as is the history of handling a lot of touches in a season.
With one of the fastest 10-yard splits in the last three draft classes, Judkins' unique trait for the NFL is his burst and quickness. His athletic profile is very similar to a former SEC running back -- and more importantly, a former Browns running back -- Nick Chubb. Does this regime see their next Chubb in Judkins? If so, that role is voluminous and volume is the best predictor of future Fantasy success. If you want to draft Judkins over Henderson based on that, it is completely understandable.
This draft decision comes down to preference and league settings. If you're in a PPR league, Henderson has too much upside to pass on. In standard formats, I give the slight edge to Henderson.
