2026 Team Previews: New England Patriots
New England Patriots 2026 Team Preview
All ADP data is courtesy of Fantasy Pros.
** = target in drafts at this ADP
Drafted Everywhere
A.J. Brown, WR (ADP: 19, WR7): Brown is a very interesting player to kick off our 2026 season preview. He’s a major name with a long track record of being an elite wide receiver in the NFL, he’s often been underrated in terms of where he’s been perceived in comparison to other upper tier WRs, and he’s on a brand new team with a clear upgrade at QB as a passer. That’s why even off a down year by his standards, his ADP is ever so slightly up from a year ago. So if an elite WR gets a QB upgrade and joins a team where there will be more passing volume and he can expect a larger share of the passing game pie, is there any issue with drafting him this high?
Well…maybe. It’s true that Brown has surpassed 1,000 receiving yards in each of the last four seasons, but his first two seasons in Philadelphia were 1,450+ yard campaigns, while his final two saw him barely scraping past that milestone. Brown was more banged up in the past two seasons, which matters in his age-29 season, and his reception totals have noticeably dipped. His yards per reception last year fell to 12.9 after being at 16.1 in 2024. And, per Reception Perception, his depressed – again, by A.J. Brown standards – did reflect a drop-off in quality of play as opposed to the 2024 season. Brown’s success rates vs. man (69.2%) and press (65.9%) were way down from his previous seasons, and his success rate vs. zone (73%, 16th percentile) cratered. Brown has long been a steady X receiver, so zone success hasn’t been a critical factor to his overall value but numbers that poor are alarming when you have to take him as a Top 10 WR.
As I wrote here when he was finally traded to New England, Brown proved last year that he remains a high-level pass catcher in this league, and there’s no question that chemistry and offensive design issues played a role in his disappointing output. Brown also dealt with injuries that slowed him down. Still, it seems clear that Brown’s descent from the mountaintop of WRs has begun, and this ADP is not reflective of that reality. Brown’s got a great QB throwing him the ball, and he’s an unquestioned top target here. It’s extremely unlikely that Brown becomes a disaster pick, but he is still going too early for my liking. I had hoped an “over the hill” narrative would form and knock down his ADP, but it’s going the other way. We have to be water, and when a player’s perception soars past his value we can’t get seduced by the name.
TreyVeyon Henderson, RB (ADP: 53, RB22): Henderson is a very interesting player, in that all year fantasy managers cried for him to get more touches, and at times he delivered such incredible plays that the Patriots’ coaches seemed stubborn to the point of self-damaging in not feeding him more. Henderson finished with 1,132 yards from scrimmage and 10 total touchdowns, so it wasn’t a bad year by any means, but in relatively limited work those numbers hint at a potential superstar at a value here. That may well be true, but it’s more complicated than assuming coaches will watch some film, slap their foreheads and juice up Henderson’s volume. Based on those who know way more than I do, the film is actually the problem.
Based on PFF, Henderson graded out as their No. 42 RB, while Rhamondre Stevenson clocked in at No. 18. That tracks with how the Pats utilized them. According to Reception Perception’s profile, Henderson’s metrics grid is blood red with abysmal broken tackle rates (18.6%) and woeful inside and outside run success rates. Henderson hit big when he was able to hit the hole and use his God-given athleticism but as a runner it’s clear to the film geeks he needs a ton of growth and lacks instincts that other players innately possess. That’s super hard to square with the final numbers, which is what managers care about.
For all the warts about his play, he delivered over 1,100 yards and 10 touchdowns. The Patriots gained 20 or more yards on 85 plays in 2025 and Henderson accounted for six of them. Four of his runs went for 50+ yards and all four of those ended in touchdowns. Of course, all four of those plays occurred in two games, but you won those games if you started him. That kind of explosiveness is really tough to pass up on, but without growth as an overall player Henderson may not ever hit that ceiling his athleticism promises. Yes, he delivered three games of 23+ points, but he also turned in six games with five or fewer points, and seven games with single-digit points. That’s fine as an RB3/FLEX option, but his current ADP is placing him as a locked-in RB2. He has a higher ceiling than your typical back-end RB2, but he’s also got a lot lower floor. This ADP feels about right considering the upside, but not a screaming value to me.
**Rhamondre Stevenson, RB (ADP: 76, RB31): Stevenson is being left in the dust by Henderson when it comes to ADP, and in some ways it makes sense. Henderson is far more explosive, younger, and did not fumble the ball 10 times in the past two seasons (not all of these were lost). Stevenson is the less exciting player to behold, but he proved to be a far more reliable back on a down-to-down basis. PFF graded him out as better than Henderson overall, as a rusher, a receiver and, critically, a pass blocker despite Henderson’s sterling reputation in that realm coming out of Ohio State. Of course, Henderson was a rookie in 2025. He should be expected to improve in a multitude of way, and is a far better bet long-term. Is he going to make this quantam leap right now though, and enough to push Stevenson completely aside? That’s a bad bet, and it’s making Stevenson a value at this ADP.
Once New England was inside the opponent’s five yard line, Stevenson out-carried Henderson 11 times to eight and scored four times with Henderson scoring three times. Those numbers seem close enough, but remember that Stevenson played in four fewer games and managed to keep a hold of that work despite issues protecting the football. This signaled trust in the veteran. He also delivered the same number of double-digit efforts (6) as Henderson and the same number of single-digit performances. We’re looking at two players who have very similar output on the year, and boosting Henderson because of his youth and the fact he’s more exciting without accounting for the fact that Stevenson was, on film, the superior back. We don’t need to drag down Henderson, but we should note that Stevenson is going to be more useful than this ADP suggests.
Drake Maye, QB (ADP: 67, QB5): Maye might be considered a value if you’re the kind of manager who is comfortable spending early-ish picks on QBs. His current position places him behind Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson and Jayden Daniels, arguably the three best rushing QBs in the NFL. It also places him directly behind Bengals QB Joe Burrow, a player who doesn’t run at all but does smash through the necessary benchmarks for pocket passers to compete whenever he’s healthy. The ADP makes sense based on the tremendous 2025 season Maye had, and is a massive leap from where he was drafted this time last year, but there’s absolutely room for Maye to beat this ADP.
Maye was the third-best QB last season on a per game basis, behind Allen and Matthew Stafford. As a passer, he kept up with all the big boys; his 4,394 passing yards were fourth-most in the league, his 31 passing touchdowns were third in the NFL, and he was one of only five QBs to average 250+ passing yards per game. His rushing, however, is being underrated. His 103 rushing attempts were behind only Allen and Jalen Hurts, his 450 rushing yards were fourth and he averaged more rushing attempts per game than Lamar Jackson or Kyler Murray while matching Jaxson Dart. It’s not a difficult argument to make to say that Maye has surpassed Daniels as a dual threat QB, brings more to the table as a total package than Burrow, and might even be ready to surpass Jackson given Jackson’s performance in 2025. It’s worth noting that Maye did all this last season with Stefon Diggs as his WR1 with very little beyond that. In 2026, he’s going to have A.J. Brown and Romeo Doubs in the mix with other key contributors from last year returning.
This ADP is still a bit high for the value that lurks later at QB, but Maye is certainly a better buy than Allen is several rounds earlier.
Interesting Players
Romeo Doubs, WR (ADP: 117, WR51): Doubs briefly looked like he may have ascended to the top of a team’s WR depth chart when he initially signed with the Pats, but now his role is in potential flux after the addition of A.J. Brown. Four seasons in Green Bay have taught us who Doubs is, and he’s a very competent X receiver. I pointed out here earlier in the offseason that he might be more interesting with the volume that comes along with being a team’s top target, but that isn’t the case any longer.
As usual, nothing Doubs was doing will grab you. He put up a 69.2% win rate vs. man and a 69% mark vs. press, good for the 54th and 59th percentile, respectively. His 75% success rate vs. zone wasn’t good, but that isn’t unusual for X-only WRs. With Brown in town though, will Doubs remain an X-exclusive guy? That remains to be seen, but the stuff he excelled at – digs, posts and slants, are mostly outside receiver stuff. The hope is that Doubs keeps his role for the most part, and allows Brown to move around the field and play more like Diggs did a season ago as an oversized, supercharged version. That would be a better path for Brown to elite production, and for Doubs to offer useful stats. This usage is my expectation and hope, but it doesn’t result in me viewing Doubs as much more than this ADP suggests. It’s a fine pick at this point in the draft, but Doubs is a better fit for rosters that took bigger chances early and need some glue to hold things together.
Deep Cuts
Kyle Williams, WR (ADP: 288, WR121): Williams was a rookie I was excited about last season who wound up doing very, very little. Williams had all the makings of an exciting slot/flanker guy, but was one of the most exclusive X receivers in football last year. Surprisingly enough, he was very effective on nine routes with a 63% success rate with nines making up a third of his routes. That’s impressive, but it’s also a recipe for a useless fantasy campaign. With Brown and Doubs in tow, it makes sense that Williams can kick inside now, and if he does I believe he could way outperform this ADP. But it’s impossible to predict that for him given how insistent the Pats were on playing him outside in 2025, so he’s not someone I’m looking at beyond a last-round flier, or very late pickup in extremely deep formats.
DeMario Douglas, WR (ADP: 323, WR128): Douglas had some buzz once upon a time as a potential volume hog in a WR corps lacking any talent. Now he’s a slot-only option who could find some relevance in deep, full-PPR formats with some injuries ahead of him. Small slot-based players who have caught fewer than 50 passes in two of their three seasons aren’t usually draftable options, so Douglas really seems like a one-use waiver type play if he’s able to beat out the multitude of other players just like him on this team.
Kayshon Boutte, WR (ADP: 218, WR89): Boutte made some splash plays in 2025, and flashed real potential at times but the Patriots’ decisions to bring in outside receivers like Brown and Doubs tell us what we need to know about how the front office views Boutte. While him producing at all was new for fantasy managers, Boutte has actually been in the league for a few seasons now and actually caught 10 fewer passes than he did in 2024. Boutte registered 11 games with three or fewer receptions, and surpassed 50 yards only four times. It is possible that Boutte could find relevance elsewhere on a team desperate for WR help, but if he’s on the Patriots on Week 1 I’m struggling to see any fantasy value.
Hunter Henry, TE (ADP: 151, TE18): Henry did last year what he always does. He caught 60 passes for 768 yards and had a plus TD season with seven. Henry’s role has been the same for many years, and where he ranks on the Pats’ receiving categories in a given season really says more about the talent surrounding him. With Brown and Doubs in the picture, Henry’s importance certainly fades. We could see a drop in targets, receptions and yardage, taking him from barely relevant to unplayable. We could also see a TD spike from him given the attention those other players will draw in the red zone. Ultimately, drafting Henry as a regular starter has never been advisable, but he’s long been a pretty fun spot start. Nothing changes.
Mack Hollins, WR (ADP: 312, WR133): Hollins’ numbers weren’t all that different from Boutte’s aside from the touchdowns, and Hollins has a better shot at playing time due to his ferocious run blocking. None of that means fantasy relevance, but if there are injuries to the Pats’ WR room Hollins will be on the field more than most realize.