Thor Nystrom presents the scouting report for Ohio State's TreVeyon Henderson heading into the 2025 NFL Draft and Combine.

TreVeyon Henderson on track toward the NFL

  • TreVeyon Henderson
  • Ohio State | 5-foot-10/214 pounds
  • Comp: Clinton Portis

Hopewell, Virginia is one of the oldest cities in America. Established in 1613—more than 150 years before America won its independence—Hopewell was originally called “Bermuda City.” At the time, Bermuda was considered part of the Colony of Virginia.

Bermuda is an Atlantic archipelago consisting of 181 islands. Such a high preponderance of aircrafts and ships disappeared between those islands under unexplained or mysterious circumstances over the years that the “Bermuda Triangle” legend was born. 

The Bermuda Triangle is one of two places on Earth where magnetic compasses do not point north. Because of this, the unofficial stance of the United States government was that the disappearances were likely attributable to environmental factors leading to human error.

Today, the Bermuda Triangle is the most famous myth in the city of Hopewell. Hopewell’s most famous mythological creature, however, is undoubtedly native son TreVeyon Henderson, a track superstar who averaged 12.7 YPC and scored 39 TD en route to 2019 Virginia Gatorade Football Player of the Year honors.

Henderson was raised by a single mother named Lakeesha Hayes-Winfield. Because Hopewell has a high crime rate, Lakeesha wanted her three sons—Henderson’s older brother, Ronnie Walker, went on to play RB at Indiana—to have a key out.

So Lakeesha offered her sons a $100 bounty for straight-A’s on their report cards. This turned out to be financially problematic when TreVeyon earned an A in every single high school class he took. Meanwhile, TreVeyon was a consensus top-25 overall recruit with a five-star billing. He signed with Ohio State in the class of 2021.

It didn’t take long for Henderson to prove the hype was real. As a true freshman, Henderson ran for 1,248 and 15 TD on 6.8 YPC with a 27-312-4 receiving line. Henderson’s sophomore season was mired by a foot injury that cost him five games. In 2023, Henderson missed three more games with undisclosed injuries. 

Even so, Henderson would have been in contention for RB1 honors in the 2024 NFL Draft had he declared early. That seemed destined after the Buckeyes signed Ole Miss transfer RB Quinshon Judkins. But Henderson shocked the football world by spurning the NFL to return for his senior season.

Henderson and Judkins, of course, ultimately formed a devastating one-two combo for the eventual national champions. Crucially for his evaluation, Henderson played in all 16 games. 

Henderson left Ohio State with a national championship ring. More importantly to Lakeesha, he left it with a 4.3 GPA and a degree, recognized by coaches and teammates as an undisputed locker room leader. 

TreVeyon Henderson Scouting Report

Henderson is seriously juiced-up for a threshold-sized back. A track star in high school, Henderson hit 22.0-MPH max speed on the GPS in 2024. He is projected by Reel Analytics to run a 4.40-4.42 40-yard dash at the NFL Combine.

Henderson runs with his torso upright and his knees bent like coiled springs. He can accelerate from 0-60 in a blink, and is bursty through holes. Henderson doesn’t have juke-machine agility—he has a little hip stiffness—but he’s extremely sudden laterally when he needs to be. 

That springy lower half of his has teleportation qualities east/west—he can pull out the reverse Uno card with a hard foot in the dirt when confronted by immediate penetration and hit the gas down the line the other direction.

Henderson, though, is not a bounce-heavy running back. He is a very unique running back prospect who doesn’t comfortably fit into traditional boxes. Many backs with his athletic profile are finesse air/space archetypes who dance/evade and toggle speeds.

Not Henderson—he has his hand on the throttle at all times, and he stays on a straight-ahead path when it’s there for him. Henderson’s north/south explosion juices him with legitimate speed-to-power electricity, and he’s fearless running downhill, accelerating into contact. 

Totally anecdotal, but: Henderson would be near the top of the leaderboard in this class of head-on-collisions where the sound reverberated around the stadium and the defender ended up on his back with the RB still going. Henderson will also go airborne around the goal line, and leapfrog defenders who declare their intention to go low too early. 

Henderson shows high-level balance in moments like these—keeping his feet while flattening a safety, or landing on his feet after hopping a linebacker in space and immediately returning to top speed.

There were other moments when Henderson was knocked off his feet easier than I was expecting—a glancing shot from the side that caused him to lose his feet, or an off-angle attempt that stole his balance. There is some inconsistency between the tackles because of this.

Overall, I would grade Henderson’s contact balance as a B—high-end flashes with some hiccups. He isn’t a big tackle breaker—Henderson wants to outrun, not evade or fight off.

Henderson’s appetite for contact can also be seen on his blocking tape. There are flashes of beautiful violence, where Henderson immediately spots the free rusher, steps up, squares, and flattens the guy. 

Henderson’s best pass-pro reps are some of the best in the class. He also flashed coming forward on the attack as a run blocker, with some slick pancake blocks on the perimeter on Will Howard designed runs.

There are also a small handful of instances on Henderson’s tape over the years where a pressure was directly attributable to him, where he recognized danger late, or when he got out over his skis throwing an initial strike.

But over the entire body of work, Henderson is one of this class’ top backs in this area. He’s a willing scrapper, he understands his assignment, and his eyes and technique got better and better as he went along.

As a receiver, Ohio State liked to use Henderson on swings and play-action concepts that sought to delay and misdirect the defense. For whatever reason, Henderson wasn’t used a ton on screens—though a delayed screen ended up being his most memorable pass-catching moment in college (the back-breaking 75-yard TD in the CFP semifinals against Texas before halftime).

Henderson has good hands—he had 45 catches with only two drops the past two seasons. More impressively, on the topic of hands, Henderson had zero career fumbles on 667 touches.

In 2024, Ohio State showed exactly how TreVeyon Henderson should be used. Henderson averaged only 10.7 offensive touches per game in 2024. But he posted a career-high 7.6 yards per touch—with 81.2 all-purpose yards per game—while staying healthy for all 16 games.

Keeping Henderson healthy and full strength is what makes possible a play like he made against the Longhorns. Henderson can’t hit a grand slam for you in a high-leverage spot if he’s in street clothes. This is the Aaron Jones-corollary in Henderson’s evaluation. 

Luckily, the kind of early-down grinder that you’d pair with Henderson is one of the cheapest resources in the NFL to acquire. Henderson’s game-changing ability and diverse skill set give him a shot to crack Round 1. He’s a high second-round prospect on my board.

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