Patriots interest in veteran running back could impact Rhamondre Stevenson in fantasy football

Free agent running back Leonard Fournette has completed a workout with the New England Patriots. Fournette was released as a cap casualty by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and is still looking to join a roster ahead of the 2023 NFL season. While the addition of Fournette would certainly help improve the Patriots’ depth chart in the backfield, it does cause concern over how they view presumed starter Rhamondre Stevenson.

The 28-year-old Fournette just wrapped up the sixth season of his career. He spent the first three with the Jacksonville Jaguars and was most recently with the Bucs for the last three. Fournette played in 16 games last year and had 189 carries for 668 yards and three touchdowns. Still, Tampa Bay decided to roll the dice with Rachaad White, Chase Edmonds and Ke’Shawn Vaughn rather than trying to find a way to retain the veteran.

New England will see a shake-up in the backfield regardless of what happens with Fournette. Former starter Damien Harris is expected to suit up for the Buffalo Bills. The expectation was that this meant that Stevenson would be the incumbent starter with not much in the way of backups eating into his work. The Patriots currently roster Pierre Strong Jr., Ty Montgomery and Kevin Harris as the backups to Stevenson, helping him vault all the way up to a top-10 RB in PPR leagues based on ADP in July.

Stevenson played in all 17 games last season and finished with 1,040 yards and five touchdowns on 210 carries. He got a trial as the starter and didn’t perform as highly as the team would’ve liked. It makes sense that New England would be looking at Leonard Fournette to help to offset the risk of continuing to feature Stevenson as the starter. If the third-year back out of Oklahoma improves, Fournette helps to bring a veteran presence and another big body for goal line packages. If Stevenson takes a step back, Fournette can be featured more, and he gets an opportunity to show that he still has something left in the tank.

When it comes to early fantasy football drafts for the 2023 season, Stevenson should still be a high pick amongst running backs. At the time of this writing, the Patriots haven’t signed Fournette and just reportedly have interest based on the workout. I would drop Stevenson down in rankings slightly on the chance they make a move for someone who could eat into his touches. Rather than his being taken as the RB10, it makes more sense for him to be the RB14 behind guys like Travis Etienne Jr., Jahmyr Gibbs, Joe Mixon and Aaron Jones that he is currently being drafted ahead of.