On the video screen, Rhamondre Stevenson scooted out of bounds.

Bill Belichick rewound the tape and hit play.

Stevenson stepped out again, avoiding contact.

Belichick replayed the clip again. And again and again.

It was midway through the 2021 season, and the Patriots had gathered for a team meeting after their last game. Every week, Belichick used to review part of the film by stringing together a series of lowlights he used to motivate players by blasting them for bad football. Some would be subjected to a few lowlights, while others, depending on the game, could see 10.

Stevenson, playing it safe as a rookie back, was his next target. As Belichick let the play roll eye again, watching his rookie duck from contact like a scared X, he cracked: “(Stevenson) must be the franchise or something.”

The room burst into laughter. A nickname was born.

“We lost it pretty good,” Pats center David Andrews remembered. “And it just stuck.”

Stevenson AKA “The Franchise” smiles when he hears the nickname referenced nowadays. Of course, it’s a lot easier that he’s living up to it as the Patriots’ lead back and arguably best offensive player.

Last week, Stevenson tallied 120 rushing yards, 118 yards after contact and forced 10 missed tackles. The Patriots pulled off their greatest upset in almost a decade playing through him, a 16-10 win at Cincinnati. Stevenson sidestepped, stiff-armed, spun off and sped away from tacklers.

New England Patriots running back Rhamondre Stevenson (38) scores on a 3-yard touchdown run during the first half of an NFL game against the Cincinnati Bengals last Sunday in Cincinnati. (AP Photo/Jeff Dean)

He embarrassed the Bengals, knocking them out with four straight runs that killed the clock and the game; like a basketball player basking in the moment after a killer crossover sends a defender flying back, giving them time to stare down and savor the sight of their kill. That performance also provided confirmation of what Jerod Mayo and Stevenson’s new position coach have been whispering in his ear for months: you belong with the best of the best.

“I’ve always thought (Stevenson)’s one of the best backs in the league,” Pats running backs coach Taylor Embree said. “So going into this year, it’s (about) going out there and proving it.”

So what comes next?

More statements.

“That we can run the ball,” Stevenson said. “We’re a physical team, we can get downhill and break tackles and get first downs.”

There is a balance, however. Stevenson’s 28 touches in the season opener, if prorated over an entire season, would lead to 476 combined rushes and receptions; a brutal number for any running back and almost 200 more than his career high. The coaches meet every week with members of the Patriots’ performance staff every week to determine each player’s proper workload.

To that end, the Pats sat Stevenson for part of Wednesday’s padded practice, removing him from team periods to reduce the wear and tear on their lead ball carrier. Stevenson mostly complied, heading off to a side field where he and Andrews … started running sprints.

“He’s just one of those guys that he wants to work,” Embree said. “He knows he needs to work, and he shows up and works.”

The Patriots rewarded Stevenson before he put in any work this summer, signing him to a four-year, $36 million extension in June; including $17.1 million guaranteed. It was one of two contracts the Pats finalized all summer that could be described as player-friendly; the other being Hunter Henry’s three-year, $27 million deal on the eve of a free agency with a shallow tight end market.

Mayo offer some insight into the team’s thinking this week.

“One thing (executive vice president of player personnel) Eliot (Wolf) and I agreed on is that Rhamondre is a very special back,” Mayo said. “He may not get all the publicity, but this is a guy that can run the ball, fall forward for four yards every single play, catch the ball in the backfield, and is also a very smart football player. You want to get the ball in the hands of your best players, and I would say Rhamondre is one of those.”

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Stevenson, of course, agrees. He first felt he belonged among the league’s top rushers back during his rookie season, a year that started when he showed up out of shape but finished with him supplanting starter Damien Harris as the Patriots’ most effective back. The following year, he led the team in rushing, caught a team-high 69 passes and

As it was for most players, last season was a lost year. But underneath the rubble of the franchise’s collapse, the Patriots’ new leadership saw a star waiting to be dusted off; a player Embree calls “a special athlete.”

Now, Stevenson has already powered the new-era Pats to one win, and hopes more are ahead.

“Winning. Just winning. Just getting a win for the team,” Stevenson said. “I love winning. I’m a competitive person. So that’s the end goal: just to win games.”

Remember him?

Ex-Jets quarterback Geno Smith will play his first game at New England in almost 10 years Sunday.

Smith has enjoyed a career renaissance in Seattle. As a starter the last two seasons, he ranked seventh and 14th in QBR across the league. Smith went 18-of-25 for 171 yards, one touchdown and a pick last week versus Denver, plus a 34-yard touchdown run.

Seahawks assistant quarterbacks coach Kerry Joseph, right, and coach Pete Carroll watch quarterback Geno Smith at practice on July 30, 2022. (Ted S. Warren, AP)

In his career against the Patriots, Smith’s teams hold a 1-3 record. He’s completed 53.5% of his passes for 893 yards, three touchdowns and five interceptions for a 66.8 passer rating. His last head-to-head battle was a 17-16 loss with the Jets in December 2014.

Asked about his old divisional rival Thursday, Smith said of the Patriots: “A Belichick defense. Obviously they want to be physical up front, they want to muddy up your run game, they want to give you a bunch of different looks as far as fronts go. Then, having those thumpers at linebacker, one of ’em (Ja’Whaun Bentley) is 250 (pounds), the other is like 240, so they want to go downhill, they want to attack your offensive line and press the line of scrimmage.

“And they want to play man coverage in the back end. They want to get hands on guys, they trust their guys to run with any receiver. And you can see that. Coach Mayo, I think he’s doing a great job with those guys, having them believe in themselves and the system.”

A two-high trend

In their season opener, the Patriots did a strange thing defensively. They pinned two safeties back deep — and kept them there almost the entire game.

Mayo’s defense joined a league-wide shift toward more two-high coverage, as teams increasingly emphasize eliminating the deep passing play. According to ESPN, NFL defenses spent 60% of their defensive snaps in a two-high shell during Week 1. That marked a 33% increase from just a few years ago.

Head coach Jerod Mayo on the field during New England Patriots practice on Thursday. (Nancy Lane/Boston Herald)

As a self-identified game-plan defense, the Pats can shift their coverages and identity week to week. But Mayo explained why defenses have trended this way in recent years, as opposed to the single-high structure and coverages that dominated the league a decade ago.

“There are a lot of good quarterbacks in this league. There are a lot of good receivers in this league. Sometimes you want to force these offenses to drive the ball,” Mayo said. “You don’t want them to get it all in one play. I would say that’s the main thing. Making these offenses drive the ball down the field gives you your best chance to win.”

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Mayo then continued, explaining not all two-high coverages are alike; some indicate soft, deep zone and others allow for more aggressive double-teams of receivers from depth.

“You’ve got to give some help over the top depending on what those matchups look like. So, if you look at a shifty guy, I mean, it’s a true double team. If you look at a vertical threat, it’s a true split-safety structure,” he said. “This game is all about adjusting on the fly, right? So, if they start to do two-high structures, what does that mean up front? You have one less person in the box. So now, the run game becomes a problem. Same thing if you have a one-high structure.

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“Now they’re saying, ‘We dare you to run it,’ but now the outside – the receivers and those guys – they have to win on the outside. It’s just the game within the game, this tug of war that goes back and forth. Now, truth be told, you will want to play a two-high structure and still be able to stop the run. That’s when, if you’re able to play a two-high structure and stop the run, then you’re probably going to have a good day.”

Last week in Cincinnati, where the Patriots often played from two-high, they limited the Bengals to a league-worst one explosive play.

Quote of the Week

“Everybody kind of bought into it and realized we’re running one play the whole time, and they’re not stopping it, so why change it? I think that was one of the cooler moments in my career. Everybody in the huddle was saying, ‘Let’s take them to the hill’ because we knew we were in that much better shape than they were, and I think it paid off.” – Jacoby Brissett on the Patriots’ final, game-sealing drive at Cincinnati