The Patriots used a late preseason trade to add another body to their running back room, and Corey Kiner arrives in Foxborough with a profile that fits the kind of player New England seems eager to have on hand.
New England sent a seventh-round pick to Arizona on cutdown day to land Kiner, a move that came after some internal competition for the third running back spot. The Patriots had also cut Hassan Haskins, reached an injury settlement with Jam Miller, and later added Haskins and Lan Larrison to the practice squad.
Coach Mike Vrabel made it clear Kiner wasn’t a stranger to the organization’s thinking.
“Corey [Kiner], we talked about him when we traded for him that he was a player that we had looked at trying to get last year coming out,” Vrabel said. “It didn’t work out. He’s a good young runner.”
With Rhamondre Stevenson and TreVeyon Henderson still at the top of the depth chart, there’s at least a path for Kiner to get on the field against the Seahawks. Henderson missed practice Sunday and Monday and has already been ruled out for Wednesday’s season opener.
Kiner’s game is built on contact, not flash. Listed at 5-foot-9 and 209 pounds, he ran for 2,882 yards and 16 touchdowns across five college seasons, averaging 5.2 yards per carry.
His 4.57 40-yard dash at the NFL scouting combine points to a back who earns his yards the hard way. NFL.com’s Lance Zeirlein called it “rare” to see Kiner knocked down by the first tackler, and Cincinnati coach Scott Satterfield gave a similar assessment last March.
“He is consistently good every single day,” Satterfield told reporters last March. “You know what you’re going to get out of him.
He’s going to be a guy who breaks a lot of tackles. He’s always going to strain for the extra yard.”
That style would give New England something different if he plays. Henderson brings speed and big-play juice; Kiner is more of a grinder who keeps churning forward.
His college path started at LSU, where former Patriots running back Kevin Faulk recruited him. Kiner was a consensus four-star recruit and the 11th-ranked running back in the Class of 2022, according to 247Sports. He spent one season with the Tigers and was teammates there with Kayshon Boutte, whom New England recently traded to the Texans, before transferring to Cincinnati.
At Cincinnati, Kiner became the starting running back during the program’s first season in the Big 12. The Bearcats went 3-9 and finished 1-8 in conference play in 2023, but Kiner put together the first of his two 1,000-yard seasons.
He logged 192 carries for 1,047 yards as a junior, good for 5.5 yards per attempt, and matched his career high with five touchdowns. Cincinnati improved to 5-7 in 2024, then went 7-6 in 2025 and opened this season 1-0.
Kiner’s high school résumé already had him in the Ohio record books. According to the University of Cincinnati’s website, he finished his career at Roger Bacon High School 10th on the Ohio High School Athletic Association’s all-time rushing list with 7,130 yards and third in career rushing touchdowns with 116.
He scored 35 touchdowns as a senior, helped Roger Bacon win its first regional championship, and earned Mr. Football honors.
Cincinnati’s website called him “one of the greatest running backs in Bearcats history,” according to Cincinnati’s website.
Now the Ohio native is trying to carve out a place in the NFL after a winding start. Kiner signed with the 49ers as an undrafted free agent in 2025, spent training camp with San Francisco, then landed on the Vikings’ practice squad before Arizona signed him. He finished last season with the Cardinals, where he had 12 carries for 58 yards in four games, and spent the summer there before the Patriots made their trade for him last month.
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