Former Michigan running back Hassan Haskins is looking for his next NFL stop after the New England Patriots released him from the practice squad Monday, via the NFL transaction log.
The Patriots signed wide receiver Chandler Brayboy and linebacker Xavier Holmes to the practice squad and cut Haskins and safety Elliott Davison. The move comes after New England’s Week 1 loss to Seattle and as TreVeyon Henderson returned to practice following an ankle injury that kept him out of the opener.
With Rhamondre Stevenson and Corey Kiner already in the mix, extra running-back depth on the practice squad became expendable.
For Wolverines fans, the news is familiar: another former Michigan back grinding through the NFL’s roster math.
Haskins arrived in Ann Arbor as a St. Louis-area recruit and became one of the faces of Jim Harbaugh’s physical, smash-mouth identity. In 2021 he started all 14 games, rushed for 1,327 yards and a then-school-record 20 rushing touchdowns, and earned first-team All-Big Ten honors.
The signature moment was five rushing scores against Ohio State — still one of the most electric individual performances in The Game. He did it without fumbling across 452 career carries, a mark that defined his reliability. Michigan won the Big Ten that year and reached the College Football Playoff. Haskins was voted the team’s toughest player.
The Titans drafted him in the fourth round in 2022. After time in Tennessee and two seasons with the Chargers — including a reunion with Harbaugh — Haskins signed with New England in August.
Mike Vrabel, who had drafted him in Tennessee, brought him in as veteran depth. He was released at the 53-man cut, signed back to the practice squad, and now is out again.
NFL production has been modest: 76 carries for 229 yards and two rushing touchdowns across 44 games, plus special-teams work.
That is the gap many Michigan backs have faced. College toughness and pad-level running do not always translate into a three-down role in a league that prizes receiving and pass protection from the backfield.
Haskins is only 26. He has been claimed off waivers before and has shown he can stick as a complementary piece and special-teamer. Another team that needs a physical runner and a player who already knows Vrabel’s system could give him a look.
Michigan’s pipeline keeps producing NFL bodies even when the headlines are cuts rather than contracts. Haskins’ 2021 season still sits in the program’s recent lore — the Ohio State afternoon, the touchdown record, the Big Ten title.
The next chapter is just another roster bubble, the same one so many Wolverines have faced after leaving Ann Arbor.
