Former Miami Hurricanes running back Travis Homer is back on an NFL active roster, if only for a day.
The Pittsburgh Steelers have announced they have elevated the West Palm Beach product from the practice squad Saturday ahead of Sunday’s game at New England, giving the eighth-year veteran another chance to contribute on special teams and as emergency backfield depth.
Homer’s path from Coral Gables to this latest call-up is the kind of long, unglamorous grind Hurricanes fans recognize.
He arrived at The U as a four-star local recruit out of Oxbridge Academy and left after three seasons with 1,995 rushing yards, 12 touchdowns, and consecutive second-team All-ACC honors in 2017 and 2018.
Those two years as the featured back—966 yards and eight scores as a sophomore, then 985 yards as a junior—still sit near the top of Miami’s modern rushing lists. He declared after his junior year and heard his name called in the sixth round by Seattle in 2019.
Seven seasons later the production on offense has been modest: 90 carries for 474 yards and a handful of receiving scores across 85 games. What has kept him employed is the same toughness that once made him a special-teams regular even as a true freshman at Miami.
Homer has piled up 46 special-teams tackles, forced a fumble, recovered two more, and even scored on a fake-punt flip during his Seattle years. Chicago used him the same way for three seasons.
Pittsburgh signed him in March as a veteran insurance policy after several core special-teamers left in free agency. He did not survive final cuts to the 53-man roster but was brought back to the practice squad the next day. Saturday’s elevation is the first time he has been activated this season.
For Canes supporters the story is less about whether Homer will carry the ball Sunday and more about persistence. Florida high-school kids who wear orange and green often imagine themselves as the next featured back.
Homer was that player for two years, then accepted a different role and kept working. The Steelers will send him back to the practice squad after the Patriots game, the same transaction that happens every week across the league.
Yet each elevation is another Sunday in the NFL for a player who once wore the turnover chain at Hard Rock Stadium after a special-teams recovery.
Miami’s running-back pipeline has produced stars and specialists alike. Homer belongs to the second group now, a 27-year-old who still answers the phone when a team needs a reliable body on kick coverage.
That is not the highlight-reel career many hoped for when he was ripping off 100-yard games in the ACC. It is, however, a career that continues.
For a program that celebrates toughness as much as talent, that still counts.
