Roster cutdown day usually means guys getting released into the void. Corey Kiner got traded instead. Adam Schefter broke the news that the Cardinals are sending Kiner to the Patriots for a 2028 seventh-round pick, which is about as low-stakes as an NFL trade gets — except it's the difference between a guy landing on his feet and a guy landing on waivers.
Trade: Cardinals are sending RB Corey Kiner to the New England Patriots in exchange for a 7th-round pick in 2028, per his agents Adie von Gontard and Don Williams of @YMAPAASports.
The mechanics here matter. Per Mike Reiss, New England sits at the 31st waiver priority spot after last season's Super Bowl run, meaning if Arizona had simply cut Kiner instead of trading him, the Patriots would've been at the back of the line to claim him off waivers with 30 other teams ahead of them. A seventh-round pick 2 years from now is a cheap insurance policy to make sure a guy they wanted didn't get scooped by somebody picking earlier in that order.
Corey Kiner now slots in as RB3, behind Rhamondre Stevenson and TreVeyon Henderson. Hassan Haskins, Lan Larison, Jam Miller and JaMycal Hasty had been in camp vying for that role, which opened when Terrell Jennings landed on IR.
Kiner's path here has been a grind. He started his college career at LSU before transferring to Cincinnati, where he strung together back-to-back 1,000-yard rushing seasons and finished with 2,562 career yards, good for 8th in program history. He went undrafted in 2025, signed with the 49ers, got waived/injured with an ankle issue, bounced to the Vikings practice squad, then got poached by Arizona. Four games, one franchise after another — the definition of a guy fighting for a roster spot in this league.
Reiss also laid out exactly what Kiner walked into: he now slots in as the No. 3 back behind Rhamondre Stevenson and TreVeyon Henderson, a job that opened up after Terrell Jennings landed on injured reserve. Hassan Haskins, Lan Larison, Jam Miller and JaMycal Hasty had all been competing for that same role in camp, and the Patriots just went outside the building to fill it anyway.
RB Corey Kiner: 🏈 5-foot-9, 209 pounds 🏈 Time with 49ers (signed as undrafted free agent in 2025), Vikings, Cardinals 🏈 4 career NFL games played 🏈 LSU, Cincinnati alum 🏈 24 years old 🏈 Was likely to be cut in Arizona, but Patriots, with 31st waiver claim, pounce
At 5-foot-9, 209 pounds, Kiner isn't walking in as a workhorse — he's a depth piece behind an established starter in Stevenson and a rookie the Patriots clearly believe in with Henderson. But depth is exactly what got exposed when Jennings went down, and New England decided it was worth a mid-decade seventh-rounder to not leave that spot to chance. For Kiner, who was reportedly on the roster bubble in Arizona anyway, it's a fresh shot on a team that just went to the Super Bowl.