Hassan
Haskins.
Hassan
Haskins.
Michigan· 6'2"· 228 lb
"A converted linebacker who ran for 1,327 yards and five touchdowns against Ohio State, and whose entire NFL case rested on whether short-yardage power and pass protection could survive without a second gear."Pre-draft read
Haskins is a downhill, one-cut power back who converts contact into yardage. He runs behind his pads, keeps his feet churning through arm tackles and finishes runs falling forward, which is why Michigan trusted him with 270 carries as a senior in a run-first offense built around gap concepts and heavy personnel.
The complementary trait is protection. He began his college career on defense and plays with a linebacker's willingness in pass pro, squaring up blitzers and delivering the first blow instead of catching it. What he does not have is a second gear or make-you-miss in space: he creases the defense, gets what the blocking gives him and takes the tackle. The receiving work is a checkdown role, not a route tree.
A gap-and-power run scheme with a lead blocker, where the back is asked to hit one hole downhill and finish through contact.
Year 1: short-yardage and goal-line back plus core special teams. Ceiling: the early-down half of a committee carrying 150 touches in a heavy run offense.
A wide-zone passing offense that asks its back to run routes from the slot and win in space, where his lack of burst and route tree make him a tell.
He needs a fullback or a heavy personnel package in front of him; in single-back spread looks his skill set is invisible.
Hassan Haskins 2021 Michigan Wolverines Highlights
Senior-season reel from the Big Ten title run, including the five-touchdown Ohio State game.
Hassan Haskins highlights
Pre-draft cut-up with the short-yardage and pass-protection reps that defined his projection.
Hassan Haskins - RB - 2022 NFL Draft
Draft-year evaluation tape focused on contact balance and finishing through the tackle box.
Haskins is a heavy, north-south runner with a rare origin story for a 1,300-yard back. He arrived at Michigan as a linebacker, moved to running back, and by his senior year was the engine of a Big Ten championship offense: 270 carries for 1,327 yards and 20 touchdowns, including a five-touchdown afternoon in the win over Ohio State.
The evaluation was about role, not ability. He is a true early-down and short-yardage runner whose contact balance, pad level and goal-line finishing are genuinely good, and whose pass protection is ready for Sunday on day one. But he does not separate in the open field, his long speed is ordinary, and he offers almost nothing as a receiver beyond the flat. That combination, in a league increasingly built around three-down backs and passing-game mismatches, has a hard ceiling.
Boards read him as a fourth-round complementary back with a clear short-yardage and special teams path. Tennessee, already committed to Derrick Henry and looking for someone to absorb goal-line and pass-protection work behind him, was a sensible landing spot. The pick was never about upside; it was about a defined job.
- 01
Contact balance
runs through arm tackles and consistently finishes falling forward, turning two-yard holes into four-yard gains without needing a clean crease.
- 02
Short-yardage and goal-line finishing
scored 20 rushing touchdowns as a senior, including five in the win over Ohio State, with a pad level built for the tackle box.
- 03
Pass protection
a former linebacker who squares blitzers and initiates contact, the rarest ready-made trait for a Day 3 back and the fastest route to playing time.
- 04
Workload durability
handled 270 carries in a single season without missing time, showing the frame and conditioning to carry a heavy early-down load.
- 05
Position-change upside
only three years at running back after converting from defense, which left real technical growth on the table as a pro.
- 01
No burst or long speed
he does not pull away from second-level defenders, and his explosive runs came from blocking and angles rather than acceleration.
- 02
Limited in the passing game
24 career receptions for 171 yards means he is a checkdown outlet, not a back who can be split out or motioned as a mismatch.
- 03
Tight in space
struggles to make defenders miss in open grass, so a missed block usually ends the run rather than becoming a broken tackle.
- 04
Narrow role projection
an early-down and short-yardage specialist in a league that increasingly asks backs to play all three downs, which caps his snap count.
— — — positional median (p50)
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| Yr | Team | G | Att | Yds | TD | Rec | RecYds |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | Michigan | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2019 | Michigan | 13 | 121 | 622 | 4 | 6 | 40 |
| 2020 | Michigan | 6 | 61 | 375 | 6 | 0 | 0 |
| 2021 | Michigan | 14 | 270 | 1327 | 20 | 18 | 131 |
| Career | — | 36 | 452 | 2324 | 30 | 24 | 171 |
The 2020 and 2021 seasons are verified on cfbstats (Michigan team 418, player 1095646): six games with 61 carries for 375 yards and six touchdowns in 2020, and 14 games with 270 carries for 1,327 yards and 20 touchdowns plus 18 receptions for 131 yards in 2021. Sports-Reference supplies 2018 and 2019, and Fox Sports reports identical 2019-21 rushing lines. He played three games as a freshman in 2018 without recording a carry, a verified zero rather than an assumed one, because he was still on defense. The four seasons sum exactly to the career line of 36 games, 452 carries, 2,324 yards, 30 rushing touchdowns and 24 receptions for 171 yards.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
Power back who carves out short-yardage and committee work without ever owning a backfield.
Downhill one-cut runner with no third-down role who still produces a 1,000-yard season in the right scheme.
Depth back whose value is special teams and pass protection, with carries that never arrive.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
The football part unfolded exactly as projected and then stopped. Haskins played 15 games as a rookie in Tennessee with one start, carrying 25 times for 93 yards while doing most of his work on special teams and returning 19 kicks for 414 yards. Then, in June 2023, he was arrested in Davidson County and charged with aggravated assault by strangulation. He did not appear in an NFL game that season, and his time with the Titans ended there.
Los Angeles gave him a second chance. He played all 17 games for the Chargers in 2024, mostly on special teams, with 34 carries, two rushing touchdowns and a 34-yard receiving score, then 12 games in 2025 with 17 carries and eight kick returns. Across four active seasons he has 76 carries for 229 yards. The evaluation of the player was accurate in a narrow sense — the pass protection and special teams value kept him employed — but a fourth-round back who never earned even a committee role is a miss, and the off-field chapter erased the one window he had to grow into one.