Corey Kiner says New England is building something special

FOXBOROUGH – Ask Corey Kiner how he’s been acclimating to his new team and he’ll flash a grin as he talks about how well things have gone so far.

The Patriots traded for the second-year running back at the end of the preseason not long before finalizing the 53-man roster for cutdown day.

Over the course of his first few months in Foxborough, he has felt a level of team camaraderie that can’t be replicated just anywhere.

“This team atmosphere is something special. This isn’t everywhere. It’s special,” Kiner said. “No matter where you are on the depth chart, guys come to work every day and that’s what I respect. Then, last week, coach Vrabel gets into practice and does drills with us. That just makes me go harder seeing him, man. It just means a lot.” 

Kiner received the biggest workload of his young career on Sunday, notching 11 carries for 57 yards, the bulk of which came in the fourth quarter as New England was attempting to put away the rival Jets.

Rhamondre Stevenson was struggling, averaging 2.6 yards per carry for the game. TreVeyon Henderson, who had just come back earlier than expected from a high ankle sprain fumbled the ball while the Patriots were clinging to a one-score lead in the third quarter.

Kiner didn’t have a run longer than 12 yards, but he found a way to keep pushing forward for positive gains.

“He runs hard. He runs hard, and it’s the same way he’s selling the kickoff returns,” Vrabel said. “We got three capable backs and you ride the hot hand.”

The Patriots handed the ball off to Kiner eight times in a row on their final scoring drive. There was 5:49 on the clock at the beginning of that stretch, and Kiner’s carries took then through the two-minute warning.

Andy Borregales made a 26-yard kick that brought the Patriots’ lead back to seven and Drake Maye was able to run the clock out with a kneel on the Patriots’ final possession.

Having the ball in the fourth quarter and helping to drain the clock to secure an AFC East win is the kind of opportunity he has been working for, Kiner said. Seeing the support from his teammates meant a lot.

“It felt good,” Kiner said. “Like I’ve said, the guys in the room, they helped me prepare, guys on the team been helping me prepare, just everybody has been putting me in position to succeed and put my best foot forward.

“The last few minutes of the game meant a lot, seeing the smiles on my teammates’ faces and coaches’ faces, knowing that they trusted me and it worked out.”

Kiner had the hot hand on Sunday, but former Patriots Kevin Faulk saw something in Kiner long before that.

Faulk recruited Kiner to LSU when he was coaching running backs there. Kiner spent one season in Baton Rouge before returning to finish his career at Cincinnati, which is close to where he grew up in Ohio.

“It was a great time with Coach Faulk,” Kiner said. “I tell the story all the time, he came to my high school and recruited me. I didn’t know much about him and my high school coaches were telling me ‘man, you need to know who you are talking to’ so I google searched him and stuff like that to figure out who he was.”

“When I graduated I was ready to build that relationship. I saw the production he had in college at LSU and then in the NFL, so just wanted to follow in his footsteps and I went there my freshman year and it was a great time. I’ve got mad love for LSU, it felt great being on that team. There was a lot of stars on that team as well.”

Kiner is in Foxborough now, chasing his dream in the same stadium where his former college position coach played.

He hasn’t forgotten how hard he worked to get there.

“I’ve been working for that moment right there,” Kiner said. “The team being able to rely on me and me putting my best foot forward just meant a lot.”

Khari A. Thompson

Sports Reporter

Khari Thompson covers professional sports for Boston.com. Before joining the team in 2022, Khari covered college football for The Clarion Ledger in Jackson, Miss.