ALLEN PARK -- Brad Holmes was confident Ahmed Hassanein would be back with the Detroit Lions after his injury settlement period ended.
“But, bottom line, he’s going to be a Detroit Lion, he’s going to be back on the football field playing this year,” Holmes said earlier this year.
That day has come, and Holmes was right once again. The Lions signed the sixth-round rookie edge defender to their practice squad on Monday afternoon. Hassanein has been out of action since suffering a pectoral injury late in the preseason.
The Lions and Hassanein agreed to an injury timeline, with another three weeks added on top, before he could re-sign. Holmes took a slight risk by not placing the rookie on injured reserve, opting to go with the injury settlement route and banking on both sides wanting to stay together.
Hassanein was always seen as a developmental project as a sixth-round pick out of Boise State and the first Egyptian player to get drafted. The rookie pass rusher is passionate, made it clear he loves this franchise and proved himself a quick learner.
And that’s no surprise for someone who started playing football in 2019, while re-learning English, who made it all the way to the NFL. Hassanein grew up in Cairo, Egypt, and moved to the United States in 2018. He just kept getting better at a rapid pace, too, posting 22 sacks and 32 tackles for loss across his final two seasons in college.
Hassnein made it clear he wanted to stick with the franchise that took a chance on him. He was emotional about playing in his first preseason game, and said he was asking anyone and everyone through that grind about how he could improve.
Outside of signing Marcus Davenport in free agency, Hassanein was the only other outside addition to the team’s room of pass rushers.
Hassanein posted six tackles and two pressures across three preseason games before his injury. The 6-foot-3, 271-pound defender is all motor, all the time, something the Lions loved about the fit.
“Well, I think you’re always coaching the, ‘Hey man, don’t get to the point where you’re so out of control that you’re not able to make that transition into doing your job,’ whether it is upfield or it’s a counter,” Campbell said back in July. “But I bring this back again, you would much rather pull back on guys than have to try to prod them and push them and, ‘Hey man, quit being so conservative.’ And so, we can coach backwards off of that.
“Love the effort, love his enthusiasm. And he is a sponge, he wants to know, he really does, and he tries to take what he’s being told, he tries to think about it and take it to the field and grow.”
Now, he’ll get the chance to return to work with a bunch of familiar faces and try to carve out a role.
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