Ahmed Hassanein can't help it. He goes so hard on scout team that he's been getting on the nerves of Penei Sewell, Taylor Decker and Dan Skipper, which is exactly what he's supposed to do. The entire offense got mad at him earlier this week when he crashed through the line, tripped over a fallen lineman and accidentally made contact with Jared Goff.
Three weeks after rejoining the Lions on their practice squad after a partially-torn pec cost him the first couple months of the season -- sticking with the club that drafted him despite interest from every other NFL team -- Hassanein is honing his craft, waiting for his chance and approaching every day like this: "I’m not just on practice squad, I’m on standby."
Hassanein, to be clear, doesn't think his opportunity is coming any time soon. But he has no doubt he'll be ready when it does. The Lions' pass-rush could certainly use a jolt, and defensive coordinator Kelvin Sheppard, for what it's worth, said this week he's planning tweaks to both scheme and personnel. Hassanein probably still has a ways to go to get on the field on game day, and he's fine with that, even if it doesn't happen until next year. In the meantime, he intends to keep making noise in practice.
There's no one more grateful to be in the building every day than the 23-year-old who was raised in Egypt, discovered football when he moved back to the States at the age of 16 and told Dan Campbell the night the Lions drafted him in the sixth round, "I will die for you, Coach." A simple question to Hassanein on Tuesday -- hey, how have you felt since returning? -- elicited a fervent six-minute response. To wit: "I feel great."
"It’s good to be out there and compete, and actually I feel a lot more confident in my abilities and what I can do (than before the injury). It's always hard coming back from an injury in the mental aspect, like, 'How is that going to feel, how is this going to feel?' But man, I’m going against the 1’s, I’m going against Penei Sewell and Deck and Skip, these are great talents, and I see myself winning and I’m like, hold up, there’s something here. And hopefully the coaches see that.
"I’m just grateful to have the opportunity to show myself and show my case, because in camp, I’ll be honest, I didn’t get as many reps against Penei, Deck, Skip, I didn’t get reps against Tate Ratledge and those guys, because they have Hutch, Davenport, and I’m a rookie and I just came in. But now I’m grateful that I get to against the 1’s, and them get pissed off at me and tell me, like, 'Ahmed, chill out.' Because man, I’m going at it. I’m a competitor, I will compete my ass off. And one thing about me, I do not play with that. This is who I am and this is never going to change."
The practice squad, for now, suits Hassanein well. He can let it rip during the week without the pressure of feeling like "I have to impress anybody" -- besides, of course, the coaching staff -- and work new moves into his repertoire. While he knows speed-to-power is his best move, "I’m like, 'Oh, if I can get him with that -- like, he’s an All-Pro -- OK, hold up, maybe I can do that, I can do this, let me work on my stance here, let me fix this, let me work on my get-off, let me actually look at the center and as soon as he twitches I’m gone, because before I wasn’t doing that, I was waiting on the tackle."
In practice on Monday, Hassanein said rather sheepishly, "Goff got mad at me because I touched him. Everybody got mad at me, and I’m like, 'Guys, I did not mean to do anything!'" Hassanen was running an inside stunt on a guard, who tripped and toppled Hassanein into the quarterback. Goff told Hassanein, "Hey, Ahmed, don't do that again. That was too close." Hassanein immediately apologized, assured him it was an accident, then approached Goff again in the locker room after practice to say, "Hey man, you know I love you, right?'"
"And he was like, 'I love you too, Ahmed. Just be careful.' He was like, 'If something happens to me, everybody’s going to be on your ass! This whole city’s going to get on your ass!'" Hassanein said with a laugh. "And I was like, 'I totally understand, I totally get it, I know my place, I know who I am, I’m sorry.'"
He is nothing if not sincere. As warm as he is off the field, his fire on the field burns hot: "Even if I got beat, I do not care, I will go after it again." Hassanein told someone in the building the other day, "If the coaches are going in a dark alley, I want to be the guy that they’d be like, 'We’re taking Ahmed with us.'" He said he takes this mentality into every practice and every walk-through, striving to be the first one there: "I don’t want to just go through the motions because I’m on practice squad." He wants to earn his shot.
"I want to look at Campbell and be like, 'Hey, if you go into a dark alley, remember I meant everything I said on draft day,'" said Hassanein. "Like, I’m not even joking. I’m serious. Because this is who I am. Ask anybody, this is just me."
If the Lions called his name today, "absolutely," said Hassanein, he'd be ready. He didn't blink. But while he's "itching" for an opportunity, "I’m not one of these guys who’s going to become a distraction for not having one."
"I trust God’s timing and I trust the coaches' call and I trust they have me here for a reason, I truly trust that," he said. "I’m not the type of guy who’s like, 'Hey, you need to play me,' and I just become a distraction to the team. I'd rather be there for the team, help the team, be a Team Guy not an I Guy -- because that’s not who I am, at all. And then when the coaches see that, that’s a lot more meaningful than just sticking me in there because I was a draft pick. That’s a lot more meaningful, to me, to know that I’ve earned the right for the coaches to say, 'Ahmed can play, or, we trust in Ahmed.' I’d rather have it that way than just, stick me out there."
Hassanein is a meticulous note-taker in defensive meetings. He pulled out his notepad as proof, flipping through pages and pages of details about specific plays, game plans and opposing offensive linemen. He prepares every week "like I’m starting, even if I’m not playing." He's also become a junkie for old-school film, thanks to a tidbit from Aidan Hutchinson. When Hassanein asked Hutchinson, "What made you so great?" Hutchinson told him that in his first couple years in the league he studied tape of the great defensive ends of yesteryear, going as far back as the 1960’s and 70’s. For Hassanein, Lawrence Taylor and Reggie White -- "the guy from Green Bay with the hump move -- are two that stand out.
When he wasn't rehabbing during his time away from the team, Hassanein dove into more recent film on defensive ends like Hutchinson, Myles Garrett, T.J. Watt and even Aaron Donald when he rushed off the edge for the Rams. Now he finds himself hitting moves he didn't have in his bag back in camp, with a better understanding of how to play to his strengths.
"The biggest thing is finding what I’m good at, and what I’m good at is speed to power," said Hassanein. "I’m gonna go through you, through you, through you and if you start lunging — whoop — I’m gonna slip by. And I only need two opportunities, one opportunity to get a sack, to get to the quarterback, that’s all I need. And understanding, like, I’m a smaller guy — Hutch is 6’7, I’m 6’3 — and just playing with leverage. All these tackles are used to guys who are big and tall, but for me, I can get under their pads and I’m strong enough to get fast to the quarterback if I understand my alignment, my assignment, and where the quarterback is. Like, it’s honestly not that far. If I push you back to the quarterback, that’s a disruption, and 'go get the sack, Hutch, go get him. If you want to rush high, rush high, I’ll bull-rush him with you.'"
As to when his opportunity might come, Hassanein can't say. Until then, he'll embrace any role that comes his way, any task "to feel like I'm part of the team," even something as simple as grabbing one of his fellow defensive linemen an iPad or a drink on the sideline during a game: "I just want to be a positive impact on this whole facility."
Will he get his shot this season?
"I pray so, I really hope so, but if it doesn’t happen I’m not even stressing about it," said Hassanenin. "I don’t want to put that stress on the coaches. Just let them do what they do, and if they call my name, I will be ready."