Patrick Cobbs
Encyclopedia
Patrick Cobbs is an American football
running back
who is currently a free agent
. He most recently was a member of the New Orleans Saints
of the National Football League
. He was signed by the New England Patriots
as an undrafted free agent in 2006. He played college football
at North Texas
.
Cobbs has also been a member of the Pittsburgh Steelers
and Miami Dolphins
.
at Tecumseh High School
in Tecumseh
, Oklahoma, playing both running back and safety for the football
team. In his junior year, Cobbs rushed for 1,820 yards and 17 touchdowns. As as senior, he rushed for 2,354 yards and 32 touchdowns as he averaged more than eight yards per carry. His performance on offense earned him all-state honors, while he also earned first-team all-area honors as a defensive back
after registering 84 tackles and four interceptions. Cobbs finished his high school career with 4,729 rushing yards and 61 touchdowns on offense, while adding 313 tackles and 16 interceptions on defense.
earned him Sun Belt
Offensive Player of the Week honors. His 399 rushing yards were best in the Sun Belt Conference
. Cobbs also had a 19.2-yard average on kickoff returns, and finished third on the team with 813 all-purpose yards.
Cobbs played in all 13 games as a sophomore in 2002, rushing for 716 yards and eight touchdowns—both second best on the team behind Kevin Galbreath. He had a career game against Louisiana Monroe, rushing for a career high 128 yards and a team record four touchdowns. Cobbs also led the team in kick return (24.4) and punt return (10.1) average, and had a 50-yard kickoff return in the New Orleans Bowl
.
In 2003, Cobbs led the nation in rushing (152.7 yards per game) and scoring (11.5 points per game), while also ranking in the top six in rushing touchdowns (19) and all-purpose yards (1,771 yards). In his first season as the starting running back, Cobbs set three North Texas single-season rushing records and finished in the top five in five different career records. He broke the school record for consecutive 100-yard rushing games, and broke Sun Belt records for rushing yards in a season, rushing yards in a game, as well as rushing touchdowns in a game and longest rush from scrimmage. Cobbs was the only back in the nation to have four 200-yard rushing games that season. The Mean Green were 9-1 when he rushed for more than 100 yards. He also set the Sun Belt single-season mark and the school record with his 1,680 total yards. Cobbs was the first running back at North Texas to lead the nation in rushing and scoring.
In 2004, Cobbs battled numerous injuries in the early part of the season, and after the first few games he took a medical redshirt.
As a senior in 2005, Cobbs was a first team all-Sun Belt Conference running back after leading the conference in total rushing yards with 1,154. Cobbs also led the conference in all-purpose yards with an average of 135.1 yards per game, which is 14 yards per-game better than his closest competitor. In Sun Belt games, Cobbs led the league in rushing yards per game, averaging 127.9—nearly 20 yards per-game more than his closest competitor. His 159.0 all-purpose yards per game against league and was the third-best total in conference history. Cobbs averaged 155 yards rushing in his last four games of the year, including a season-best 197 yards and three touchdowns against Louisiana-Lafayette. He was named the Sun Belt Conference Offensive Player of the Week following his performance in the season-opening win against Middle Tennessee State.
Cobbs finished his career at North Texas as the school’s all-time leading rusher with 4,050 yards—making him only the 69th player in NCAA history to eclipse the 4,000-yard rushing mark. Cobbs holds the North Texas and Sun Belt Conference career records for rushing yards (4,050), rushing touchdowns (36), rushing attempts (818) and all-purpose yards (5,255). He averaged 5.0 yards per carry over his career and was one of only two running backs ever at North Texas to have two 1,000-yard rushing seasons. He also completed 2-of-3 passes with two touchdowns for a career pass efficiency rating of 407.1. Cobbs averaged 21.0 yards on 35 kickoff returns during his career.
Cobbs was named to the ESPN The Magazine
Academic All-America second team after compiling a 3.3 cumulative GPA during his career. He earned two undergraduate degrees at North Texas—a Bachelor’s
in applied arts and Science and a Bachelor’s in sociology
.
Cobbs was originally signed as an undrafted free agent
out of North Texas by the New England Patriots
on May 15, 2006. Battling for a roster spot, Cobbs led the Patriots in rushing during the preseason with 188 yards and three touchdown
s on 38 attempts, while also caught seven passes for 115 yards and a score. He was traded to the Pittsburgh Steelers
for an undisclosed draft pick on September 1.
until November 27 when he was promoted to the active roster. The team was in need of depth at the running back position after starter Ronnie Brown
suffered a broken hand in a Thanksgiving Day contest against the Detroit Lions
just a few days prior to Cobbs' promotion. He went on to play on special teams for three games before being inactive for the final two after Brown's return.
Cobbs remained under contract with the Dolphins in 2007, and earned a backup job in training camp. He did not see action until game 7 (October 21), against the New England Patriots
when Brown was once again injured. In that game, Cobbs temporarily replaced Jesse Chatman
, who had replaced the injured Brown before suffering an injury of his own. Cobbs made the most of his playing time, running for 14 yards and a touchdown on five carries and caught one pass for nine yards. The touchdown was the first of his NFL career.
Cobbs was third-string in 2008 behind Ronnie Brown and Ricky Williams. When his limited opportunity to play arrived, he often shined. He displayed play-making abilities. A certainly bright game for Cobbs was against the Texans; he grabbed 3 passes for 138 yards and 2 touchdowns. One being a 58-yard run and the other an 80-yard run. Cobbs finished the year with 12 rushes for 88 yards and one touchdown. He averaged 7.3 yds/att. He received for 19 catches for 275 yards and two touchdowns. He averaged 14.5 yds/rec.
In Week 5 of the 2009 season, Cobbs tore a knee ligament after being brought down on a reverse wildcat run versus rival the New York Jets
. Lex Hilliard
is expected to take his place as the third string running back.
For the 2010 season Patrick Cobbs was selected as one of four captains, along with OT Jake Long, LB Karlos Dansby, and S Yeremiah Bell.
on August 16, 2011 after Joique Bell was sidelined with a knee injury. Cobbs was released on September 12, 2011 after being placed on injured reserve with an undisclosed injury suffered in the final preseason game.
American football
American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...
running back
Running back
A running back is a gridiron football position, who is typically lined up in the offensive backfield. The primary roles of a running back are to receive handoffs from the quarterback for a rushing play, to catch passes from out of the backfield, and to block.There are usually one or two running...
who is currently a free agent
Free agent
In professional sports, a free agent is a player whose contract with a team has expired and who is thus eligible to sign with another club or franchise....
. He most recently was a member of the New Orleans Saints
New Orleans Saints
The New Orleans Saints are a professional American football team based in New Orleans, Louisiana. They are members of the South Division of the National Football Conference of the National Football League ....
of the National Football League
National Football League
The National Football League is the highest level of professional American football in the United States, and is considered the top professional American football league in the world. It was formed by eleven teams in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association, with the league changing...
. He was signed by the New England Patriots
New England Patriots
The New England Patriots, commonly called the "Pats", are a professional football team based in the Greater Boston area, playing their home games in the town of Foxborough, Massachusetts at Gillette Stadium. The team is part of the East Division of the American Football Conference in the National...
as an undrafted free agent in 2006. He played college football
College football
College football refers to American football played by teams of student athletes fielded by American universities, colleges, and military academies, or Canadian football played by teams of student athletes fielded by Canadian universities...
at North Texas
North Texas Mean Green football
The North Texas Mean Green football team represents the University of North Texas in National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I-FBS college football and competes as a member of the Sun Belt Conference. The Mean Green have attained several conference championships, including four...
.
Cobbs has also been a member of the Pittsburgh Steelers
Pittsburgh Steelers
The Pittsburgh Steelers are a professional football team based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The team currently belongs to the North Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League . Founded in , the Steelers are the oldest franchise in the AFC...
and Miami Dolphins
Miami Dolphins
The Miami Dolphins are a Professional football team based in the Miami metropolitan area in Florida. The team is part of the Eastern Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...
.
Early years
Cobbs was a two-way starterStarting lineup
A starting lineup in sports is an official list of the set of players who will actively participate in the event when the game begins. The players in the starting lineup are commonly referred to as starters, whereas the others are substitutes or bench players.The starters are commonly the best...
at Tecumseh High School
Tecumseh High School (Oklahoma)
Tecumseh High School is a high school located in Tecumseh, Oklahoma. The school nickname is the Savages, and the School's mascot is the Savage.-External links:*...
in Tecumseh
Tecumseh, Oklahoma
Tecumseh is a city in Pottawatomie County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 6,457 at the 2010 census.-Geography:Tecumseh is located at ....
, Oklahoma, playing both running back and safety for the football
High school football
High school football, in North America, refers to the game of football as it is played in the United States and Canada. It ranks among the most popular interscholastic sports in both of these nations....
team. In his junior year, Cobbs rushed for 1,820 yards and 17 touchdowns. As as senior, he rushed for 2,354 yards and 32 touchdowns as he averaged more than eight yards per carry. His performance on offense earned him all-state honors, while he also earned first-team all-area honors as a defensive back
Defensive back
In American football and Canadian football, defensive backs are the players on the defensive team who take positions somewhat back from the line of scrimmage; they are distinguished from the defensive line players and linebackers, who take positions directly behind or close to the line of...
after registering 84 tackles and four interceptions. Cobbs finished his high school career with 4,729 rushing yards and 61 touchdowns on offense, while adding 313 tackles and 16 interceptions on defense.
College career
Playing in every game as a true freshman for North Texas in 2001, Cobbs racked up 399 rushing yards and three touchdowns on 93 carries. A season-high 112 yards and two scores against IdahoUniversity of Idaho
The University of Idaho is the State of Idaho's flagship and oldest public university, located in the rural city of Moscow in Latah County in the northern portion of the state...
earned him Sun Belt
Sun Belt
The Sun Belt or Spanish Belt is a region of the United States generally considered to stretch across the South and Southwest . Another rough boundary of the region is the area south of the 36th parallel, north latitude. It is the largest region which the U.S government does not recognize officially...
Offensive Player of the Week honors. His 399 rushing yards were best in the Sun Belt Conference
Sun Belt Conference
The Sun Belt Conference is a college athletic conference that has been affiliated with the NCAA's Division I since 1976. Its football teams participate in the Division I Football Bowl Subdivision , the higher of two levels of Division I football competition . The Sun Belt has member institutions...
. Cobbs also had a 19.2-yard average on kickoff returns, and finished third on the team with 813 all-purpose yards.
Cobbs played in all 13 games as a sophomore in 2002, rushing for 716 yards and eight touchdowns—both second best on the team behind Kevin Galbreath. He had a career game against Louisiana Monroe, rushing for a career high 128 yards and a team record four touchdowns. Cobbs also led the team in kick return (24.4) and punt return (10.1) average, and had a 50-yard kickoff return in the New Orleans Bowl
New Orleans Bowl
The New Orleans Bowl is a post-season college football bowl game certified by the NCAA that has been played annually at the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana since 2001. The game was sponsored by Wyndham Hotels & Resorts from 2002 to 2004 and was officially called the Wyndham New...
.
In 2003, Cobbs led the nation in rushing (152.7 yards per game) and scoring (11.5 points per game), while also ranking in the top six in rushing touchdowns (19) and all-purpose yards (1,771 yards). In his first season as the starting running back, Cobbs set three North Texas single-season rushing records and finished in the top five in five different career records. He broke the school record for consecutive 100-yard rushing games, and broke Sun Belt records for rushing yards in a season, rushing yards in a game, as well as rushing touchdowns in a game and longest rush from scrimmage. Cobbs was the only back in the nation to have four 200-yard rushing games that season. The Mean Green were 9-1 when he rushed for more than 100 yards. He also set the Sun Belt single-season mark and the school record with his 1,680 total yards. Cobbs was the first running back at North Texas to lead the nation in rushing and scoring.
In 2004, Cobbs battled numerous injuries in the early part of the season, and after the first few games he took a medical redshirt.
As a senior in 2005, Cobbs was a first team all-Sun Belt Conference running back after leading the conference in total rushing yards with 1,154. Cobbs also led the conference in all-purpose yards with an average of 135.1 yards per game, which is 14 yards per-game better than his closest competitor. In Sun Belt games, Cobbs led the league in rushing yards per game, averaging 127.9—nearly 20 yards per-game more than his closest competitor. His 159.0 all-purpose yards per game against league and was the third-best total in conference history. Cobbs averaged 155 yards rushing in his last four games of the year, including a season-best 197 yards and three touchdowns against Louisiana-Lafayette. He was named the Sun Belt Conference Offensive Player of the Week following his performance in the season-opening win against Middle Tennessee State.
Cobbs finished his career at North Texas as the school’s all-time leading rusher with 4,050 yards—making him only the 69th player in NCAA history to eclipse the 4,000-yard rushing mark. Cobbs holds the North Texas and Sun Belt Conference career records for rushing yards (4,050), rushing touchdowns (36), rushing attempts (818) and all-purpose yards (5,255). He averaged 5.0 yards per carry over his career and was one of only two running backs ever at North Texas to have two 1,000-yard rushing seasons. He also completed 2-of-3 passes with two touchdowns for a career pass efficiency rating of 407.1. Cobbs averaged 21.0 yards on 35 kickoff returns during his career.
Cobbs was named to the ESPN The Magazine
ESPN The Magazine
ESPN The Magazine is a bi-weekly sports magazine published by the ESPN sports network in Bristol, Connecticut in the United States. The first issue was published on March 11, 1998....
Academic All-America second team after compiling a 3.3 cumulative GPA during his career. He earned two undergraduate degrees at North Texas—a Bachelor’s
Bachelor's degree
A bachelor's degree is usually an academic degree awarded for an undergraduate course or major that generally lasts for three or four years, but can range anywhere from two to six years depending on the region of the world...
in applied arts and Science and a Bachelor’s in sociology
Sociology
Sociology is the study of society. It is a social science—a term with which it is sometimes synonymous—which uses various methods of empirical investigation and critical analysis to develop a body of knowledge about human social activity...
.
New England Patriots
Free agent
In professional sports, a free agent is a player whose contract with a team has expired and who is thus eligible to sign with another club or franchise....
out of North Texas by the New England Patriots
New England Patriots
The New England Patriots, commonly called the "Pats", are a professional football team based in the Greater Boston area, playing their home games in the town of Foxborough, Massachusetts at Gillette Stadium. The team is part of the East Division of the American Football Conference in the National...
on May 15, 2006. Battling for a roster spot, Cobbs led the Patriots in rushing during the preseason with 188 yards and three touchdown
Touchdown
A touchdown is a means of scoring in American and Canadian football. Whether running, passing, returning a kickoff or punt, or recovering a turnover, a team scores a touchdown by advancing the ball into the opponent's end zone.-Description:...
s on 38 attempts, while also caught seven passes for 115 yards and a score. He was traded to the Pittsburgh Steelers
Pittsburgh Steelers
The Pittsburgh Steelers are a professional football team based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The team currently belongs to the North Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League . Founded in , the Steelers are the oldest franchise in the AFC...
for an undisclosed draft pick on September 1.
Pittsburgh Steelers
Cobbs was inactive for the team's first regular season game against the Miami Dolphins, as he was still learning the playbook. A day after the game took place, Cobbs was released by the team. After he cleared waivers, Cobbs refused to sign to the Steelers' practice squad and instead was added to the practice squad of the Dolphins.Miami Dolphins
Cobbs remained on the practice squad of the Miami DolphinsMiami Dolphins
The Miami Dolphins are a Professional football team based in the Miami metropolitan area in Florida. The team is part of the Eastern Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...
until November 27 when he was promoted to the active roster. The team was in need of depth at the running back position after starter Ronnie Brown
Ronnie Brown
Ronnie G. Brown, Jr. is an American football running back for the Philadelphia Eagles of the National Football League . After graduating from Cartersville High School in Georgia, Brown attended Auburn University to play college football for the Auburn Tigers...
suffered a broken hand in a Thanksgiving Day contest against the Detroit Lions
Detroit Lions
The Detroit Lions are a professional American football team based in Detroit, Michigan. They are members of the North Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League , and play their home games at Ford Field in Downtown Detroit.Originally based in Portsmouth, Ohio and...
just a few days prior to Cobbs' promotion. He went on to play on special teams for three games before being inactive for the final two after Brown's return.
Cobbs remained under contract with the Dolphins in 2007, and earned a backup job in training camp. He did not see action until game 7 (October 21), against the New England Patriots
New England Patriots
The New England Patriots, commonly called the "Pats", are a professional football team based in the Greater Boston area, playing their home games in the town of Foxborough, Massachusetts at Gillette Stadium. The team is part of the East Division of the American Football Conference in the National...
when Brown was once again injured. In that game, Cobbs temporarily replaced Jesse Chatman
Jesse Chatman
Jesse Percee Chatman is an American football running back for the Virginia Destroyers of the United Football League. He was signed by the San Diego Chargers as an undrafted free agent in 2002...
, who had replaced the injured Brown before suffering an injury of his own. Cobbs made the most of his playing time, running for 14 yards and a touchdown on five carries and caught one pass for nine yards. The touchdown was the first of his NFL career.
Cobbs was third-string in 2008 behind Ronnie Brown and Ricky Williams. When his limited opportunity to play arrived, he often shined. He displayed play-making abilities. A certainly bright game for Cobbs was against the Texans; he grabbed 3 passes for 138 yards and 2 touchdowns. One being a 58-yard run and the other an 80-yard run. Cobbs finished the year with 12 rushes for 88 yards and one touchdown. He averaged 7.3 yds/att. He received for 19 catches for 275 yards and two touchdowns. He averaged 14.5 yds/rec.
In Week 5 of the 2009 season, Cobbs tore a knee ligament after being brought down on a reverse wildcat run versus rival the New York Jets
New York Jets
The New York Jets are a professional football team headquartered in Florham Park, New Jersey, representing the New York metropolitan area. The team is a member of the Eastern Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...
. Lex Hilliard
Lex Hilliard
Hilliard returned to the field as a fifth-year senior in 2007, appearing in 11 games for the Grizzlies. He rushed for 1,132 yards and 16 touchdowns on his way to second-team All-Big Sky honors. He topped the 100-yard rushing plateau seven times during the season....
is expected to take his place as the third string running back.
For the 2010 season Patrick Cobbs was selected as one of four captains, along with OT Jake Long, LB Karlos Dansby, and S Yeremiah Bell.
New Orleans Saints
He signed with the New Orleans SaintsNew Orleans Saints
The New Orleans Saints are a professional American football team based in New Orleans, Louisiana. They are members of the South Division of the National Football Conference of the National Football League ....
on August 16, 2011 after Joique Bell was sidelined with a knee injury. Cobbs was released on September 12, 2011 after being placed on injured reserve with an undisclosed injury suffered in the final preseason game.