Stanley Patrick Cobbs (born January 31, 1983) is a former

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wi ...

running back A running back (RB) is a member of the offensive backfield in gridiron football. The primary roles of a running back are to receive handoffs from the quarterback to rush the ball, to line up as a receiver to catch the ball, and block. Ther ...

. He most recently was a member of the

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of the

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. He was signed by the New England Patriots as an

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in 2006. He played college football at

North Texas North Texas (also commonly called North Central Texas) is a term used primarily by residents of Dallas, Fort Worth, and surrounding areas to describe much of the north central portion of the U.S. state of Texas. Residents of the Dallas–Fort Wo ...

. Cobbs has also been a member of the Pittsburgh Steelers and

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Early years

Cobbs was a two-way starter at Tecumseh High School in Tecumseh, Oklahoma, playing both running back and

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for the football team. In his junior year, Cobbs rushed for 1,820 yards and 17 touchdowns. As a 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. Cobbs also ran track and field in high school, where he participated in the 400 meter dash.

College career

Playing in every game as a

true freshman Redshirt, in United States college athletics, is a delay or suspension of an athlete's participation in order to lengthen their period of eligibility. Typically, a student's athletic eligibility in a given sport is four seasons, aligning with the ...

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

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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 The New Orleans Bowl is an NCAA-sanctioned post-season college football bowl game that has been played annually since 2001. It is normally held at Caesars Superdome in New Orleans; when the Superdome and the rest of the city suffered damage due t ...

. 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

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. 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

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history to eclipse the 4,000-yard rushing mark. Cobbs held North Texas and Sun Belt Conference career records for rushing yards (4,050), rushing touchdowns (36), and all-purpose yards (5,255) until 2011, when he was eclipsed in all of those records by

Lance Dunbar Lance Dunbar, Jr. (born January 25, 1990) is a former American football running back. He played college football at University of North Texas and was signed by the Dallas Cowboys as an undrafted free agent in 2012. Early years Dunbar was born i ...

. He still owns the school record for rushing attempts with 818. 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

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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

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Professional career

New England Patriots

Cobbs was originally signed as an undrafted

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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

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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.

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

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 G. Brown Jr. (born December 12, 1981) is a former American football running back. After graduating from Cartersville High School in Georgia, Brown attended Auburn University to play college football for the Auburn Tigers. He and Cadill ...

suffered a broken hand in a

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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.

New Orleans Saints

He signed with the

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.

References

External links

Miami Dolphins bioNew England Patriots bioNorth Texas Mean Green bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cobbs, Patrick 1983 births Living people Sportspeople from Shawnee, Oklahoma Players of American football from Oklahoma American football running backs North Texas Mean Green football players New England Patriots players Pittsburgh Steelers players Miami Dolphins players New Orleans Saints players Ed Block Courage Award recipients