Noah’s Arc

By Os Davis  |   Thursday, June 15, 2006  |  Comments( 0 )

Green Bay Packers
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Hey, who is that running the ball in Green Bay Packer land, that mysterious number 23? He's not Najeh Davenport and not Ahman Green, the guys who combined to produce over 6,600 yards on the ground in the 2001-2004 seasons. And he's not Samkon Gado, who held the chief running back position for the last half of last year, racking up six TD's and 582 yards on 143 carries.

Nope. There's buzz from the Pack's camp this week about young Noah Herron, a guy who might just have found himself in the right place at the right time.

Noah's story arc begins at Northwestern. After redshirting his rookie year, Herron worked his way to the top through his four years at university; he eventually piled up 3,635 total yards, putting him fifth all-time in the Wildcat record books. In his senior year of 2004, having finally grabbed firm hold of the starting spot, Herron ran up an amazing stat line. His 1,381 yards on 274 carries translates to a nice 5.0 yards per carry, and he scored more than one TD per game for a total of fourteen.

And then Herron started over in the depths. He barely squeaked into the draft, chosen by the Pittsburgh Steelers at number 30 in the seventh round; to be exact, Noah was the 244th pick of the 2005 draft. He rose as "high" as fifth on the Pittsburgh depth chart and actually saw action in the regular season, carrying the ball three times for two yards.

The Steelers then bounced the back, only to retain him for the practice squad. The Pack suffered a few key injuries (read: Green, Davenport) and attained Herron essentially as a warm body for the roster. And then the warm body got hot. In Week Ten in Atlanta, Gado went down and Noah went in. The new guy carried the ball eight times in that game and put a TD on the board the following week against Chicago. To close out the year, Herron went for sixty-one and six points in the upset win over the Seattle Seahawks.

Green and Davenport have missed minicamp due to injuries, and officials have released no hard details about the extent of those problems. Neither has official information been stated about Herron's increased playing time at the expense of Gado, although most suspect that it's all about learning Coach McCarthy's new offensive scheme that everyone from Favre on down has to master. Herron has gotten high marks for his quick master of the new zone-blocking being implemented, a similar version of which he played under at Northwestern.

So, here's Herron at the crossroads. Ostensibly fighting for the last spot on the depth chart, the situation in Green Bay at the RB position is so fluid right now (someday we'll hear more about those injuries, to be sure) that Herron could be anywhere in the master plan by season's end. Check in about forty days and forty nights from now to get a better idea.

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About Os Davis

Os Davis has taken a twisted route to get to RealFootball365.com in his nearly 17 years in professional writing, working in any number of capacities in the sportswriting, news reporting and film criticism worlds. In print media, Os has served as editor at a few publications, including Albuquerque's...
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