Jerious Norwood

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Jerious Norwood
Date of birth July 29, 1983 (age 23)
Place of birth Flag of United States Jackson, Mississippi
Position(s) Running back
College Mississippi State
NFL Draft 2006 / Round 3 / Pick 79
Statistics
Team(s)
2006-Present Atlanta Falcons

Jerious Norwood (Born July 29, 1983 in Jackson, Mississippi) is a current American football running back for the Atlanta Falcons.

Norwood was drafted with the 15th pick in the third round of the 2006 NFL Draft.

He played high school football at Brandon High School in Brandon, MS where he was a high school All-American. He was also Mississippi's Mr. Football, an honor given to the state's most outstanding high school football player. He scored 100 touchdowns while in high school. Norwood played college football at Mississippi State University, where he is the school's all-time leading rusher with 3333 rushing yards. At the annual draft combine, Norwood had an impressive 40 yard dash time of 4.37 seconds.

He has earned the nickname around the team of "Darkness", mainly for the extreme dark color of his skin. He is also affectionately called "Baby Dog" by a fellow teammate as he is the youngest of three running backs from Mississippi State University on the Falcons' roster, along with FB Fred McCrary and FB/TB Justin "Cokie" Griffith. Norwood is considered by some to be the greatest football player to ever play at MSU.

[edit] NFL Career

In week 4 against the Arizona Cardinals, Jerious Norwood recorded his first NFL touchdown, a seventy-eight yard touchdown run. With both he and Mike Vick rushing for more than 100 yards that game (106 and 101 respectively), the Atlanta Falcons became the only franchise in NFL history where the quarterback and running back ran for 100 yards in a game more than once. (Vick and starting RB Warrick Dunn both broke the 100-yard barrier in the same game in Week 2). Norwood's 78-yard TD-run that game is the second longest run in Falcons' history.

Norwood is considered by many to have been the steal of the 2006 draft, as he has already found great success both rushing and receiving as a compliment to the aging Dunn. In 14 regular season games, Norwood amassed 633 yards rushing on 99 carries, with an NFL-best 6.4 yards per carry for running backs. Eventually, he is expected to become the feature back for the Falcons, who have led the NFL in rushing every year since 2004. Jerious Norwood is believed to be the star Falcons running back for years to come.