He is the great NFL hope for players barely hanging on to any kind of NFL life partially because he doesn't look like anybody's great NFL hope.

At 5-8, squat with an easily smiling, boyish face that belies animal competitiveness, Dolphins running back Patrick Cobbs could pass for a kind local grocer or personal trainer.

Cobbs was in three NFL locker rooms in one month, and the Dolphins' locker room for almost three months before he could call himself an NFL player. Three years later, he still is an NFL player, Dolphins coach Tony Sparano's kind of NFL player.

``I don't have favorite players. They're all my favorite,'' Sparano said of Cobbs, although something in the words lacked his usual conviction. ``But I kind of like these kinds of guys that are productive in games and what you see is what you get. You know, I don't like those guys with a million different personalities. So, I like the guys that what you see is what you get. Same thing they give you at practice, they give you at the game, and he's one of those guys.''

What Cobbs gives in games and practices is simple: everything. Last year, he returned kickoffs for the Dolphins, took a screen pass 80 yards against Houston for the longest touchdown reception ever by a Dolphins running back and tied for the team lead with 16 special-teams tackles.

Just as he'll do anything in a game -- run the ball, catch it, block, return kickoffs, cover kickoffs and punts -- he does everything all out in practice. Then again, there is no other option for 5-8 running backs who don't get drafted. Either they do everything or soon they won't be doing anything.

``You have Ronnie [Brown], you have Ricky [Williams], you are not sure where this guy fits in,'' Dolphins coach Tony Sparano said. ``And, slow and steady he shows you every day out here that he warrants having a role. Little by little, you start to give him more crumbs every single day, and you figure out he can handle a little bit more of this, a little bit more of that. Before you know it, you got a big-old pie out there.''

That is called making the most of your crumbs.

``I've talked to [rookie free agent wide receiver] Chris Williams and some of the other guys and I tell them to take the opportunities you get and make the most of them,'' Cobbs said. ``Even if you only get one rep, even if you don't know exactly what you're doing, do it at 100 mph. They can coach you on what to do, but they can't coach effort.''

Sparano said: ``If there's a guy to watch, you should watch him. Patrick is that guy, I think, younger people watching practice, and watching what he's done to make this football team and really to earn the confidence of this coaching staff is pretty impressive.''

Sparano came to the Dolphins knowing Cobbs only as the running back who, while Sparano was in Dallas, tore up the Sun Belt Conference at North Texas with 4,050 yards and 36 touchdowns over four seasons. While Sparano always says Cobbs was ``a legend'' in that region, NFL scouts were not as impressed. Cobbs went undrafted in 2006 and signed with New England as a free agent.

New England traded him to Pittsburgh for a draft pick, and the Steelers released him a week later, just after he had been inactive for their season-opening win over the Dolphins.

Cobbs had been discarded by two of the NFL's savviest personnel departments. But the Dolphins signed him to their practice squad four days after the Steelers released him. He spent 10 games on the Dolphins' practice squad before getting onto the roster for three of the final five games.

And there he has stayed through three coaches, the third of which appreciates him most even if he isn't sure Cobbs is an every-down back.

``But I know one thing: he'll have a career in this league for a long time because of what he does,'' Sparano said.