December 16
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
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Last weekend was a 2009 replay for Ryan Grant. The 29-year-old running back's split-second anticipation and patience resurfaced. He had his longest run since Dec. 27, 2009, and looked as fresh as he has all season. It'll all add up to more opportunities. Right? "I could say something smart like if we got a 47-yarder on the first run, we might," joked offensive coordinator Joe Philbin, referring to Grant's first carry last week. Correct, this is a pass-first, pass-often team. Even though the temperature is falling, the Green Bay Packers will likely keep throwing the ball often. But Grant, fresh off the team's best rushing day of the season, probably will see more touches out of necessity."
December 12
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
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Ryan Grant wasn't sure if he turned back the clock. He felt pretty good, however, about cleaning the Oakland Raiders' clocks. Grant set the tone for the Green Bay Packers on the first play from scrimmage Sunday, bursting through a hole, making safety Michael Huff miss and then outrunning the rest of the Raiders' defense to the end zone. His 47-yard touchdown run was nearly three times longer than his previous longest run this season - a 14-yarder against Chicago in Week 3 - and he helped revive a struggling ground game in the Packers' 46-16 victory. "I don't know about turning back the clock," said Grant, who rushed for 1,253 yards in 2009 but then missed nearly all of 2010 with an ankle"
November 22
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
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Just as the Green Bay Packers might need their running game one day, Ryan Grant figures that the running game might need him some day. It very well could be Thursday because James Starks, the primary ball carrier and leading rusher on the team, suffered a sprained knee and ankle Sunday against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Lambeau Field. Starks' status is up in the air, although coach Mike McCarthy said the second-year back would try to practice Tuesday, and Grant said things were looking positive for his teammate's return. "He's sore," McCarthy said. "We're going to see what he can do. He feels like it's a little bit more like a normal day after the game. We'll see how he goes tomorrow.""
November 5
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
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Donald Driver has caught a measly 13 passes for the Green Bay Packers. Jermichael Finley ranks just 11th among tight ends in receiving yards. Randall Cobb has played just 93 snaps. Andrew Quarless has been the target of one pass. James Starks has scored one touchdown. John Kuhn has touched the ball 14 times. Neither Matt Flynn nor Ryan Taylor has been asked to do much of anything. Alex Green had four touches before going on injured reserve. D.J. Williams has one catch. From Week 8 of 2007 through 2009, Ryan Grant's 3,385 rushing yards ranked second to Minnesota's Adrian Peterson. Seven games into this season, he ranks 43rd with 229. Every skilled-position player on offense other than Aaron"
September 29
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
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Ryan Grant lost so much time rehabbing a serious ankle injury last season that he doesn't really have the patience for a kidney bruise. The Green Bay Packers running back expressed frustration Wednesday that he might be held out of the Denver Broncos game Sunday because the medical staff is reluctant to clear him. A decision won't be made until Friday, but Grant was held out of practice and probably will be again Thursday. "It's definitely frustrating, Grant said. "That's kind of the mood that I'm in right now. I think it's even harder because of me sitting out so many games last year. I don't want to miss a game at all. But I kind of have no say in this.""
September 26
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
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Quarterback Aaron Rodgers calls the Green Bay Packers' tailback tandem a "two-headed monster." But only half of it was raging Sunday. Ryan Grant had his best game since coming back from ankle surgery: 92 on 17 carries Sunday in the 27-17 victory against the Chicago Bears. James Starks, whose rookie star continued to rise last season here at Soldier Field in the NFC Championship Game against the Bears, couldn't get his part of the twosome in gear. Starks averaged just a half-yard on 11 carries and lost a fumble when Bears linebacker Lance Briggs stripped him of the football. "I didn't get control of the ball," said Starks, who did not fumble during the late breakout portion of his rookie"
September 6
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
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The goal is for Green Bay running backs Ryan Grant and James Starks to get an equal amount of rushing attempts Thursday night against New Orleans. That's the plan for now, anyway. With a healthy Grant back after missing nearly all of the 2010 season, the Packers are faced with the new challenge of merging his comeback with the progression of Starks, whose late-season emergence as a rookie paced the Packers through the playoffs. And the only way to figure it out literally is to let things play out. "We know what they can do," first-year running backs coach Jerry Fontenot said. "It's just a matter of getting them comfortable and making sure they've gotten enough reps to do it. The only way I"
August 29
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
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Just because running back Ryan Grant of the Green Bay Packers absorbed a $1 million pay cut this season doesn't mean he's bitter about it. In fact, Grant has accepted the reduction almost as an occupational hazard for a running back in the National Football League. "When you don't take that personal it makes football easy," Grant said Sunday. "I wasn't the first and I won't be the last. That's how it goes." Although the renegotiated final year of his four-year, $18 million contract was dated Aug. 9, Grant made it sound like agreement was reached before veterans reported July 29. In the deal, Grant's base salary of $3.5 million was reduced to $2.5 million. In return, his $2.5 million base"
August 25
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
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Running back Ryan Grant, facing the possibility of being released by the Green Bay Packers, strengthened his chances of making the final roster by accepting a $1 million pay cut in exchange for a guaranteed contract. The Packers and Alan Herman, the agent for Grant, negotiated a restructured deal Aug. 9 in which Grant's base salary was reduced from $3.5 million to $2.5 million. His cap salary this year decreased from $4.797 million to $3.797 million. In return, Grant's new base salary of $2.5 million was fully guaranteed against both skill and injury, according to financial information obtained by the Journal Sentinel. Thus, if the Packers were to cut Grant on the final roster reduction"
August 24
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
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If Green Bay Packers general manager Ted Thompson decides to keep just three halfbacks, he's going to have a tough call to make. Does he stick with what he knows he has or with what he hopes he has? That is the difference between Ryan Grant and Dimitri Nance, two backs as different as night is from day, but possibly competitors for one roster position. It might seem like heresy to even consider the Packers letting Grant go, but the truth is about two weeks before the season opener the only certainties at the position for the 53-man roster are James Starks, Alex Green and John Kuhn. Grant is healthy again after spending 19 games on injured reserve with a damaged ankle, and the coaches have"
August 20
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
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Running back Ryan Grant has shown no signs of physical limitations in his comeback from a severe ankle and leg injury last season. Come Friday night in Indianapolis, look for coach Mike McCarthy to give Grant a larger number of carries than the eight he has had in the Green Bay Packers' first two exhibition games. "Running backs are just like quarterbacks," McCarthy said Friday night after the Packers beat the Arizona Cardinals, 28-20, at Lambeau Field. "Running backs need different looks. He needs reps. He'll be the first to tell you that." Grant rushed five times for 23 yards. Combined with a 3-for-12 effort in Cleveland, Grant is averaging 4.4 per carry (8-35). On his second carry"
August 3
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
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He looked so thin. Green Bay Packers running back Ryan Grant doesn't think he slipped below 200 pounds. But he sure looked like it. Jeans sagged. Shoulders shrunk. His shirt looked like it was off tackle Chad Clifton's back. Hobbling around on crutches, Grant didn't look like the NFL running back that absorbed hits from linebackers and churned up 1,200-plus yards each of the previous two seasons. He looked like just a guy. But that was November. This is August. And what Grant lost he has worked tirelessly for nearly a year to regain. Grant had surgery after he suffered ligament damage in his right ankle in the 2010 opener at Philadelphia. "I was expecting an awesome year, 1,500," he said."
May 15
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
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Green Bay Packers running back Ryan Grant and his girlfriend Lita Lewis attended the junior prom of Burlington's Catholic Central High School at Hawk's View Country Club in Lake Geneva on Friday night. In March, Grant met with juniors from the high school and made them a deal. If the students volunteered their time at Grant's Ryan4Ryan Celebration and donated all the money they had raised for the prom, Grant would pick up the tab for their formal event."
March 16
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
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Ryan Grant was leaving Lambeau Field late last December when he got the message that Ryan Luxem, the 11-year-old Green Bay Packers fan with leukemia, had died. The news was not unexpected, but somehow that did nothing to lessen the sorrow upon learning it. Grant thought of how hard Luxem fought to stay alive as long as he did and asked the questions that have no satisfactory answers. Why him? How is this right? How is this fair? Then, he started thinking. "He touched me, he brought something to me," said Grant. "And I'm in a position to bring something to others. I needed to do something and I wanted to get others involved, too." The Packers running back was in Burlington on Tuesday to do"
November 25
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
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Ryan Grant admittedly is bored out of his mind. On crutches since his ankle surgery in September, he misses his day job - running by linebackers for the Green Bay Packers. So he's checking his e-mail more than usual. On Friday when he saw a message about an 11-year old Packers fan with an advanced stage of leukemia, he asked his agents to buy a ton of Packers stuff. He knew the situation was dire but the boy was trying an experimental treatment. So he planned a trip to Milwaukee. For the next day. "Can I spend some time with him or does it have to be quick?" Grant wanted to know. The relationship between the Packers and their fans has always been special, but Grant wanted to give this boy"
September 15
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
columnist Michael Hunt
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The New Orleans Saints won the Super Bowl last season with the NFL's No. 1 offense. They were about as optimally balanced as a team could be with the fourth-best passing scheme and the No. 6 running game. They didn't live by Drew Brees alone, but it's not like they had Chris Johnson, either. The Saints ran the ball by committee in '09, with no one gaining more than Pierre Thomas' 793 yards. In doing so, they have shown what is possible without a dominant rusher when you have a very dangerous quarterback. Whether they can do it again this season remains open to question. Mike Bell is gone. Two other backs were injured in preseason (including P.J. Hill, although it's debatable how much the"
September 15
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
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The Green Bay Packers took a chance by keeping just two running backs on the roster to start the season, and after one game have lost the most important one for the entire year. Starter Ryan Grant was injured in the second quarter of the Packers' 27-20 victory over Philadelphia Sunday when safety Quintin Mikell pulled him down from behind and landed with his full weight on Grant's right ankle. According to an NFL source, Grant tore the ligament that holds the two ankle bones together and will require surgery to insert screws to hold it in place. Grant also suffered a slight fracture of the upper fibula, but it is a minor injury and will heal on its own. Grant said on his Twitter account"
September 14
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
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Packers running back Ryan Grant is done for the season with a severe ankle injury and will be placed on injured reserve, a source said today. Grant has a torn ligament that holds two bones in his ankle and will need surgery to repair the tear, the source said. Grant injured his ankle in the second quarter of Sunday's season-opening victory over Philadelphia and did not return."
September 14
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
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Running back Ryan Grant will miss the Green Bay Packers' home opener Sunday against Buffalo with an injured ankle. After that, his status remains unknown. During his news conference Monday morning, coach Mike McCarthy said Grant was still taking tests and waiting for results to determine the severity of the injury that was, the day before, described as a sprain but now appears more severe. "It's a significant injury to the ankle and the ligament involved in the ankle," McCarthy said. McCarthy also said he didn't yet know if the injury would require surgery. Grant was not available in the locker room, but he spoke to 1250 WSSP radio later Monday. Grant was vague about the injury, saying"
September 13
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
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Starting RB Ryan Grant has been ruled out of the Buffalo game with the ankle injury, which McCarthy described as serious. More tests are being conducted. "Well, it's a significant injury to the ankle and the ligament involved in the ankle, which has now required more testing, and we'll continue to process all the information throughout the day." He doesn't yet know if the injury will require surgery. McCarthy said he will not make a deicision about a potential roster move at the running back position -- like possibly promoting James Johnson from the practice squad -- until he knows the full scope of Grant's injury."
October 26
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
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No one with the Green Bay Packers has said a word to running back Ryan Grant about him needing to pick up his game a notch this season. But one could see how the addition of veteran Ahman Green and the return to health of Brandon Jackson might send a message that it's time for him to have, oh, say, a 27-carry, 148-yard, one-touchdown performance a week before the Packers play one of the most important games of the season. If that message was being sent, Grant said after his outstanding day against the lowly Cleveland Browns on Sunday, he hadn't received it. He maintained this was something building up in his system that happened to cut loose at the right time. "I don't know if it was"
September 7
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
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On most days this off-season, Ryan Grant would emerge through the familiar Packers tunnel onto Lambeau Field, turn left and take off, starting at the aisle between Sections 131 and 133. He sprinted every step - not skipping two at a time - running up and then down each and every aisle. Past the seats where the bikini girls brave the elements, past where the adoring await with open arms for the Lambeau Leap, past the press box and rows of critics, around to the scoreboard that so badly needs him and by the famous retired numbers of Hutson, Starr, Nitschke and White. Forty-five minutes later, he was done, heart pumping and head cleared of everything except the upcoming 2009 season. In hushed"
December 26
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
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Running back Ryan Grant's drop-off in production will be examined closely when the Green Bay Packers conclude their season. Grant was a true home-run hitter last season, but this season his runs of 20 or more yards can be counted on one hand. Despite having 105 more carries than he did last year, Grant has just four runs of 20 or more yards, including one of 40 or more. Compare that to last year, when he had 11 runs of 20 or more yards, two fewer than San Diego's LaDainian Tomlinson, who had 127 more carries. Grant, who had two runs of 40 or more yards - both for touchdowns - averaged more 20-yard runs per carry than any other back in the NFL. Through 15 games this year, Grant has 1,097"
November 23
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
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Someone is always digging and clawing at Ryan Grant's forearms. Someone is always looking for the weak spot in the foundation. Even during the Minnesota game after the whistle blew the play dead, one of the Vikings hollered, "I almost had that, Grant." "No you didn't!" Grant shot back. Green Bay's starting running back hasn't fumbled since the Indianapolis game Oct. 19 and hasn't lost a fumble since Week 4 at Tampa Bay. So even though his carries are way up, he has also been protecting the ball. "You just can't let it happen," said Grant. New Orleans, the Packers' opponent Monday, isn't known for forcing it out on running backs. It has seven forced fumbles and recovered five. But fumbles"
October 13
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
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When he woke up Sunday morning, Green Bay Packers running back Ryan Grant thought he was in for a normal afternoon. These days, that means about 40 snaps from scrimmage and 15 to 18 carries. But when Grant got to the stadium, he found out that backup running back Brandon Jackson was dealing with flu-like symptoms and would not be able to play. That left him and second-year pro DeShawn Wynn, who had been promoted from the practice squad on Saturday, to handle the running back duties. Even playing most of the snaps wouldn't have been bad, but when coach Mike McCarthy called 33 running plays for Grant, it became an endurance test. Nearing full health after a long bout with a hamstring injury,"