Haven't you heard they are negotiating a trade with Denver.................................................................for Brady Quinn.
Ya, after using hindsight on his pro career. You would have taken him #1 overall back when he was drafted? No...
I'm curious as to why Barber fell off the cliff last season. Did all the tread just wear off his tires, or was he playing through some kind of undisclosed injury? Do any of us truly and actually know for sure? In 2009, he had one of his best seasons, and if he approximated that effort and Thomas did about the same, I'd think we'd be pretty happy. I see Felix Jones also dropped off a lot in ypc from '09 to '10, going from 5.9 to 4.3. 4.3 sounds acceptable but it's actually a bigger drop off than Barber going from 4.4 to 3.3. Between them their combined carry totals was about 30 less and their combined yards dropped from over 1600 to 1174. Could it be there were other circumstances that effected the run game than Barber just losing it, physicality wise?
Meh. This is the kind of move you make NEXT week after everyone else has been signed, he's a fall back signing for depth. If this is our target back and we go into the season with Barber and a Rook #1 and 2 I don't like the chances of our running game improving a whole lot. Barber is not as good as Ronnie at this point in their careers so I don't understand this guy being their #1 target at RB. Honestly this front office seems really reluctant to move out of their comfort zone, they stick with Dallas guys and don't bring in real challengers to go up against their draft picks, they seem afraid of taking some chances. Not really a big deal if it isn't a huge contract but still this is the beginning of one of the biggest free agency frenzies in the history of sports and we are hot and heavy for Barber? Cmon now.
Do we know yet if he even is our target back, or if we'll sign him at all, and if we do, could it be just a bargain basement depth signing that will go along with another more high profile signing like DWill?
The only real positives I see here is that Barber is considered one of the best (if not the best) pass-blocking backs in the game, and perhaps the lockout has given Barber's body the chance to rest and heal up to the point where he regains some lost explosiveness. But yeah, it's a pretty big gap going from Bradshaw/Williams to him.
Well, the possibility also exists, if he is actually signed, that he Starts over DTrain to start the season with DT taking the relief role as Barber is a more polished running back in terms of pass catching and blocking, would not surprise me. Also think Ireland is conserving as much Cap as possible and trying to pick up quality over quantity, 13 million is not a lot of space to work with the needs the team has at big money positions like Qb and Rb. Even backup Qb's are pulling down 3 million dollar per yr deals.
I think the reason why they are bothering with Barber is perhaps he does not create negative plays in the running game, in that sense he is consistent, but clearly not a home run threat, but a 3-4 ypc grinder carry after carry? As for Mallett and Thomas, there is a sort of confusion over the value of draft choices Ck, wherein a players draft postion is the sole thing that dictates their performance in the NFL, of course it simply is not true, the perception is certainly there.
According to the Palm Beach Post it's more like $11 million after the rookies sign. Less after adding that Browns OLB.
Well, keep in mind though media cap calculations seldomnly are correct VDP, and it does a club no good to correct them.
I like Barber. I think he'd fit in really well here. And LOL @ the people who get all pissy because we seem to grab a fair share of former Cowboy's players. What's wrong with a coach picking up cheap players that he already knows and who already know him? I mean, I'm not saying that the Dolphins should pick Barber over Bradshaw if we have a chance to get him, but Barber is a beast, has good vision, good hands, blocks well, and because of the way he's been utilized he has another 3-5 (or more) good years left.
Well, there's certainly more quality RBs out there than Marion Barber. And there's also certainly more quality OLBs out there than Jason Trusnik. There lack of interest in a guy like Antwan Barnes is troublesome; nearly as much so as the apparent interest in Marion Barber in my opinion.
Whom for quality north south runners do we have right now, other than Daniel Thomas? He makes one, not several. Even if one believes Lex Hilliard is a proven quality north south runner, which I don't, that still only makes 2, not several. Who am I not thinking of?
I don't think Barber is that bad an option for a #2 back. He had a ****ty year, but there were mitigating circumstances. The Cowboys OL flat broke down, and Marion Barber was basically in a position to get the **** end of the stick on carries that weren't going to help his average(Short yardage, etc.) I don't see how he could possibly be worn down, either. He really doesn't have that many career carries. There are younger backs that are supposedly in their prime like Maurice Jones-Drew, Adrian Peterson, etc. that have more touches than him.
performance v contract number R4, Trusnik makes sense because he can do so many things well, Barber is more then likely a good performance vs contract type of running back, but not the BEST running back on the market, this is the reality of the Cap. They paid Rb and RW 7 million between the two of them, Barber and Thomas probably cost 4 million combined, that 3 million in savings allows us to upgrade ST and Lb depth with Trusnik with some room to spare towards another position.
Would not have stopped me from acquiring much needed talent at the qb position. Plus it wouldn't have stopped them, because they would have drafted Locker or Ponder if they where available.
Not excited about Barber in the least. Maybe he didn't have alot of help on the o-line there last year, I am not sure. I was alot more interested in him about 3 years ago.
For the record, I don't have a problem with Marion Barber's being a former Cowboy. I have a problem with Marion Barber being a former good running back.
2003? I tried to match up the numbers to see what # you were close to and meant to hit but I had no luck.
Even in 2009 which was supposedly one of his finest years, what are we talking about, 4.2 yards per carry? About 21 missed tackles on 225 carries? I mean the argument kind of cuts both ways. In 2009 the OL was so good that Felix Jones was able to average 5.9 yards per carry, which is WAY above norm. Is it any wonder that Barber was able to attain a mediocre 4.2 average with the OL blocking like that? Lex Hilliard could do the same in those circumstances, I'd say. But when the OL comes back down to earth to where Felix Jones comes back to the mean at 4.3 yards per carry, Marion Barber dips all the way to 3.3 yards per carry which is terrible. His production and efficiency seem like they're waning across the board. Could just be sample error but in 2008 he scored a TD on 41% of his Goal to Go carries, which dropped to 32% in 2009 and was like 17% in 2010. And that's supposed to be something of a specialty for him, punching it into the end zone. I think a lot of people make the mistake of watching a guy and not admitting he's broken down until he basically looks like he should be in a wheel chair, but the reality is in this league and especially at that position, you're broken down when a bunch of cheap unheralded guys look just as effective as you if not more, and that's where I would say Marion Barber is right now. To pull an old Dave Wannstedt line out, what can Marion Barber do that Lex Hilliard can't? The sad part is, the answer is 'not much'. At least in my opinion.
I slept great when we passed on Mallett. I had him rated as a 2nd round QB at best before factoring in the "turd" element. And my impression was that 20+ NFL teams felt the same.
And what does that have to do with the NFL feeling the same about Daniel Thomas to where they were ready to let him fall into the 3rd round?
I think Barber fell off the cliff b/c his running style is a short-term style. He was a beast in 2009. He would regularly win at the point of impact. But I agree with CK's view that in 2010 he just didn't win those impacts anymore. And that was to be expected, not the precise year, but the falling off of a cliff part. In general, it's a bad bet to take big backs who have taken a great deal of pounding. They tend to have a short window of effectiveness (3 years or so) and when they stop being effective, it's sudden.
I don't get how a "beast" averages 4.2 yards per carry while his teammate averages 5.9 yards per carry behind the same OL. That's not very "beastly". I don't think Marion Barbar has been Marion the Barbarian for at least three or four years.
In a passing league where teams are desperate for QBs, even those with flaws get drafted earlier than they should. It's rare for any QB that most of the league has rated highly to get out of the 2nd round. If they do it's most likely b/c most of of the league had that QB rated below the 1st. In Mallett's case, my guess is that there were maybe 7 or 8 teams at most that had a first round grade on him and that was primarily on his skills, not his attitude questions. That's not the case with running backs. They are considered fungible so teams pass on them regularly in the first two rounds. In the last draft, I saw it as Ingram and then a second tier of about four backs that included Thomas for most teams in the league. Personally, I had Thomas rated about even with Vereen as the second best back (not a fan of LeShoure or Williams especially for us). Anyway, the point is that you can't compare draft positions between QBs and RBs. Your top QBs generally go before the 3rd round and your top RBs regularly go anywhere in the top 3 rounds.
Watch him run. He looks like Earl Campbell when he runs the ball. Just running over people. Runningbacks who run with his style have short shelf lives and steep declines.
Sure, it saves them money. But it won't save their jobs. I'd think improving the running game would be of the highest priority, especially given who the quarterbacks are on the roster at present. Marion Barber doesn't improve things where as a DeAngelo Williams, Ahmad Bradshaw, and maybe a Brandon Jackson or Jason Snelling would.
Were they used in the same manner though? Was it an equal mix of the various of run plays called for each, down and distances, and personnel packages?
I noticed too, that in his more limited role, Tashard Choice dropped way off in 2010 too. He went from 5.1 in 2008, to 5.5 in 2009 and 3.7 in 2010.
I thought Barber was used in more short yardage situations in 2009 than the others so the average doesn't negate his beastly running style for me. But he just wasn't the same back last year. I think at best he might still be beastly every once in a while for us, but that will be too sporadic to really improve our running game.
I don't see Barber providing anything the Dolphins don't have on the roster. I'd be much more interested in making a move for Tashard Choice than signing Barber. It's been a pretty interesting FA period thus far for Miami and it's fans. Not a whole lot of movement and the players Miami was thought to be interested in and take a stab at, they've showed interest but no "go out and do what it takes" interest like we've seen with Grove, Smiley, Dansby, and others.
