Who's the Barber Here?

With the NFL Draft behind us, we now have a little better idea of what the fantasy football rankings look like as we head into mini-camp season. Earlier in the week, I shared some initial musings in the wake of the draft, but some other storylines are emerging that will have ramifications for our cheat sheets as training camps and preseason games roll around. I’ll begin with the new running back situation in Dallas. The Cowboys drafting of Felix Jones serves two purposes: the one the Dallas brass is going with for now is that he provides a perfect complement to the talents of Marion Barber III and that the 1-2 punch should make them more of a Super Bowl contender. Of course, Jones is used to being “the other back,” having played in the shadow of Darren McFadden at Arkansas.

The other reason for drafting Jones—the one that’s not being talked about so much—is that Jones is the heir apparent to Barber should the Cowboys be unable to reach a long-term accord with the Pro Bowl back. Barber is eligible for unrestricted free agency after this season and the Cowboys reported offer of five years and somewhere in the neighborhood of $30-million was not accepted by Barber and his agent Drew Rosenhaus. Rumors that Rosenhaus was seeking LaDainian Tomlinson-type money for his client have since been denied. You needn’t read too closely between the lines to glean that the Jerry Jones Empire considers Jones more than just a complementary back and great kickoff-return man. They view him as a back capable of playing every down and giving them another home run threat. A veiled comparison to Emmitt Smith was even made in a news conference earlier this week.

For fantasy owners, however, the selection of Jones by the ‘Boys muddles Barber’s value considerably. After Julius Jones departed to Seattle via free agency, Barber appeared to be in line for his first full season of full-time duty—the prospect of which vaulted him up fantasy football cheat sheets well into the top 10 at running back. Having a player of Jones’ ability in the same backfield makes one wonder how much of a chance Barber will be afforded to carry a regular feature back load. The guess here is that MBIII will be the Man early on, but as the season progresses the rookie will be given more and more touches. Until we know more about how the two of them will be splitting time, Barber will remain on the outside of my top-15 running backs looking in.