Alexander;1419139 said:
That is the same risk the Bills are taking.
What if?
Fact is, we might figure we want Barber as the feature back and want a complement. It might not be about finding a "suitable" replacement for Jones. If we think this way, we already have it in Barber.
That means we find the "suitable" replacement for Barber and what he did.
Trading Jones doesn't mean it dooms our running game if Barber gets injured. Your very same scenario could be the case if Jones got hurt and Barber isn't all that great. You cannot manage a football team thinking like that.
I don't believe we are trading him just to trade him. Most reports state it simply, we are fielding offers.
If we like them, we move him. If not, we deal with the contractual issues later and keep the player.
It's really nothing to get all excited about. The kind of dialogue is see around this right now is more appropriate if were were indeed hell bent on parting ways. I don't believe we are nor should we be.
I'm not excited about it. I don't smell blood in the water. I'd be more open to trading JJ for another player that fields a need than for Draft picks. That isn't likely though.
I'm neither for, nor against, trading him. If we trade him, fine. If we keep him, fine. I just find the belief that we are screwed if we hang on to him, and don't get Barber in the game as the featured RB, is a bit off.
Barber is the kind of RB I like. Hard nosed, old style football that gets you the "hard yard." I love that. No one wants him in there more than me.
I am sold on the 2 back system we have with him and Julius, even if they switch roles. I cannot say the same for us using Tyson Thompson and Barber, or an as of now unknown commodity to replace Julius if we trade him.
The idea it is easy to replace his production (or Barber's, as you point out) simply by selecting someone is just too Pollyanna for me. No one should be naive enough to think that if we select a RB he's a can't miss benefit to this team. I can produce a laundry list of our RB failures if need be, but I suspect you know it isn't a set in stone success.
The myopia that we could somehow get Adrian Peterson is just amusing as hell to me. No way, no shape, no how, is that ever going to happen without a price so steep it would be ludicrous. Yet it gets a new discussion each week. Ridiculous. People would be better suited trying to live in the real world.
There are a myriad of ways we can keep Julius and use the production we already get from him. I personally don't think he will be traded. If he is, well then I cross my fingers. We're smart to listen to offers. We're foolish to do it simply to do it. That is my point.
