Is MBIII a full time back?

[Doomsday101]

I think Barber is a guy who can carry the ball 20 times at this stage of his career. I do think it is important to have someone who can come in a sub him and I'm not talking some scrub RB but someone who can bring another dimension to the offense

 

[joseephuss]

MBIII had 204 carries in the reg. season. That's 17 per game. In todays NFL that is MORE than enough. I wouldn't run MBIII more than 225 times in any one season. JJ had 164 carries or about 14 per game. All we need is a JJ replacement. He doesn't need to be a "full time back". Why do people get caught up in labels? Want a label? MBIII is a HELL OF A PLAYER. How's that for a label?

Hey, BD. You need to change the batteries in your calculator.

MBIII 204 carries/16 games = 12.75 carries per game
JJ 165(not 164) carries/16 games = 10.31 carries per game

I don't think Dallas needs to run Barber more than 20 times a game for the offense to be effective. He probably would have had more carries if the run blocking was more consistent. Same with Julius. I was never concerned with who was the "starter" because it truly only mattered who carried the ball more and at the critical parts of the game. That was MBIII.

Plus Garrett seemed to get away from the running game from time to time. He is a young OC, so that may change. I can see Barber getting a few more carries per game, but I doubt he will get over 20.

 

[Bach]

He's good but with his style, I don't see him as a fulltime back.

I love the way he plays, but he can't do that a full game, let alone week in and week out for the entire season without wearing down.

Having him get the majority of snaps is wise, but he needs someone a lot better than Julius to split carries with.

 

[dwmyers]

Don't get me wrong, I like what he does and the guy truly is a beast. But after re watching the game he seemed to be a bit wore down in the second half.

I guess my question is can he carry the monster share of the carries and be effective late in the games or was this something of an anomaly?

If by a "full time" back you mean someone who carries the ball 25 times a game throughout the season, then you really need to look at the career statistics of backs who averaged more than 370 carries a season. The problem is called the "curse of 370" and it's ruined a number of backs. Examples include Earl Campbell and Shaun Alexander. I was in Atlanta when Jamal Anderson was run for about 1900 yards and 400 or so carries. He looked ok starting the next season but then he blew a ligament.

That's the thing. The injury rate the next year or two is horrific. It appears to be akin to overpitching a pitcher.

Smart teams don't run backs 25 times a game over a whole season anymore. Nobody came close this year.

Unless someone can figure out a way to get backs 400 carries and keep them healthy, then the days of lining up in the "I" and running backs 25-30 times a game are gone. It's going to be more like how backs were run in the 1950s and 1960s, where you had a main back and a 2nd back both taking significant carries.

I think Barber is fine for an average of 20 carries a game, and then you're going to need that second back. 20x16 = 320 carries over a season and that doesn't seem to be harmful over the course of a career.

curse of 370 links:

http://www.footballoutsiders.com/2007/01/01/ramblings/stat-analysis/4764/

http://www.footballoutsiders.com/2004/07/25/ramblings/stat-analysis/236/

Earl Campbell statistics: check out YPA as he goes from 1979 and 1980 to 1981. He escaped one year of the curse but he didn't escape two.

http://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/C/CampEa00.htm

Shaun Alexander career statistics: Only one year sufficed to get him.

http://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/A/AlexSh00.htm

Jamal Anderson career statistics: one year nailed him. Dan Reeves ruined him.

http://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/A/AndeJa00.htm

Larry Johnson. Oh man, looks like the injury bug got him too . And it happened after they ran him more than 400 times the previous season.

http://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/J/JohnLa00.htm

By contrast, I'll include Tony Dorsett's career record. Note he never really got over 342 carries and his career was relatively long.

http://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/D/DorsTo00.htm

David.

 

[EPL0c0]

Don't get me wrong, I like what he does and the guy truly is a beast. But after re watching the game he seemed to be a bit wore down in the second half.

I guess my question is can he carry the monster share of the carries and be effective late in the games or was this something of an anomaly?

Unless he can improve his stamina, nope. But that hard-nosed style is what works for him. As much as I like him, he is a change up/3rd down/short yardage back. He can play 1st/2nd down here and there, but not fulltime