Julius Jones

Com­ing into 2005, many prog­nos­ti­ca­tors had Jones as a mar­ginal top 10 back. He started the last 7 games of 2004, and had amassed 803 yards in that time. This was a can’t miss guy you could have got­ten towards the end of the 1st round or start of the 2nd. But we all know the story. Jones strug­gled might­ily, bat­tled injuries, and opened the door for his backup, Mar­ion Bar­ber, to steal carries.

As the 2006 sea­son approaches, the Dal­las run­ning game remains a bit of a mys­tery. The depth chart puts Jones in the first slot and Bar­ber again as the backup. From a tal­ent view­point, Jones prob­a­bly has the upper hand. Unfor­tu­nately for him, Bar­ber is no slouch and finds ways to get on the field.

For fan­tasy own­ers look­ing for clar­ity in this player analy­sis, I may dis­ap­point you. As of right now, it’s prob­a­bly around 60%-40%(slight edge to Jones) as to which one will fin­ish the sea­son with bet­ter stats. Jones will begin the sea­son get­ting around 20 car­ries per game. If he suc­ceeds, it will hold Bar­ber off. But the leash is short in Dal­las with T.O giv­ing America’s team the “win-now” spirit.

Handcuffing(taking a play­ers backup as insur­ance) is a must if you take Jones. For a guy going late in the 2nd round, how­ever, you may just want to pass all­to­gether. If you’re going to take mul­ti­ple guys from the same team, you’re bet­ter off tar­get­ing D. Fos­ter & D. Williams, L. Maroney & C. Dil­lon, or D. Rhodes & J. Addai. Those three sets of backs can be got­ten much later in drafts and prob­a­bly have as much a chance to help your fan­tasy team.