A stiff arm does not equal a face masking penalty.

All the rule did was remove the instances of it being a 5 yard penalty and making all of them a 15 yard penalty.

Its going to have zero impact on Barber this year compared to previous years.

This head-to-head really emphasizes just how far down RBs should fall fantasy-wise in the '08 NFL. ALL RBs have more questions than the top QBs and WRs. The reason the RB position is traditionally so highly valued comes from the more consistent TD production you get from RBs and the comparable shortage at that position.

However, now that the large majority of teams have gone to two-back systems, you have much greater variability in RB TDs. Plus this year's draft functioned to water down the running back ranks so significantly that there is actually much greater positional scarcity at WR. If you don't get one of the top 8 RBs - Tomlinson, Peterson, Addai, S. Jackson, Westbrook, Gore, Portis, Lynch - then you absolutely must draft an elite WR with at least one - if not both - of your top two picks.

When you're trying to decide between Grant and Barber, you also have to take into account the very real possibility that neither will be that valuable. Obviously Green Bay has questions - although I think the Packers didn't beg Favre to come back because they have great confidence in Rodgers as possibly being the superior QB as early as the end of this coming season - and the Cowboys would not have passed on Mendenhall for Jones unless they expected Jones to make a very large contribution. They clearly see Felix as a massive upgrade on Julius who was the starter-in-name over Barber most of last year.

If you pass on an elite WR to take Barber or Grant, the number of points you will sacrifice in taking a lesser wide receiver is probably going to be much greater than the value you lose in passing on Barber or Grant.

Especially when you consider how much easier it is to capitalize on schedule matchups for RBs than WRs, it would be preferable to have two elite WRs and four mediocre RBs, than to have two RBs in the 9-15 range (players like Barber, Grant, McGahee, LJ, Graham) and four mediocre WRs.

Fantasy players drafting in the 11-12 spots are going to be faced with very tough choices (assuming the top 8 runners and top 2 QBs go in the top 10). If you draft two RBs in the range outlined above, you not only get two guys who likely won't carry your team and might not outperform guys like Kevin Smith, but you also lose any real chance at a top 10 WR since all of those guys will go in a late second-early third round run. Whereas, by passing on RBs and drafting WRs, you help start the run, force other players to draft WRs, and create a situation where there is a much deeper RB pool left when you wrap around at the end of round 3/beginning of round 4.

Anyway, I could very obviously be wrong, but my guess is that players who draft Marion Barber and/or Ryan Grant this coming year will not be in their fantasy playoffs unless they dramatically outperform their peers all the way through the rest of the draft.

(Another reason not to draft Barber or Grant: they have terrible fantasy playoff schedules. Even though fantasy defensive points-allowed has decent variability year-to-year, it is discouraging that Barber and Grant face Baltimore (1) and Chicago (4) during week 16. Despite their teams melting down around them, those defenses were both in FootballOutsiders top 5 last year in rush defense. Both Barber and Grant face tough week 15 matchups as well. Given that rushing TDs will be hard to come by against those defenses, I'd go with the player who will see more playoff touches, and that would be Ryan Grant.)

Hey Matt-

Don't forget that Ryan Grant is playing for a contract too so that he can prove he's worth more than $370,000.

I'd take Grant.

They are similar, statistically. Grant has a slightly higher career ypc (in only a handful of games), Barber has more TDs/carry.

The difference is, I think Aaron Rodgers is going to be a good thing for Ryan Grant. They'll run the ball more, especially near the goal line, than they did with Favre. He's got less wear and I think he's less likely to be injured, due to Barber's take-no-prisoners running style. Barber appears to still be in some sort of committee, as he has yet to have great success as a starter (only started in playoffs and ran out of steam in the 2nd half), whereas Grant is likely to get major duty. If nobody gets injured, I give the edge in carries to Grant.

Barber works hard to get a lot of extra yards with contact, whereas Grant has an extra gear that allows him to get yards without contact (check out that 60+ yard TD run he had last year, straight up the middle, nobody in sight after he's 10 yards from scrimmage).

Good point endzone

I normally don't like long comments but The Dude Abides made much sense in his reasoning. Anyone who reads here often knows I'm a 'Boys fanatic but I take Grant over Barber. Barber is great but Felix splits his carries too much and I see Grant having more FF points this year. Barber 1000 yds. 12 TDs, Grant 1200 yds. 10-14 TDs. Contingent on format but the lone guy gets the nod over the definite RBBC guy.

PS. Not sure why Andre Johnson was a "surprising" winner since it was a close call and that was the whole point. Also, throw MoJo into the Barber debate, he's right there with potential '08 FF numbers.