As you know, Cowboys lineman Kyle Kosier went down Wednesday with an MCL injury and will be out (say it with me) 4-6 weeks, mere days after Marc Columbo also hurt his knee. Now, the Double J has already said he isn’t worried about the depth of the O-line in the face of these injuries. But the Double J has himself a poker face (no really, he got it that way by having it stretched with a fire poker), so there’s no need to take him at his word on such matters.
We get a lot of unverified tidbits here at Blue Star, and one that came in this morning was that the Cowboys were looking to trade Marion Barber to San Diego for one of their offensive lineman, presumably current holdout Marcus McNeill. Now, I’ve dug around to see if there’s any truth to this rumor and it would appear to be all smoke. This makes sense, given that there’s no reason for the Chargers to trade away McNeill for Barber when they already have Ryan Matthews and Darren Sproles shoring up their backfield.
HOWEVAH, the rumored trade does cause you to wonder: Why SHOULDN’T the Cowboys dangle Barber, or one of their backs, for help along the O-line? I don’t buy Jerry thinking the O-line is perfectly fine as is. No one is in the NFL is ever satisfied with their roster. If there’s a chance to improve, you do it. And let’s face it, the Cowboys are overloaded at back and need that O-line depth. They could easily part with Barber or Tashard Choice (never Felix Jones, because Felix is Jerry’s boy) in return for helping keep Tony Romo upright all season long.
Think about a team like Seattle. Their backs are ghastly. They’d probably give up a backup lineman and a draft pick for someone like Barber. I’m not saying Chester Pitts is the exact right person they should trade for. Ideally, it would be someone as eminently tradable as Chester Pitts, but does NOT suck.
The Cowboys have a chance to balance their roster here, and the preseason is the best time to get it done. So let’s all hope the Double J is lying about standing pat. Because the way these injuries are piling up, the Cowboys may not be able to afford the luxury of keeping three good backs around.
