Darian Barnes is like a like a LOCAL HERO here in Toms Rivers NJ, I've followed his career since High School and College (Hampton). My brother was pretty good friend's with Darian's little brother and everyone around knew Barnes. He went undrafted but was picked up by Giants as UDFA but then they released him so they could pay him the league MIN but he ended up being picked up by Tampa Bay instead because they offered him more money and in 2002 he won a Super Bowl ring with Tampa Bay (probably the only player to ever win a Super Bowl that's number is listed in the white pages. He had some SICK A$$ tackles during the Super Bowl on Special Teams but didn't get much playing time in the offense because of Pittman, Alstott, and Cook so he only came in when Alstott was at RB to block for him which they actually did a lot. Anyway he was then traded to Dallas along with someone else for someone and a 7th round pick I believe... Dallas then started him the entire season last year and he had around 10 receptions and some nice goaline short yardage plays and he scored his first career TD LIVE on National Television on Thanksgiving day against Chicago. He did pretty good in Dallas but was released earlier during the preseason because of a foot injury and Dallas reached an injury settlement with him I think he was getting around 550K, maybe even more. Anyway, I was thrilled when I heard the news that we picked him up and was awesome seeing him playing for my lifetime favorite team, something I never thought would happen... As for Barnes' skills, he's an EXCELLENT Special Team's player and and has some nice acceleration for his size and makes some nice HARD tackles. But even more importantly he's a pretty good leading pass blocker and I even kept hearing the announcer yesterday like 3 times saying they should play Barnes and that he hit the nicest block that I believe lead to the Ricky TD (I'm not absolutely positive it was this run, I will have to check again) but Barnes had a HUGE block, he freaking just DESTROYED and DEMOLISHED Keith Brooking, I remember as I was screaming, the guy is a BEAST! However, Darian isn't as good of a receiving FB as Heath Evans but I think he'll excell best at lead blocking runs, Special Teams, and possibly even short yardage situations but Ronnie, Ricky, and Morris almost definitely would be the likely choice over Darian. Definitely was great to hear we signed Barnes, but even better to see him playing and doing good for us yesterday... I remember even seeing him arguing with someone on Atlanta's D and they had to be separated, really wish we tied it and got the chance to take it to OT, I really thought we had it.
