Can you tell us who this beat reporter was? I haven't heard anything like this; I just scoured the sleeperbot app, twitter, rotoworld, & google for information on Rodgers, Barber, Smith and couldn't find anything.
That being said, IF this type of quote was made, Antone Smith has never been able to handle any kind of RB workload; he's never had more than 6 TOUCHES (not carries) in any single game. Even if TB were to give him a carry here & there to spell Rodgers, IF Rodgers AND Martin were unavailable, all signs indicate that Barber would be the guy to get the lion's share of the carries.
Mark Cook of Pewter Report - but on a podcast which is why you can't find it. I can post it, but I have no idea
where in the 2 hour podcast he said it. Pewter Report does a good job of reporting reliable information on the Buccaneers for a long time.
To be clear, he said (and I said) he
thinks Smith gets more carries. I don't think the team is very high on Barber as a player (and yes he has a learning disability). It's entirely possible I'm wrong. Just to back myself up a bit though, I did predict that Rodgers would take over for Sims after Sims first game starting. I only say that to demonstrate, as a Bucs fan, I have some idea of what the team looks like on gameday (not just as reported by fantasy football talking heads). Even while many FF people were pumping Sims, he
never looked good as an RB and was only talented in space which caused him to be overvalued from last year. Even if he wasn't injured, he was going to be demoted. In some ways, Sims is a good corollary for Barber as Sims would pop some nice runs and people would miss his previous 3 stuffs (he also ran against pass defences).
Barber also hasn't looked great. Obviously some of the FBG guys disagree with me and they certainly have a stronger pedigree. And yes Smith hasn't ever had many carries (and is old at 31). Smith getting more carries
also doesn't mean that Barber is the next man up if Rodgers goes down.
But the Bucs like his explosiveness (and he also was a former Falcon cut by the Bears lol). I also don't think the Bucs will look as good as they did against the terrible 49ers run defence and Barber won't see those kinds of stats again. If Rogers is injured, he'll be at most a 3.5 YPC back in a likely RBBC.
Again, could be wrong. My opinion is informed, but it's just an opinion.