Oakland Raiders Draft: Why I Was Wrong About Darren McFadden

A few weeks ago, I wrote an article about the NFL draft, and in said article, I mentioned the Oakland Raiders as one of the three teams who, in my view, had the worst draft classes.

For the most part, my assertion was met with good natured, but rather pronounced disagreement from those who bothered to respond to it.

My rationale revolved around two key points. One, Oakland was already stacked at running back so picking another one would be superfluous, especially if said running back was taken with a top five pick.

Two, Darren McFadden's ability to be an every down running back in the NFL is quite questionable due to his slight frame. I also took issue with McFadden's 15 fumbles during his last college season, but a more thorough look at McFadden's stats reveals that 10 of his 15 fumbles took place while he was playing quarterback or returning kicks.

Due to the fact that McFadden averaged a paltry 19.8 yards per kick return during his last college season, it is pretty safe to say that we won't be seeing him on special teams come October.

More to the point, a few weeks after my writing, solid veteran Dominic Rhodes was released by the Raiders, leaving the team with incumbent starter Justin Fargas, and unproven injury risk Michael Bush to fill in the gaps.

For the record, I happen to think that Bush will be an absolute stud for whatever team he ends up with (he could be traded a la Matt Schaub) but I can see the rationale behind the Raiders going with McFadden for the simple reason that they don't have a sure future at the running back position.

Aside from Bush, all the Raiders have at running back (besides D-Mac and soon to be ex-Raider Lamont Jordan) is current starter Justin Fargas, who, despite an impressive1,009 yards over 9 starts, is still not a long term answer at running back in Oakland.

Furthermore, a cursory look at his game by game statistics reveals that he accrued a whopping 565 of his 1,009 yards on the ground against Miami, Denver, Kansas City, and Houston, whose run defenses were ranked 32nd, 30th, 28th, and 19th in the league respectively. 92 more yards came in games that he did not start in.

With those games against lesser competition factored out, Fargasran for 352 yards in his other five starts. This is not to say that Fargas' best games do not count, but the lack of consistency that is apparent from his stat sheet reveals that Fargas isn't consistent enough to be a full time NFL starter.

Frankly, Fargas' sheer heart and determination give me tremendous respect and admiration for the guy as a player, but I just can't say that I would be comfortable with him as the starter on my team.

Another thing, McFadden may not have the power and versatility (as a runner) to carry the load immediately, but Fargas and Bush can take at least some of the burden off of McFadden's shoulders for the time being.   

McFadden may not have the ideal frame for the NFL at 6-foot-two, 211 pounds, but his height gives him the leeway to bulk up a little bit without taking a page from Calais Campbell's playbook.

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