NFL Week 7 Predictions: Oakland Raiders to Lean on Darren McFadden to Top Chiefs

Forget, for a moment, about all the hoopla surrounding the Oakland Raiders sacrificing two first-round picks for Carson Palmer.

Any success the Silver and Black enjoy against the Kansas City Chiefs, and in the AFC West as a whole, will come by way of the shifty legs of Darren McFadden.

The Raiders are one of only a handful of teams in the NFL this season that opt for the ground more often than the air, and really, who wouldn't when you have a running back as explosive as McFadden?

The fourth-year ball carrier out of Arkansas posted the first 1,000-yard rushing season in 2010 and is well on his way to another, with a league-leading 610 yards. His 5.5 yard-per-carry average is the second-highest among all running backs, trailing only that of Buffalo Bills breakout star Fred Jackson.

McFadden's talents extend far beyond just running the ball, though. He's proven himself a rather adept receiver, having already hauled in 18 passes for 151 yards and a touchdown this season. If need be, he can even take direct snaps under center, having come into the league as one of the progenitors of the "Wildcat" offense during his collegiate days.

It's McFadden, not Jason Campbell, who deserves the lion's share of the credit for Oakland's march to a 4-2 start this season. Campbell had been a solid, if not wholly unspectacular, as quarterback for Hue Jackson's team before breaking his collarbone against the Browns in Week 6. His 84.2 passer rating and six-to-five touchdown-to-interception ratio were hardly anything to write home about, but the Raiders didn't (and still don't) need much more than that to be successful on a weekly basis.

The same will go for Palmer, Kyle Boller and Terrelle Pryor, regardless of which one of the three plays the most, or the most effectively, in Campbell's absence. The Raiders don't need a prolific passer or a bona fide Pro Bowler flinging the ball all over the field to win games, though that certainly wouldn't hurt. Instead, they simply need someone to hand the ball off to McFadden and Michael Bush while throwing the occasional play-action pass to keep the defense honest.

That's all the Raiders need to beat the Chiefs and hold steady in their pursuit of the division-leading San Diego Chargers—a well-managed game from Campbell's replacement and another grinding performance from their running backs.

Certainly, McFadden would be all too happy to oblige.