Is Darren McFadden an elite running back?

[BrokenVisage]

Originally posted by: Inspector Jihad

Originally posted by: BrokenVisage
He's good, there's no doubt about that. But NCAA good is NOT NFL good, have we learned nothing from Reggie Bust?

Elaborate on your confusion. Do you not agree that being good in college doesn't mean you'll be good the NFL, or do you still consider taking Bush at #2 a good pick, even though it's pretty obvious he wasn't the second coming of Barry Sanders, Earl Campbell, and Bo Jackson combined as ALL the analysts were touting him.

 

[Queasy]

Originally posted by: JasonCoder

Originally posted by: Balt

Originally posted by: sciencewhiz

Originally posted by: Balt
McFadden and Felix Jones are both excellent.

Each of the last two years, Felix Jones has had a higher YPC then McFadden, yet McFadden gets most of the attention (and the carries). Why does McFadden get more then 2 times as many carries, hasn't Jones shown that he deserves more?

This is speculation on my part, but probably a lot of credit for Jones' success goes to McFadden being such a threat. I've watched a few Arkansas games and one thing they try to do is always keep the defense guessing on which of them the ball will be going to. Sometimes they will fake to McFadden and the defense will commit to him only to have the ball go to Jones and have him break out a huge run. Sometimes the opposite will also happen and McFadden will get the big run.

I think they both have the potential to be great in the NFL, but there's no real way to be sure until we actually see it. They definitely have an advantage in that defenses have to pay attention to both of them on the same play. Not a lot of teams have two RBs of their caliber, imo.

With that backfield you'd think they'd win more games. I don't watch much Ark. football but they must have serious depth issues on the rest of the team.

Arkansas hasn't had a decent QB the entire time that McFadden has been on campus. They've also only had one decent WR, Monk who was injured for most of this year. Throw in the fact that Nutt ran a nuthouse last year that saw several highly recruited freshman transfer at the end of the year and you can understand why McFadden has had it rough.

McFadden is an fantastic running back. My only concern would be the how much of a pounding he's had to take during his time at Arkansas. He's been durable but you know his body will start breaking down eventually. The question is when.

 

[Gibsons]

Originally posted by: BrokenVisage

Originally posted by: Inspector Jihad

Originally posted by: BrokenVisage
He's good, there's no doubt about that. But NCAA good is NOT NFL good, have we learned nothing from Reggie Bust?

Elaborate on your confusion. Do you not agree that being good in college doesn't mean you'll be good the NFL, or do you still consider taking Bush at #2 a good pick, even though it's pretty obvious he wasn't the second coming of Barry Sanders, Earl Campbell, and Bo Jackson combined as ALL the analysts were touting him.

Not all of them. There's a reason he didn't go #1 and a reason Lendale White got a lot of important carries at USC. I know Bill Parcells didn't think too highly of him, saying he was just a special teams/3rd down player.

 

[Wreckem]

Originally posted by: fallenangel99
McFadden is supposed to better, and hasn't been injured in college (AP has - missed final season I believe).

Supposedly, the Pats could pick AM at #5 (do the other 4 teams really need a RB??)

another option i've heard - jerry jones loves AM, he attends AM's games. Jones could make a trade with the Pats and pick AM.... that means DAL will have to trade Barber/Jones away...

Jerry Jones is a Arkansas Alum. He attends every Arkansas home game.

 

[hdeck]

Originally posted by: BrokenVisage

Originally posted by: Inspector Jihad

Originally posted by: BrokenVisage
He's good, there's no doubt about that. But NCAA good is NOT NFL good, have we learned nothing from Reggie Bust?

Elaborate on your confusion. Do you not agree that being good in college doesn't mean you'll be good the NFL, or do you still consider taking Bush at #2 a good pick, even though it's pretty obvious he wasn't the second coming of Barry Sanders, Earl Campbell, and Bo Jackson combined as ALL the analysts were touting him.

i don't think reggie bush applies here. coming out of college, most experts agreed bush wouldn't be able to run between the tackles in the NFL, and he hasn't. you wonder why the texans chose williams over him? he's great in space and as a receiver. the same doesn't apply to mcfadden. he's big & can run between the tackles. ask anyone, the running back position is usually the one that transitions from college to the nfl the best of the "skill" positions. there have been a lot more QB and WR flops than RB flops in NFL history.

 

[JasonCoder]

Originally posted by: Gibsons

Originally posted by: BrokenVisage

Originally posted by: Inspector Jihad

Originally posted by: BrokenVisage
He's good, there's no doubt about that. But NCAA good is NOT NFL good, have we learned nothing from Reggie Bust?

Elaborate on your confusion. Do you not agree that being good in college doesn't mean you'll be good the NFL, or do you still consider taking Bush at #2 a good pick, even though it's pretty obvious he wasn't the second coming of Barry Sanders, Earl Campbell, and Bo Jackson combined as ALL the analysts were touting him.

Not all of them. There's a reason he didn't go #1 and a reason Lendale White got a lot of important carries at USC. I know Bill Parcells didn't think too highly of him, saying he was just a special teams/3rd down player.

My personal opinion as to why Bush got all (ok not all, but a lot) of the love from the talking heads was the team he played on and their competition. No doubt that USC had a good team... when you have to cover Dwayne Jarett, Steve Smith and Mike Williams there are going to be a few less people to tackle you up front. And this played perfectly into Bush's style, he got a block, made the iso miss and he had space.

Then look at who they played. The PAC10 was in a funk. Defense optional at that time. They did play some good non conference foes but he didn't have monster games against those guys. It was the Fresno State game that won him the Heisman. Fresno State? Please...

Anyways he's a good back but not near the hype that was created.

 

[BrokenVisage]

Originally posted by: JasonCoder

Originally posted by: Gibsons

Originally posted by: BrokenVisage

Originally posted by: Inspector Jihad

Originally posted by: BrokenVisage
He's good, there's no doubt about that. But NCAA good is NOT NFL good, have we learned nothing from Reggie Bust?

Elaborate on your confusion. Do you not agree that being good in college doesn't mean you'll be good the NFL, or do you still consider taking Bush at #2 a good pick, even though it's pretty obvious he wasn't the second coming of Barry Sanders, Earl Campbell, and Bo Jackson combined as ALL the analysts were touting him.

Not all of them. There's a reason he didn't go #1 and a reason Lendale White got a lot of important carries at USC. I know Bill Parcells didn't think too highly of him, saying he was just a special teams/3rd down player.

My personal opinion as to why Bush got all (ok not all, but a lot) of the love from the talking heads was the team he played on and their competition. No doubt that USC had a good team... when you have to cover Dwayne Jarett, Steve Smith and Mike Williams there are going to be a few less people to tackle you up front. And this played perfectly into Bush's style, he got a block, made the iso miss and he had space.

Then look at who they played. The PAC10 was in a funk. Defense optional at that time. They did play some good non conference foes but he didn't have monster games against those guys. It was the Fresno State game that won him the Heisman. Fresno State? Please...

Anyways he's a good back but not near the hype that was created.

My thoughts exactly, very way articulated. I remember telling all my friends that LenDale White was going to end up being the better "running back" when all is said and done and so far they're pretty much on par with each other, so we'll see how that turns out. I just never believed Bush could do what he did in college in the pros, his talent shows in the open field for sure but he's gotta add some power to his game now that the DBs are faster and smarter.