McFadden

The 2008 National Football League draft is slowly approaching, and, in some people’s minds, Arkansas running back Darren McFadden is the safest number one overall pick. The Miami Dolphins own that pick, but the team has two good running backs in Ronnie Brown and Ricky Williams. Who’s to say that either of them will have a break out year though? Ricky is coming off a season where he tore a chest muscle in his first game back after serving a one and a half year suspension. Ronnie Brown tore his ACL and was lost after the sixth game of the season. It’s not an easy thing trying to recover from a torn ACL for the simple fact that there is a tremendous amount rehabilitation that goes into the process. Because of these facts and McFadden’s college career, I believe that he is the safest pick in the NFL draft.

In McFadden’s freshman year he showed that he is one of the best backs to ever play the game. He rushed for 1,113 yards and scored eleven touchdowns. He also averaged 6.8 yards per carry, which is almost enough for a first down every time he touches the ball. For a back to be able to do this in the South Eastern Conference is almost unheard of, and he was doing it as a true freshman. That year he also caught 14 passes for 52 yards. That might not sound like a lot but add that number on to his yards per rush, and you have an automatic first down whenever the ball is in McFadden’s hands.

Now, let’s move onto his sophomore season. The previous year he was named to the 2005 All-S.E.C. team and was named freshman of the year. Teams knew about the powerful runner that was carrying Arkansas on his back and were trying to find ways to stop him. Unfortunately, it didn’t work out that well. He added 534 more yards to his previous season yards and finished with 1,647 yards, but certain teams found a way to reduce his yards per carry down to 5.8. Oh, I’m sorry I forgot that we were talking about Darren McFadden a guy who does it all. His yards per carry may have gone down, but his receptions and yards per catch went through the roof. While he caught three less passes than he did the year before, he added 97 yards in the yards per catch category and scored 14 touchdowns all together.

In his last year in college, McFadden had what was considered one of his best years. After a sensational sophomore season, a Heisman trophy candidate, and being on the NCAA’s All-American first team offense, he was back to run through defenses again. While Arkansas struggled throughout the season, McFadden’s best game came against the soon to be National Champions, the LSU Tigers. McFadden did it all; he rushed 32 times for 206 yards and went three for six on passing with 32 yards and a touchdown. On the last play of the game, he was lined up a quarterback. He ran a play action fake to Felix Jones and hit Payton Hills for a touchdown. The defense came up with a big stop, and the Razorbacks won the game. McFadden ended his career with 4,590 yards, 41 touchdowns, 365 receiving yards, and 2 touchdowns. He finished as the number two career rusher in the SEC behind Herschel Walker and number 7 in rushing touchdowns.

It is true that Ricky Williams won the Heisman while at Texas and that Ronnie Brown went undefeated at Auburn, but how many times have you watched them become a triple threat on a team? Give credit where it is due! Darren McFadden is a home run player, hands down. There is no way that a general manager should over look this guy; he’s the type of athlete who falls into the category of being a game breaker and deserves to be the number one overall pick.