Any chance McFadden could develop? (1 Viewer)

[footballsavvy]

Yea, about a 26.7% chance

 

[massraider]

McFadden doesn't look like the 2nd fastedt RB in the NFL to me.....from replays and watching him on TV...Felix JonesJamaal CharlesDarren SprolesAdrian PetersonJahvid Best (don't even need to see him)and many others look faster to me.

In terms of official combine 40 times, McFadden is the second fastest RB in the league.

McFadden ran a 4.33 at the combine. For those who are questioning his speed.

I distinctly remember him being hauled down from behind last year by (I think it was the Chiefs) DB.....it was very unimpressive for a back who is supposedly so fast.

No, you distinctly remember that run from his rookie year. It was Bernard Pollard, and that was the game he had injured his foot in, before that play.Speed isn't the problem, it's his body/running style. His center of gravity is so high, if you flick his knee, he goes over like a bowling pin. Good NFL RBs can absorb blows from the side, they stay low and bounce off. McFadden, on hits from the side, his feet go flying out from under him. This running style also lead to him getting tripped up much, much easier than almost any back I have ever seen. Ankle grabs that other backs just step out of send him sprawling. It's very frustrating. I cannot count the number of times he had daylight, and a halfhearted leg grab tripped him up. I think he has good vision, but he swerves more than cuts, if that makes sense. His runs so long-legged, but the time his body follows his vision, the defenders have closed. Even in a one-cut-and-go system, his inside running is well below average. It's a shame too, because he's tough as heck. I think he can wind up being a good part of a RBBC, he missed a lot of chances in the passing game because Russell couldn't complete the simplest swing pass. And he has homerun ability, he can help your fantasy team with one play, but starting him every week? Tough to see.

 

[cr8f]

Yea, about a 26.7% chance

Anything's possible but I like MassRaiders comments above. I hope they give Bush the ball and make McFadden a COP back with homerun ability or a slot receiver if he can hold onto the ball.

 

[az_prof]

Yea, about a 26.7% chance

Anything's possible but I like MassRaiders comments above. I hope they give Bush the ball and make McFadden a COP back with homerun ability or a slot receiver if he can hold onto the ball.

Me too, although I still say both McFadden and Bush are uniquely talented to duplicate the success Miami has had with Brown and Williams running the Wildcat. It will never happen because Oakland's offense is stuck back in the 70s, but the two of them could run it very well.

 

[SSOG]

"Who is the 2nd fastest RB in the league wearing pads on a grass field in the 4nd quarter of a mid-season game after 18 carries?" would be much more useful info than carpet-run-fresh-in-trackshoesandunderwear times. Not knocking SSOGs post, just wondering why we can't get this info to us. They can track the top speed of the ball carrier on TV. Why don't you see the annual top 10 lists of those instead of more "C'mon man!"

I'm sure such a measure WOULD be much more useful, but until such a measure exists, the only objective and directly comparable measures we have of a player's speed are combine 40 times. If someone wanted to say that McFadden was the second fastest back in the league, then that claim could be easily supported by what little objective data we currently have on player speed.Now, is he the second fastest player in the league in pads? Who knows. I'm just saying that there is at least some merit to any claims that he's the second fastest RB in the league.

This is an interesting post in many ways...One, with the technology available, it should be a no-brainer that we see stuff like "D. Jackson just ran down the field 40 yards in 4.x on that last play". I wonder if the NFL coaching staff even have that info (i.e. how players excel/breakdown throughout a game). Also, as far as talent searching goes, I am always shocked that in a Cap driven league, the teams with the most money (i.e. the ones that could blow out the cap) do not spend more on scouting. The 'Skins spend a ton on Coaching...I believe they were the first franchise a couple of years back with a coach, OC and DC all making $1 million+, but when that is your only advantage over other teams (ALL teams must stay within the cap), the only wildcard is what you pay staff. I am waiting for the first team out there to identify the top 4 scouts in the league, pay them each 200k (because they make nothing close to that) and then sit back as they spoon feed you your draft...just boggles the mind.

This is assuming that there is such a thing as "the top 4 scouts in the league". I'd imagine that scouts work far better as a collective than they do as individuals, and a better approach would be to look for the top people in the league at synthesizing the information produced by their (largely fungible) scouts into coherent rankings.