I've recently become intrigued by McFadden. While alot of people seems to be limiting his ceiling due to the presence of Bush, I'll point out that in the 11 games that McFadden/Bush played together in during 2010, their carry distribution was:
McFadden: 175
Bush: 81
...while this is not overwhelmingly in McFadden's favor, it's a 2.16:1 ratio and would have put McFadden on pace for 254 carries. Using the same logic, it would also have given McFadden 57 receptions. So 311 touches with a presence like Bush in the backfield sharing some portion of the workload should not scare people away from McFadden.
Staying healthy: This is something that McFadden has yet to prove and should be considered when drafting him. If you are looking at him at the end of Rd. 1/early Rd. 2, you should probably be prepared to draft 2 more RB's in the next 4 rounds. As much as I like McFadden's upside, his ability to stay healthy, in addition to his ability to play while nicked up is still a question mark. He put some of those concerns to rest last season, showing a toughness in running style, he didn't in his first two seasons. But on this point, I'm not completely sold.
As far as his production, McFadden averaged a 20 yard run on 6.23% of his carries, good for 3rd in the NFL behind Michael Vick & Brandon Jacobs
(Ahmad Bradshaw was 6th though...). For RB's with at least 200 carries, this pace was better than any RB in the last 9 seasons. So the question you have to ask yourself is "is he THAT elite? Or was this an aberration?"
McFadden has as good of a pedigree as you could hope for in terms of how people viewed his talent coming into the NFL. He started to put that together last year and is the exact type of RB you can build your offense around. Think about this:
McFadden is a #4 overall pick in 2008
Arian Foster is an undrafted free agent in 2009...both had their breakout years in 2010.
McFadden's breakout year included a 5.2 YPC and 10.8 YPR
Foster's breakout year included a 4.9 YPC and a 9.2 YPR
Usually in FF, the trend I notice is that when all things are equal, we will look to pedigree as a tie-breaker of sorts. How a player was viewed coming into the league still holds some weight. However, according to FF Calculator.
McFadden: 12th overall selection; 9th overall RB
Foster: 2nd overall selection; 2nd overall RB
Perhaps their situations are different...Foster had 393 touches last year, McFadden's were more than 100 less (in 3 fewer games). But as noted above - only 5 fewer/game than Foster. And Foster has last years 2nd round pick, Ben Tate, who Texans seem to like (much better than Slaton anyway). Foster is still the horse, but I could seen those touch numbers going down at least 10% in the interest of conservation. Especially given his revelation of playing with a torn meniscus.
Anyway - I like McFadden and given how he played last year, I'm surprised that he's not cracked the top half of Round 1. He isn't without risk, but his upside is as good as any RB in the NFL.
Prediction: 276 Rushes, 1344 Rushing Yards, 9 TD's - 55 Receptions, 490 Receiving Yards, 2 TD's.