Dallas Cowboys: How Good is Darren McFadden?

The Dallas Cowboys enter the offseason with 29-year-old running back Darren McFadden as their lead back. Is that a good thing?

Last offseason the Dallas Cowboys quietly added running back Darren McFadden as an insurance policy to the heir-apparent, Joseph Randle.  At the time, it looked like the Cowboys were just covering themselves should Randle flake or a draft pick didn’t pan out.

The signing prompted a few snickers around the league but nobody really expected the former Razorback to be the lead ball-carrier for the Cowboys in 2015. As it turns out, Randle did indeed flake out and the RB position was never even addressed in NFL Draft.

As a surprise to many, Darren McFadden became the unquestioned starter by week seven of the 2015 season. Despite being a starter for only 11 weeks, Darren McFadden logged himself quite the impressive season – statistically speaking.

Darren McFadden’s 239 attempts for 1,089 yards was the fourth highest rushing total in the NFL last season. It’s certainly a far cry from DeMarco Murray’s 1,845 yards from the season before, but it’s impressive nonetheless and came as a surprise to most.

With the Dallas Cowboys, Darren McFadden was able to have one of the best seasons of his career. The 6’1” 220lb RB served as the Cowboys short-yardage back, big play back, and primary pass-protecting back. He stayed relatively injury-free and posted only the second one thousand yard rushing season of his eight-year career.

What a difference a great offensive line makes, right?

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And that is where we have question exactly how good Darren McFadden really is. Is he making plays himself or is he a product of the system like so many discredited DeMarco Murray of being? It’s hard to argue against being the NFL’s 4^th leading rusher, but at only 1,089 yards, this was clearly a down year for the NFL’s top rushers.

"Case in point: There were 13 rushers over one thousand yards in 2014 and McFadden’s 1,089 would have only ranked him at #11 that season."

Still, the NFL is trending in the RB by Committee direction and true performance grading should be based on quality and not quantity.

A few things stuck out from Darren McFadden’s performance last season:

• Short Yardage: Darren McFadden was effective in short yardage when lowering his head and driving into the pile but by doing so, he lost all vision and often missed developing opportunities. As a naturally up-right runner, McFadden had to change the way he ran in order to make those tough conversions. The results were serviceable at best.
• Pass Protection: I have to admit I was a bit disappointed in Darren McFadden’s pass-protection. He wasn’t terrible at it but he wasn’t very good either. I think it probably goes without saying though, he was better than anyone else the Cowboys had in the backfield. The good news is, the Dallas Cowboys only keep their RBs in to pass-protect about 25% of the time when passing.
• Making the most out of his opportunities: This is where the good backs separate from the average backs. The Dallas Cowboys offensive line is going to give any RB opportunities, it’s what that back does with them that will ultimately grade the back himself. As with the previous two areas, Darren McFadden was ok but not great. McFadden had opportunities to break big runs but didn’t always make the most of his opportunities. Some may say he “left some meat on the bone”.

Pro Football Focus watches tape and grades individual performance all season. At the end of the year, they didn’t think all too highly of Darren McFadden’s performance with the Dallas Cowboys – despite the end of year yardage totals.

Compared to the rest of the NFL’s runners, Darren McFadden finished ranked as PFF’s #42^nd RB. That’s considerably lower than when DeMarco Murray finished #1 overall in 2014.

Next: When Should the Cowboys Draft a RB?

It’s hard to look at Darren McFadden’s individual performance and be happy with it. He was reliable and he took what was given to him but he didn’t do much more than that. RB needs to be a priority form the Cowboys in the upcoming draft because the Dallas Cowboys can bounce back if they find someone who can take advantage of the Cowboys’ o-line.