ALAMEDA, Calif. — There’s no there there, the saying goes. But that’s not all that’s missing in Oakland. Wins, on the off chance you haven’t noticed, have been few and far between for the local NFL franchise.
How few and how far between? The Raiders in the past five seasons have finished 4-12, 2-14, 4-12, 5-11 and 4-12. That’s 19-61, a ghastly .238 winning percentage. To put those numbers in perspective, the original Tampa Bay Buccaneers, those bumbling tools of ineptitude who finished 0-14 in 1976, ran up a .296 winning percentage in their first five NFL seasons.
Yeah, it’s that ugly for the Performers Formerly Known as the Team of the Decades. But enough already with the sad state of affairs in the East Bay. Even with owner Al Davis approaching his 80th birthday and confined to a walker, things aren’t as bad as they may seem.
There is hope in Oakland, and his name is Darren McFadden.
McFadden could prove to be the Raiders’ salvation, a 21st-century multitasker on a team inexorably trapped in its glory days of yesteryear. There isn’t anything McFadden can’t do on a football field. He can run between the tackles, he can get to the edge and he can catch the ball. And when he does, he’s a threat to score on a nanosecond’s notice.
He has the game for today’s NFL, and even the name: D-Mac. What he doesn’t have is wide eyes. Stuff happens when you come into The League as a two-time Heisman Trophy runner-up from the Southeastern Conference, where rosters are filled with Pro Bowlers waiting to happen.
So, D-Mac, you ready for the Broncos and the bright lights of “Monday Night Football”?
“Coming from the SEC, I played in a few games like that, national TV games,” McFadden said. “For me, it’s just going out there and playing another ballgame. I feel like I can make big plays. That’s something I hope I can bring to this team — going out there and making big plays the best that I can.”
That has been a common thread in the recent ragged history of the Raiders. They haven’t had a consistent big-time playmaker in the backfield since the days of Marcus Allen. For that matter, the routine plays haven’t come that easily, either. Fact: The Raiders have had 13 1,000-yard runners in their history, but only one — Allen in 1985 — who reached 1,300-plus.
The Broncos, just for comparative purposes, have had 18 1,000-yard runners, seven of whom have reached the 1,300 mark — six in the Mike Shanahan era alone.
Now comes McFadden. Yes, he completed 14 out of 22 passes for seven touchdowns during his multidimensional days at Arkansas, but the Raiders didn’t select him with the fourth pick in the draft to throw the ball. They want him to flash the running ability that produced more yardage than any SEC back not named Herschel Walker or Emmitt Smith.
The kid has stardom written all over him. All signs point to when, not if.
“I just don’t know how fast it will be,” Raiders coach Lane Kiffin said. “By the time we get halfway through the year, I think he’ll have had a big impact on this team. You’ve just got to be nervous about how much you do with him.”
Take Monday night’s season opener at McAfee Coliseum. If McFadden handles the ball 20 times, then Kiffin, one year into his career as an NFL head coach, will have shown he is already skilled in the ways of play-action with the media.
“You won’t see him doing as much stuff as you’d like in this opener, especially because you’ve got a Monday night game as well,” Kiffin said. “He’s going to be worrying just about getting a handoff. We’ll be very careful with him this week.”
McFadden will come off the bench as a change-of-pace back behind Justin Fargas, whose 1,009 yards in 2007 were a career high. So how many touches does McFadden figure to get?
“I can’t really say,” McFadden said. “Whatever the coaches decide, I’m going to try to have myself prepared for. I guess that’s something where you’ll have to come out Monday night and see how it is.”
So much for the present. For McFadden and fellow SEC alum JaMarcus Russell, it’s all about the future. At 6-foot-2 and 210 pounds, McFadden profiles a back capable of grinding out short yardage on one play and hitting a home run on the next.
No wonder the scouts have compared him with Marshall Faulk. But then, we’re getting ahead of ourselves here. With McFadden, it’s easy to do.
Jim Armstrong: 303-954-1269 or jmarmstrong@denverpost.com
