1 game scouting report RB McFadden Arkansas

[Ochmed Jones]

What a beast!

I knew he had good height, but until I stood by him on the field, I didn't realize how thick(solid) he was. He has to be a good 225 or so pounds. He absolutely wore out the Alabama defense. By the second half, Alabama defenders were bouncing off of him. Until he got his bell rung and sat out with a concussion, he was single handedly leading Arkansas to one of the widlest come from behind wins in SEC history.

But on to the evaluation. Superb vision, speed and cutting ability. Delivers a blow when being tackled as often as possible. He showed he could catch the ball out of the backfield, although his route running was weak.
Sometimes he ran upright like Eric ****erson (showed a lot of chest) and sometimes he ran low, and could still make a cut.
I saw nothing that lead me to believe he had a clue about blocking and blitz pickup. I did see him run into a couple of guys on pass plays, but I chose to believe that was by accident.

Bottom line: Best large back I have seen since Larry Johnson played at Penn State. Easily he is a top 5 pick.

Two other big backs to watch this year. Culchick (spelling) 255 lbs. of Mich St. and Lane 275 lbs of Texas A&M.

 

[cstjohn17]

I watched the game as well and you could really see the contrast between him and Felix Jones. Jones looks fast and is a nifty college style runner but McFadden looked like a beast. When he slammed into players the pile would move.

IMO he is a better runner than Adrian Peterson (Vikings). Hopefully he can add blocking and receiving to his skill set. As a runner there is not much to dislike.

Lane - I saw the end of the game against Fresno State, he is a battering ram and looks every bit of the 270 he is listed at. Pretty one dimensional but fun to watch him ram his way forward.

What about the kid from Oregon? Has anyone seen him play?
Jonathan Stewart 5'11, 235

 

[Ochmed Jones]

I have not seen him play this year.

I know he had a monster game last weekend and I ran into an Altanta Falcons employee in Tuscaloosa that said that Stewart was the real deal and that the Falcons will have several people at the USC-Oregon game.

I know that MCFadden will be long gone before we pick, so I still have my eye of Davis of Clemson. Why does Clemsdon go out of their way to get Spiller some runs when they have Davis ready to churn out the yardage? Maybe it will keep Davis fresher for the conference games down the road.

OT Barry Richardson looked awesome against FSU. Too bad he's not a Patriot type OL guy.

 

[patsfaninpa]

I think DMAC clearly the best player in the country. Stewart kid from Oregon looked good against Michigan. He ran very hard. Build wise he kind of reminds me of Natrone Means...minus a few cheeseburgers.

 

[dryheat44]

I don't think we'll be looking at a RB in the first round. I like Felix Jones a lot to start taking over for Faulk, and he's probably a third round pick.

I also like Marlon Lucky, although I was travelling and didn't see the Nebraska/USC game.

Kevin Smith out of UCF looked good in the game I saw.