Oakland Raiders RB Darren McFadden will ‘absolutely’ play in season opener
By Brian Spaen
Despite the Oakland Raiders holding out porcelain statue Darren McFadden in their last preseason game against the Chicago Bears, the head coach confirms that the running back will play in their opening game.
Vic Tafur, who covers the Raiders blog at SF Gate, reports on Twitter that while McFadden is questionable for the final preseason game, Raiders head coach Dennis Allen he’ll be ready for the season opener at the Indianapolis Colts.
In five seasons with the Raiders, McFadden has yet to play all 16 games in one of them. His best season came back in 2010, where he played 13 games, ran for his only season over 1,000 yards, and had seven touchdowns. He also caught 47 passes for 507 yards and three touchdowns.
He followed that up by appearing in just seven games in 2011, but ended up being a bigger impact than his first two seasons with 614 rushing yards in just 113 carries.
Perhaps the injury bug won’t hit McFadden during the regular season and he can make it back to over 1,000 rushing yards in a season. He’s been gaining some momentum despite injuries, and was ranked 60th in the NFL’s Top 100 Players of 2012 list.