NFL NUGGETS : Can McFadden help keep sinking Raiders afloat?
Posted on Thursday, May 29, 2008
Darren McFadden may be sprinting his way into yet another mess.
While the blazing runner has had little trouble avoiding pile-ups on the football field, he can't seem to avoid running headlong into troubled management situations.
McFadden's days at the University of Arkansas were among the most tumultuous in the program's history. The constant debate and speculation over the future of head coach Houston Nutt oftentimes overshadowed McFadden's Herculean exploits.
And it seems like he may have landed in an even more dysfunctional environment with the Oakland Raiders.
I kind of feel bad for the guy. McFadden deserves to play for a team with stability at the top.
And there won't be any stability in Oakland as long as crazy ol' Al Davis is running the show.
The Raiders' front office and coaching staff have been rife with turmoil since the end of last season. Reports were that Head Coach Lane Kiffin wanted to fire defensive coordinator Rob Ryan after the season, but Davis overruled.
Davis pushed for Kiffin to resign, and multiple media sources reported that Crazy Al even drafted a letter of resignation for his young coach to sign. But with two years left on his contract at $2 million per year, Kiffin decided he wasn't going anywhere. Physically, at least.
Some reports out of Oakland suggest that Kiffin seemed detached and uninterested at the Raiders' recent minicamp. Others point to the fact that Kiffin didn't wear any Raiders apparel at the Senior Bowl, while his assistants donned silver and black, as another sign of a silent protest. In fact, some in the Bay area media have already taken to calling Kiffin the Raiders' "future former coach."No matter how crazy it got at Arkansas, McFadden and his Razorback teammates never let the front office turmoil drag them down. Maybe McFadden and quarterback Jamarcus Russell will do the same in Oakland. It definitely won't be easy.
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FOXSports.com's Alex Marvez recently posted an article stating that McFadden (the No. 4 pick) and Chris Long (No. 2 overall) will have trouble getting the same amount of guaranteed money in their contracts as the players selected in the same spots last year. In a nutshell, the league bowing out of the Collective Bargaining Agreement in 2011 will force McFadden and Long to take shorter deals, hence less guaranteed money.
"It's going to be hard for those guys to get contracts even at the money they got a year ago,"said Gene Upshaw, the NFL Player Association's executive director. "The guys who were in that same slot a year ago are actually going to get more money in guarantees than what McFadden and Chris Long will get."
Last year, Georgia Tech receiver Calvin Johnson (No. 2 ) and Clemson defensive end Gaines Adams (No. 4 ) each signed six-year deals. McFadden and Long won't be able to get deals that long, and that can only lead to Holdout City.
In the past, I've made my stance on rookie contracts clear. They are way too big and keep growing out of control.
But this isn't the case of the league putting its foot down. it's just a couple of guys being forced to take less than they're worth due to some kind of power-brokering.
Now, I'm not too worried about McFadden and Long. I'm sure they'll still be able to get cheese on their Whoppers.
It's just a shame that the two best players in the draft are kind of getting the shaft.
Joe West is the assistant sports editor of the Northwest Arkansas Times.
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