Throughout the off season Fantasy Football Trader’s Columnist Ernie Estrella will be touring the NFL by division and identifying key positional battles with Fantasy Football implications up for grabs.
Oakland Raiders
No. 1 Running Back
Candidates: Darren McFadden, Michael Bush, Rock Cartwright, Michael Bennett
Don’t worry Raider Nation, Michael Bennett will not be the Raiders feature back, and neither will Rock Cartwright.
Neither is young enough, nor special enough to become an NFL feature back. And thank goodness the team finally got rid of Justin Fargas who was suffocating the position.
This year, either Darren McFadden finally lives up to his potential, or Michael Bush takes the reigns once and for all.
Hue Jackson has to want to give one of these guys a feature role and get 200-plus carries.
Both backs are in their third season, although McFadden is younger by a few years, and neither knows what it’s like to carry the ball more than 15 times a week.
McFadden can do more when catching the ball, but he is terribly prone to getting hurt and fumbles the ball an awful lot.
If he can get a majority of the carries, I am convinced Bush can get the job done.
He’s bigger, more durable, and in spurts has put up respectable numbers.
What’s the knock on him? Head coach Tom Cable thinks he doesn’t have the mental toughness to carry the ball 20-plus times and has been dangled in trade rumors this off-season.
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Article Source: Bleacher Report - Oakland Raiders
