Although we seriously considered Vernon Gholston, who would fit so well into our 3-4 scheme, the acquisition of DE/LB Calvin Pace should fill this role (how well is yet to be determined), and coupled with the pick-ups of DT Kris Jenkins and OLs Alan Faneca and Damien Woody, we were able to take the player we have graded highest in the draft, Darren McFadden.
Thomas Jones clearly is not the answer we thought he'd be at RB and we hope McFadden can play the Adrian Peterson to Jones' Chester Taylor. Without the same durability issues that plagued Peterson, we believe McFadden is an asbolute steal at the 6th pick. We're hoping McFadden can take some pressure off of whatever piss-poor excuse for a quarterback we go with, whether it be (to steal a word from Giants GM Jerry Reese) "skittish" Kellen Clemens or noodle-armed Chad Pennington. While we did consider going the QB route, we just simply didn't believe any QBs on the board were worthy of a selection this high.
There are off-the-field issues swirling around McFadden and although New York might be a place that might exacerbate such issues, our hard-nosed, non-nonsense coach, Eric Mangini, should keep McFadden in line.
All in all, we're absolutely thrilled with the selection.
