The Oakland Raiders have two running backs in need of restarting their careers. Darren McFadden and Maurice Jones-Drew have not exactly exceled over the past few years and after getting short-term deals from the Raiders, they are trying to make the most of their time on the field. Head coach Dennis Allen is encouraging competition between the two backs, hoping that spawns improvement and so far, Jones-Drew is taking advantage of it.
In the first depth chart of the 2014 season, the Raiders have listed Jones-Drew as the No. 1 running back with McFadden getting demoted to the backup role. Since McFadden was drafted, he has been the assumed starting running back for the Raiders, even when Rashad Jennings was outperforming him. However, this season is different as Oakland grows excited over the skillset of Jones-Drew.
Fans of the Raiders have suffered through a lack-luster rushing attack over the years. McFadden has yet to live up to the hype he had surrounding him coming out of college and cannot seem to stay healthy enough to even try and make an impact. That resulted in the signing of Jones-Drew in free agency and so far, the Raiders are pleased with the decision to bring on the veteran.
"Maurice Jones-Drew plays like a big back. I'm going to promise you, you're going to see," offensive coordinator Greg Olson said, via Ibabuzz.com. "He's got such a low center of gravity. He's extremely difficult to tackle because of his height and his power. He's got ridiculous power in those legs. And he's hard to see with a big line. He's hard to see coming out of the line of scrimmage, and when he does come out, they get a glimpse of him and try and stick an arm out, he'll rip it off. He's got that kind of power."
Olson noted that he was unsure just how finalized the depth chart was at this point in training camp, but Jones-Drew has the attention of the coaching staff right now over McFadden. Olson said that the biggest thing right now was keeping both backs healthy in order to have a productive run game for the 2014 season.
"Obviously there's a lot of critics out there that say they can't stay healthy and who knows? In the future we'll know, but right now if those two guys can stay healthy they're pretty darn good," Olson said.
Olson aims to have a more run-heavy offense in order to take some of the pressure off the quarterback as Matt Schaub continues to cement himself as the starter. He also notes that tight end Mychal Rivera will get more responsibilities this season as he looks much improved coming in from the offseason. The Raiders have high hopes for this year's offense and a lot of that rests on two running backs proving themselves in a new season.
