The former Cowboys and Raiders star discusses the Micah Parsons trade, Ashton Jeanty’s start in the NFL and his favourite running backs to watch.
Former Dallas Cowboys running back Darren McFadden expects a big night from Micah Parsons when the Green Bay Packers pass rusher takes on his former team this weekend.
Parsons was sent to Green Bay in a blockbuster trade last month, which has seen the Packers rise in the NFL odds to win the Super Bowl.
McFadden says he was “completely blown away” when the deal was announced, but believes the Cowboys could improve in the long run.
In our exclusive interview, McFadden also discusses the start of Ashton Jeanty’s NFL career, which running backs he enjoys watching and his picks to win the Super Bowl and the College Football National Championship.
What was your immediate reaction to the Micah Parsons trade?
That honestly completely surprised me, man.
I wasn’t around any TVs or anything, and didn’t have my phone at the time. I was coming down the elevator at a hotel and somebody asked me, “what do you think about this trade?” And I’m like, “what trade?”
He said the Micah Parsons trade, and I was like “are you kidding me?” I was completely blown away in shock. That’s something I definitely did not expect right there.
I figured that they would take it down to the wire and get a deal done, like how things have been done in the past with other players. I didn’t think Parsons was the calibre of player that we want to lose. I do with him all the best moving forward in Green Bay, and I hope we can just keep recovering from it.
What did you think of the haul that the Cowboys got back from the Packers?
My initial thought was that it was terrible, even though you had two first round picks and a veteran guy that’s been around. I felt like it was one of those where you can’t replace Parsons. But after the initial shock has worn off and I think about it now, Dallas has had great success with drafting in the first round in the past. You may not find a Micah Parsons between those draft picks, but I feel like we will come out of there with some players.
I keep saying “we” because I’m a Cowboys fan, I still watch them. I feel like we’ll come out of there with some players and hopefully in the long run I think it’ll be worth it for us.
You joined the Cowboys as a free agent in 2015 – what were the negotiations like with the team?
I was coming off my seventh season in Oakland and I was an unrestricted free agent, so it was pretty straightforward. I didn’t have any leverage, I didn’t try to negotiate much of anything. So I was happy to get a fresh start going to Dallas.
For me, a kid growing up in Arkansas, Dallas was the team I always watched growing up and so being able to come here and play for them, man, it was just an amazing feeling. For the most part of my agent handled everything. He and Stephen Jones pretty much chatted back and forth and handled everything.
We got a deal done, I put a star on my helmet and I was happy to be in Dallas.
What were Jerry and Stephen Jones like to work with?
I probably had as much interaction with them as anyone else in the building. You would see them around the building and I was one of the guys who would go up and talk to them, having those Arkansas ties. They always loved me, they were fans with me when I was in college, and I was hoping to come to Dallas when I was drafted out of college but it didn’t work out that way. I feel like I had as much interaction with them as anyone else and we had a very good boss-employee relationship.
Moving forward in the future I can still talk to those guys when I see them out, and I have great respect for them and I think they have great respect for me as well.
What do you think of the direction the Cowboys are going in as a franchise?
I’m one of the guys who tries to take the positive out of things, and so after losing Parsons, looking at it from a fan standpoint, it was hard to take any positives from that right there. But after seeing the guys out there in the first couple of weeks, even though we had that upset this past weekend, I feel like the team is going in the right direction.
They have some guys who have to clean some things up, like any other team. You have to clean some mistakes up, but they showed that they can go out there can throw the ball, they can run the ball, and they have the ability to go out there and make plays and stop guys.
It’s just something where they have to put all that together, week in and week out, and be able to continue to do that to be a successful team in the NFL.
Are you worried about a Micah Parsons revenge game when the Cowboys face Green Bay?
I’m 1000% sure he’s going to come in here like he’s jacked up on Red Bull and Mountain Dew, ears pinned back and ready to play some ball. I’m sure it’s going to be one of those games for him. He may not talk about it much, but it’s something that goes unsaid. When you play against your former team, you want to go out there and shine and show them why they should have never got rid of you. You want to show them that you are still that guy they thought you were when you first were there.
With a guy like Parsons, he’s gonna do that right there. It’s one of those situations where you know he’s going to make his plays, he’s going to do what he does. Out there on the field, you just have to try to minimise those plays that he’s making. You talk about containing the offense, but he’s a guy you’ve got to contain on defense.
Who was a defensive player from your career who you had to spent the week gameplanning to stop?
Those defensive guys who would just give you nightmares early on in my career were Troy Polamalu, Ed Reed, Brian Dawkins, Ray Lewis and Patrick Willis. When you got ready to play those guys, we would highlight guys with red dots on the defensive board saying, “these guys are game wreckers.”
I’d have to go with Troy Polamalu from my career. Playing against a guy like that, if I have a blocking assignment as a running back and he’s flying over the offensive line and getting the quarterback before he takes a step back, there’s not much I can do about that.
A guy like that with the passion and the energy that he played with, it was just great to be out there on the field with him.
How do you think the Cowboys can beat the Packers this weekend?
First thing we’ve got to do is protect the ball. Can’t turn the ball over. Got to try to stop their running game. Josh Jacobs is a guy I’ve been a fan him since he was at Alabama and then with the Raiders. We have to stop to stop him.
We have to just go out there and we can’t get stuck behind the sticks. We’ve got to stay on schedule. If you get stuck behind the sticks on third and long, it makes it hard on the offense. As a defense, we’ve got to stop the run first and foremost, and then we’ve just got to try to contain Jordan Love and those receivers.
Do you see the Packers as Super Bowl contenders with Parsons?
As an outsider looking in, I think they’re definitely one of the top teams in the NFC. They’re going to be contenders and that’s going to be a hard team to compete with. Once you get late in the season, November, December, as long as teams like that are still healthy, they’re going to be hard to beat as they’re a cold weather football team. I wouldn’t be surprised to see them go deep in the playoffs, for sure.
Ashton Jeanty, like you, was drafted very high up by the Raiders. What do you think of his potential?
As a running back and being in those shoes, being one of the top draft picks coming out, knowing the expectations that you have on you, I wouldn’t say he’s had had a fast start. What he’s doing, it’s not anything that no other rookie has done. It’s a slow start to the season, and people see a top draft pick and they want to see him go out there and have success. Sometimes it may take a guy a few games to get going, but I feel like he’s one of those guys who you just keep feeding that ball.
He’s going to get better and better as he goes. Being a young guy like that, you’re out there and you don’t know everything. You’re still taking it all in. Once you get it all and you get used to seeing these defenses, you don’t think as much, you can react a lot faster to things.
For a young guy, it takes a little time, man. I think once he gets his wits about him, he’s going to be fine.
You played in a big college conference against future NFL players, but did you find the NFL a big step up in terms of the speed and power of the other players?
I would say the biggest difference for me was the front seven of the defense – those linemen and linebackers. When you get to that NFL defensive line and you’ve guys who are 280, 290 pounds, still pushing out 4.7s and 4.8s, man, their speed over five or 10 yards is hard to beat.
That was one of the biggest things, just getting used to that speed of the d-linemen, knowing that once you get going, you can’t stop and try to cut back. You have to hit it and go because they’re coming to get you.
Pass protection is often emphasised as a struggle for rookie running backs. Did you find it hard to learn?
Learning the pass protection is definitely something that you have to work on, because there are a lot of a lot of moving parts that go into it. You have to be in tune with what the quarterback calls and with what the center calls, make sure where they’re pointing at for the Mike linebacker. There’s a lot that goes into it.
For me coming out of college, I pass blocked but I guess it wasn’t a big issue. But getting into the NFL, to be a complete back, you want to know how to pass block. You don’t want to be one of those backs where they get you in there on first and second down, and on third down they say “oh, we need to pass protect, get him out of there.”
I wanted to be an all-around back, and so I took pride in learning my pass protection.
Do you think the current Raiders offense is a situation in which Jeanty can have success?
With that team, I look at it as a situation where I feel like he can thrive. He’s not walking into a situation where it’s just – excuse my words – piss poor. The Raiders have a decent team. They have a decent offensive line, and Geno Smith is a decent quarterback, and I’m not saying decent to try to downplay anybody. They have a very good offense and I think with him being back there, just getting used to those guys and learning how the blocks work with the offensive line up front. When he gets used to seeing those things more and more, he’s going to be very successful in this league.
What do you think of the Raiders’ playoff chances in a tough AFC West?
You know, I’m an optimistic guy, man. The Raiders are a team that played with for seven years, it’s a second home to me so I always have a lot of hope and faith in them. I would love to see them make it into the playoffs coming out of the AFC West. It’s going to be a very tough, physical, division. I think they’re capable of going out there and winning some games and being able to shock some people and make that playoff run.
Who is your favourite running back to watch in the NFL?
I’m going to go with a guy who I know is one of the top running backs, he’s not having his best season so far, but Derrick Henry, he’s been doing it for a long time.
He’s a big, physical, strong guy. I love to see a guy like him run that ball. He’s not having the best year so far, but he’s one of them guys and he’s going to get going. At the end of the day he’s going to go out there and get his yards, and I feel like he’s one of my favourite running backs to watch right now.
Who do you think is an underrated running back who doesn’t get the credit he deserves?
I’m not going to say he’s underrated, just because I don’t follow his team a lot, but I did get to watch David Montgomery play on Monday night. He was out there toting that ball and doing a hell of a job, man. I was excited seeing the way that he ran that ball. As a running back, when you see someone go out there and run with a passion, there’s just something about it, man. He was doing that on Monday night.
I’m not saying he’s an underrated guy, I just hadn’t followed Detroit a lot, but he’s one of those guys who is out there toting that ball and he’s exciting to watch.
Who is a running back who reminds you of the way you played the game?
That one is always a hard one for me because when I listen to other people talk about me, I have a different opinion of myself. When other people talk about me they say I’m this fast, upright runner, and I like to look at myself as a fast runner, but I know how to get down and run behind my pads. So I think a lot of people overlook that about me.
If I had to say somebody from watching over the past few years, I’d say Raheem Mostert. He’s kind of a fast, up-top guy and then he runs behind his pads very well.
Who are the college running backs you think look ready for the NFL?
I’m an SEC guy, but I can’t say that I have one SEC back right now who is one of the top backs. I know Penn State got two heck of a guys up there in Nicholas Singleton and Kaytron Allen. Notre Dame has a good running back in that Love kids, and I think he’s one of the top ones in college ball right now. You’ll definitely be seeing him play on Sundays.
Who’s your pick to win the National Championship this year?
It’s so early in the season, but I’m looking at a team like Ohio State. It looks like they’ve just got it all together right now. Both sides of the are balls doing it. They’re catching it, running it, stopping the run, stopping the pass. I think that Ohio State team, they’re going to be a hard one to stop. It wouldn’t surprise me to see them up there again.
Who’s your Super Bowl pick?
I would love to say Kansas City but it’s hard to, right now, just seeing how they started off.
I can’t say that they’re my pick, but a team that team excites me is this Washington team. Having a young team and then what Jayden Daniels has done over there, man, I’m excited about this team and I think they have a real shot. I know made a good run last year, but I think they have a really good shot, for sure.
