Oakland Raiders: All-Decade Team for the 2010s

Running back: Darren McFadden

While Darren McFadden‘s career was an overall disappointment, it was largely not his fault.

McFadden battled injury after injury to start his NFL career, always looking strong to start the season until the inevitable injury would occur.

In 2010, McFadden played and started in 13 games and had the most productive year of his career.

McFadden gained 1,157 yards on a 5.2 average with seven rushing touchdowns. He was great in the receiving game as well, amassing 507 yards on a career-high 47 receptions to go along with one receiving touchdown.

His stats would have looked a lot better had he played all 16 games and his third-year campaign had him in early MVP talks. It seemed he had broken out.

Then comes 2011 where the Oakland Raiders offense came out strong at the beginning of the season, and McFadden started where he left off averaging 5.4 yards per carry with 614 yards through the first seven games.

The injury bug hit again during week 7 where McFadden got hurt with a Lisfranc injury and missed the remainder of the season.

The Raiders would only win four more games during a season the team looked destined for the playoffs in a weak AFC West division that the Tim Tebow-led Denver Broncos ending up winning.

McFadden would exceed his 2011 rushing totals in 2012, but only by 93 yards on a measly 3.3 yards per carry. And that is despite playing and starting in 12 games — five more than he did the previous season.

He was clearly not the same back coming off his Lisfranc injury, but his weak season was also a result of the coaching staff moving to a zone scheme despite the offensive line being rather dominant in the power run game.

McFadden is a one-cut runner who lacks vision, and so he struggled heavily in this scheme.

McFadden would play with the team for two more years through the 2014 season where he would appear in all 32 games, though he once again averaged under four yards per carry in both seasons.

After signing with the Cowboys he seemed to have a resurgence in 2015 running behind the Cowboys strong offensive line, rushing for his second 1,000-yard season.

While his career may not have gone the way many had hoped, he was still a bright spot at times, and playing on the team for seven years made his selection here rather easy.

Fullback: Marcel Reece

You could argue Marcel Reece is the most talented fullback of the 2010s period, so this was an easy choice here, though the Raiders have actually had three good fullbacks throughout the 2010s.

Reece played wide receiver in college and switched to full back once in the NFL as he was too big to be a true wide receiver And as a fullback, he could be used to create mismatches.

Despite the match-up nightmare he was, Reece never had a statistically great season as the poor coaching staffs never knew how to utilize him properly.

Reece started at running back for two games in 2012. Against the Saints, he rushed for 103 yards on a 5.4 average. He also hauled in four receptions for 90 yards. His next start against the Cincinnati Bengals, he again had a solid day rushing, going for 74 yards on the ground.

In 2013 he started at running back once again for one game and again amassed over 100 yards and a touchdown highlighted by this 63-yard touchdown run.

Reece was more effective at running the ball than the running backs the team had those years, so it’s kind of perplexing the coaching staff never tried him there full time since they were never going to utilize him as a fullback anyways.

The veteran made three pro bowls in his career and embodies the phrase, “Once a Raider, always a Raider” as you saw him last week in the booth hanging out with owner Mark Davis who he has built a friendship with since his days playing for the Silver and Black.