Pro Football Focus will be providing analysis for every major NFL signing and trade during the 2015 free-agency period, accounting primarily for the quality of the player and his fit with his new team, and focusing less on the financial terms of the deal.
Here is a grade for the deal between Darren McFadden and the Dallas Cowboys.
Grade articles on every major deal
Dallas Cowboys: D-plus
McFadden is one of those players who will forever draw interest from NFL teams because he looks like he should be an effective NFL player. Here's the problem: He isn't.
He has the size and speed to be a weapon but not the instincts or vision to make it work. His career average is 4.1 rushing yards per carry, but he hasn't topped 3.5 in any of the past three seasons. His speed does help him produce the occasional big play. In his three best seasons, he had touchdown carries of 57, 64 and 70 yards, but it's the carries between those big plays that are his issue.
The chances are the Cowboys aren't bringing him to be anything more than a bit of depth or even a camp body, and if there is one line in the league that could make most running backs look good, it's the one in Dallas. But there are other better options on the free-agent market who could do as well or better than McFadden, and that's before taking into account his past durability issues (although he did play a full 16 games last season).
If the Cowboys expect McFadden to be anything more than a backup, they've been watching too much Arkansas tape, because that's just not who he is in the NFL.