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I believe the only reason why some would rank Darren McFadden outside the Top 10 Running Backs is because he hasn't proven his consistency. He took a few years to hit his stride and he's had some injury concerns. Still, I say he belongs in the single digits.

I'll make a fairly simple case "No guts, no glory."

Look back at 2010, where he finished as the 6th highest scoring RB in fantasy football. Now consider that he only played 13 games. Only 2 other RB in the top 10 played fewer than 16 (LeSean McCoy and Adrian Peterson with 15 each).

McFadden averaged 16.6 points per game, good for second in the league. He was surpassed by only Arian Foster (19.9) and he finished nearly a full point per game ahead of Adrian Peterson (15.8). If McFadden had been healthy enough to go a full 16 games, he would have finished with 265 fantasy points, easily moving him into second place behind Foster. Heck, if he would have played 14 games at that pace, he would have finished third.

Finally, McFadden showed game breaking ability last year. He had 2 huge outings where he notched >35 fantasy points. There were 5 single game tallies of >35 points by Running Backs in 2010 and only McFadden managed to do it more than once (FYI: Michael Vick managed 2 efforts of >40 points).

No selection comes without risk, but his upside is off the charts. If he plays up to last years standard, then he will easily finish in the top handful of RB in fantasy scoring. Before you draft, be sure to think this through. If you find yourself picking late in the first round and he's still on the board will you be aggressive and go for the kill or will you be more conservative and draft for consistency over upside?