Daily Madden: Is MJD Fresh Enough To Help The Raiders?
OAKLAND (KCBS) - The Oakland Raiders have reportedly signed home-grown running back Maurice Jones-Drew. At age 29, coming off an injury-plagued season with Jacksonville, is Jones-Drew healthy enough to help the Raiders?
"That's what you wonder," John Madden told the KCBS Radio morning crew. "He is a good player and he's a tough player and you have to like that about him. But that could be the thing that hurts him a little in that when he was at Jacksonville, he was really for awhile there the only thing they had. And he was their offense. And I think he took a beating. It was just one of those things that when you played Jacksonville and you were on defense, you just went after one guy and it was him. So you wonder if he can 'freshen up,' as Mooch (Steve Mariucci) says."
MJD rushed for more than 8,000 yards and 68 touchdowns in eight seasons with the Jaguars.
"Any guy who is 29-years-old and has been a running back for that long -- as you say - not only a running back for Jacksonville which was a bad team, a running back at UCLA, a running back at De La Salle - that's a lot of tread on the tire.
You have injuries, but also you get hurt a lot. And it's those hurts that really aren't injuries that really aren't surgical, that have to be freshened up." (6:45)
Daily Madden
Listen to the John Madden segment live weekday mornings at 8:15 on KCBS All News 740 AM/106.9 FM.
