jwooten15 said:
"Here are two articles. Both state that McFadden was cleared and ready to practice/play, but the team decided not to activate him.... One of those articles was published in September... report and quotes straight from personnel in the Cowboys organization say that he was ready."
Now c'mon. You had to know I was going to ACTUALLY READ those links, didn't you?
USA Today (Sep 4)
"To get to 53, the Cowboys placed Darren McFadden on Reserve/NFI, despite the fact the player has indicted he’s healthy and ready to go."
Right. So, I guess technically, McFadden himself is "personnel in the Cowboys organization," but that's a little misleading, if not a lot misleading... McFadden himself has some self-interest in pronouncing himself healthy, and his words are not what we need to hear on the topic... personnel in the organization who we'd actually have confidence in would be, of course, coaches or trainers... heck, even if you could come up with a reporter saying "sources inside the organization have told me blah blah blah," that's at least something in the vein of what you said was there.
Star-Telegram (Oct 18)
"For his part, McFadden sounded as though he’s ready to go. “Elbow is feeling great,” McFadden said. “Just sitting back and waiting for my time to get back on the field. It’s pretty much up to the coaches. I’m ready to go, so it’s just based off their decision.” McFadden said his range of motion is “as good as it’s going to get” and that he has “great strength” in his elbow."
Right. And ditto what I just said. No one in the Cowboys organization beyond McFadden himself said he was ready. No one. Neither article says one thing about McFadden being "cleared and ready to practice/play." Not one thing.
To the contrary...
September 6 per Rob Phillips (dallascowboys.com)
FRISCO, Texas – Darren McFadden began the offseason program looking to build on last year’s team-leading 1,089-yard rushing performance.
Instead, he’ll begin the 2016 season on the Reserve/Non-Football Injury list, still not cleared to practice coming off June elbow surgery that sidelined him for all of training camp and preseason.
“Disappointed” is an understatement, according to the veteran running back.
“I don’t think disappointed is the word for it,” he said. “I was definitely hoping to be back out there for the start, but it’s one of those things (where) I’ve got to sit back and get ready all the way.”
McFadden has been working on getting strength and full range of motion back in the elbow.
“The trainers, they know more so than me as far as being able to go out there and protect myself the way I need to be,” he said...
Speaks for itself.
October 18 per Rob Phillips (dallascowboys.com)
...McFadden was placed on Reserve/NFI at the start of the season, which meant he was required to miss the first six weeks. Head coach Jason Garrett said Monday the team hasn’t made a determination yet on his status regarding a return to practice; once he does, though, the team has three weeks to decide whether to activate him to the 53-man roster or place him on injured reserve.
McFadden said he has a small hitch in his surgically-repaired elbow but doesn’t think it will affect him when he does return.
Doesn't tell us much, but it does at least tell us that no decisions had been made to that point in time regarding when he would be cleared to return to practice. And, it tells us that there was some lingering effect that still was causing some degree of concern--at least enough he thought enough to mention it.
Other than that, having googled several more articles from those months, I find zero zilch nada that clues us in to what his status was where the team was concerned. No quotes from Garrett or anyone else. What should we take from that silence? Not sure. Was there some NFL rule they didn't want to break or some other motive for them not giving any confirmation that he was healthy enough in October, or even September, as you appear to want to establish as fact? Enlighten me if you know of some reason, but I'm not aware of any. Wouldn't seem to have invited any lawsuit, wouldn't seem to have invited any action from the Commissioner's office. Could seemingly have just straight-up said, "He was hurt to begin the year, he's healthy now, and we'll activate him later when we think it's in the team's best interests to do that."
Sooooo...
You said, "Bottom line is that just because he wasn't on the field doesn't mean he wasn't physically capable of being out there." I have to acknowledge that there's validity to that. It's plausible. But so is the opposite... we just don't know if coaches and trainers actually thought he was physically capable of being out there ahead of the time he was actually...
actually... cleared to return.
Back to the point of his reliability, which is why we're even having this discussion...
Regardless of whether he was ready to come back in mid-September, mid-October, or not until he actually got back in mid-November...
I continue to think that what is most telling is that Morris is still on the roster... a player who practically everyone acknowledges doesn't really add anything to this roster with Zeke and McFadden in front of him. "Worried" is too strong a term, but if they weren't "concerned" about McFadden's reliability, Morris would have been replaced already with some asset that DOES add something to the roster.
