If he hadn't broken his leg in the first game of the 2006 college football season, Michael Bush might have been a first-round draft pick in 2007. Instead the Raiders got him in the fourth round, and he spent that entire year rehabbing from the injury.

Now he's healthy (the photo was taken at the Raiders' minicamp on Friday, when Bush ran at full speed), but can he get on the field with Darren McFadden now the main man in Oakland? He tells the Sacramento Bee what he thought when McFadden was drafted:

"At first I was like, Why do we need another back?, because, at the time, we did have Dominic, and LaMont still on the roster, and (Justin) Fargas and me," Bush said. " ... It kind of bothered me, but it didn't because he can help us. ... I'm glad that he's on our side."

McFadden says he was watching the Louisville game when Bush broke his leg, and he seems to think highly of Bush. When you draft a running back with the fourth overall pick, you're planning to hand him the starting job, but I like the options the Raiders have with having McFadden and the 245-pound Bush as a 1-2 punch. If Bush is as good a player as people thought he was two years ago, the Raiders have two of the NFL's most talented young runners.

Oakland Raiders defensive coordinator Rob Ryan is one of the NFL's most recognizable assistant coaches because he's the only one with long hair. At least, he used to be.

Ryan recently got a haircut, and it had nothing to do with the NFL's proposed rules change banning long hair -- that one applies only to players. Instead, he did it for charity.

Asked about his decision to donate his hair to Locks of Love, which turns donated hair into wigs for people suffering from long-term medical hair loss, Ryan said, "Why not? Clean up my act."

I also can't help but think that part of his decision was an effort to make himself look more like the stereotypical head coach, which Ryan wants to be. Fair or not, appearance matters, and there are undoubtedly some NFL owners who would hold Ryan's hair against him when considering him for a head-coaching job. That won't be a problem anymore.

When the Detroit Lions drafted wide receiver Mike Williams with the 10th pick in the 2005 NFL draft, most people thought it was stupid because the Lions had used Top 10 picks on wide receivers in the last two drafts.

As it turned out, it was stupid because Williams wasn't any good. He caught 37 passes in two seasons in Detroit, had some crucial drops in key moments, got morbidly obese and horribly out of shape, and was shipped to Oakland last year.

Now Oakland has let him go, and he's in Tennessee, where he says he's in good shape and down 30 pounds to 242, or only about 10 heavier than he was at USC. New offensive coordinator Mike Heimerdinger says he's excited about what Williams can bring to the offense.

I just don't buy it, though. The last time Williams looked like a good football player was at the 2004 Rose Bowl. I think Williams' football talent has atrophied.

I didn't even know this was up for debate, but during his radio show yesterday, Dan Patrick asked recently retired Raiders defensive tackle Warren Sapp if Al Davis was still the puppet master in Oakland. Sapp confirmed what the rest of us just assumed to be true:

"Fully. When I went there a few months ago, no doubt about it. Sitting there, talking with him about my plans, right before the last game of the year, watching Randy Moss and Tom Brady go get a 16-0 record. He had a big-screen TV, and we were there watching it," Sapp said. "He's definitely in full control. Don't kid yourself because you see the man in a walker. There's nothing wrong with his brain."

Exactly. Just like Stephen Hawking and Charles Xavier, Davis' limitations are strictly physical. If you're looking for a partner in the three-legged race, well, you've come to the wrong place; if you want to clean up in Trivial Pursuit, jackpot. That said, I'm not sure either Hawking or Xavier would've drafted Darren McFadden or re-hired Art Shell.

More interesting, perhaps, is that Sapp, once critical of Randy Moss during his two-year stint with the Raiders, has a different perspective on his former teammate:

In news that shocked no one, the Raiders used the fourth-overall pick in the draft to select Darren McFadden, which led to the team releasing Dominic Rhodes. The move put Oakland under the salary cap, but it also meant one fewer running back on a depth chart that now includes McFadden, LaMont Jordan, Justin Fargas and Michael Bush.

Today, Rhodes, took his GM skillz to Sirius NFL Radio:

"I don't see the reason why the Raiders needed to draft a running back, you know what I'm saying? I mean, we have a stable full of running backs, that ran for 100 yards every one of them. And then we went and drafted a guy -- he's a great runner, don't get me wrong -- but, I don't understand the logic, everybody wanted to do this or that; it was never saying, "Okay, we're all going to do this together." I mean, there were just a whole bunch of fires everywhere, and ... then they seemed to blaze out of control.

I don't really think Lane Kiffin wanted to take a running back in the first round, let's just put it like that ... he has to deal with it now, but I don't think that's what he wanted to do.

Oakland Raiders 2008 Draft Picks:

Round 1 (4): Darren McFadden, RB, Arkansas
Round 4 (100): Tyvon Branch, CB, Connecticut
Round 4 (125): Arman Shields, WR, Richmond
Round 6 (169): Trevor Scott, DE, Buffalo
Round 7 (226): Chaz Schilens, WR, San Diego State

The Good: Well, the Raiders got arguably the most explosive player in the draft. They also landed a fourth-rounder for sending Fabian Washington to Baltimore, and promptly drafted the next Washington with Tyvon Branch. The team's second-round pick went to Atlanta for the rights to DeAngelo Hall, who, according to defensive coordinator Rob Ryan, makes up one half of the best cornerback tandem in the NFL. (Denver and Green Bay respectfully disagree.)

The Bad: JaMarcus Russell still doesn't have anyone to block for him, and the defensive line -- Warren Sapp-less and Tommy Kelly-ful -- didn't improve over the weekend. For as dynamic as McFadden should be, Glenn Dorsey might've made more of an impact, especially in the short-term.

The Grade: B-. It's hard to get too worked up about the holes the Raiders didn't fill because they now have McFadden to go along with Russell and Javon Walker. Let's just hope the patchwork offensive line can keep Andrew Walter on the bench.

Click here to read other Draft Grades.

Two days after drafting running back Darren McFadden, the Oakland Raiders have informed running back Dominic Rhodes that he's being released.

The move, first reported by ESPN's John Clayton, was a necessity for the Raiders, as the team was in danger of going over the NFL's salary cap. Rhodes had a $1.75 million salary for 2008, which is now off the Raiders' books.

Thus ends an ugly year for Rhodes as a Raider. He served a four-game suspension for violating the NFL's substance-abuse policy, and finished his time in Oakland with 302 yards on 75 carries. He'll likely catch on with some other team for a salary around the league minimum, but the days of anyone offering him a $1.75 million salary are long gone.

It's hardly surprising, I guess, that head coach Lane Kiffin was fibbing in the days and weeks leading up to this weekend's NFL Draft. Nobody was buying his claim that the Raiders didn't need a running back (even though, you know, they didn't) because owner Al Davis loves speed, and more importantly, Al Davis has final say in, well, everything.

With that in mind, it was hardly surprising when commissioner Roger Goodell announced the Raiders were taking Darren McFadden with the fourth-overall pick. Even less shocking: Kiffin's comments following the selection.

I remember mentioning that running back wasn't a need for us, and it wasn't. We're kind of piled there with a number of really good running backs and guys coming back, including Michael Bush, who we really don't know enough about yet. It was not a need but it became a situation ... speaking for myself, I knew months ago that this was the guy that we had to have and we had to figure out a way to get him. Hopefully, he was going to fall to us. We lost the coin toss and moved to four and that scared me a little bit there. Fortunately, he was still available and in the end we got everybody on the same page. We're all really excited.

When Kiffin says he knew months ago that McFadden was the guy, I'm pretty sure that means Al Davis told him back in January that the Raiders were taking McFadden, no matter what it took. And when he mentions being scared, Kiffin's specifically referring to being scared about losing his job if McFadden off the board when Oakland went on the clock.

Disaster averted, and for now, everybody's happy. Which isn't something you don't say very often when referring to the Raiders.

Fantasy FanHouse will be chiming in throughout the NFL draft with fantasy analysis of each fantasy relevant pick.

So the Raiders made sure that just because they have other viable options they were not going to make the same mistake six teams made last year in passing on a franchise/game-breaking running back. While I'm not suggesting Darren McFadden is Adrian Peterson reincarnate, I am suggesting that it would have been stupid to let McFadden slide all the way down to seven this year after seeing the impact Peterson had as a rook.

So what is the fantasy fallout? Well, first things first ... there is no way the Raiders carry all these running backs. They have trading chips, but the question now becomes if they can trade any of the dudes for something they want before having to simply cut a couple.

-Justin Fargas has agreed to a new contract, but his value will likely never be higher for teams searching for a running back.

-Dominic Rhodes was a costly free agent signing last off-season and did not do anything to come close to expectations of the contract. He did restructure, though, and figured to play as Fargas' backup before this draft pick.

-Lamont Jordan was likely on his way to receiving his walking papers anyway, and now that McFadden is on board he's definitely going to be out of work.

-Michael Bush was a monster in college, but hasn't played in the NFL -- he was recovering from injury last year and proclaims himself 100% currently.

Maybe Al Davis isn't as practical as we thought -- oh, wait, Davis isn't practical at all. He's all about acquiring players who can score from anywhere on the field, even if it's at the expense of addressing other more immediate needs. All else equal, there's nothing wrong with that philosophy. Unfortunately, Oakland's won 19 times in the last five seasons.

So with Warren Sapp now retired and Glenn Dorsey still kickin' it in the Aaron Rodgers Memorial Green Room (well, he was when I started writing up this post), the Raiders go with the best running back in the draft, Darren McFadden (according to everybody but Mike Mayock). Shockingly, Davis took McFadden even though head coach Lane Kiffin said Oakland didn't "really have a big need at running back."

To be fair, he's right -- the Raiders re-upped Justin Fargas this off-season, and still have LaMont Jordan, Dominic Rhodes and last year's fourth-rounder, Michael Bush. Common sense suggests that all those guys won't be on the roster come Week 1, but we're talking about Oakland; it wouldn't be surprising if Art Shell is signed to play offensive line.

Disregarding the needs along both lines, McFadden, along with Javon Walker and JaMarcus Russell suddenly make the Raiders an extremely explosive offense. In theory, anyway. But if there's no one to protect Russell and open holes for McFadden, does it even matter? And because of various off-season wheelings and dealings, Oakland won't be able to address those needs until the fourth round. If history is any indication, that could be a problem. Just ask Andrew Walter, Josh McCown and Daunte Culpepper. On the upside, I'm a freaking genius.