THREE days ago someone on the NFL’s website wrote about an exec who said he’d take former Eagles RB LeSean McCoy over current Eagles RB Demarco Murray “Any day”. The story’s writer dismissed the exec’s evaluation as “silly”, and then proceeded to talk about all the wrong things.
Personally, I agree with the NFL exec. If I were building a team from scratch, had to pick a RB and my choices were McCoy or Murray, I’d take McCoy with zero hesitation. Zero.
The guy who wrote the articles basically said that both RB’s were products of their skills being well matched with with the systems they played in, also saying that neither would thrive in the system the other played in.
That’s complete horse shit.
Could Shady (McCoy) have regularly run through wide open holes? Sure he could have. He can accelerate quickly through a hole and then find a second gear beyond the line of scrimmage. He’s not known for running through tacklers (though he does), but his gift is his ability to set up his cuts well. The guy could make you miss him in a phonebooth.
Could Murray have bounced around and routinely created his own openings? No. Not at all. Murray is a one cut runner who is not known for creating what isn’t given to him before reaching the line of scrimmage. He’s more known for the extra yards he makes after contact, than for being able to salvage a poorly blocked play.
I’m planting this flag now, because we have an interesting opportunity here. The Shady vs. Murray debate isn’t new, but unlike most debates of this nature (which tend to go down as what-if’s), Chip Kelly has made it possible to get an answer. Murray will now get to play in the same system that McCoy played in for the last two years, piling up 2,900 rushing yards in that span. Murray if he’s as good as McCoy, should put up about 1,300 – 1,600 yards this year. If he’s better he should put up more. That is unless, somehow, someway, someone has messed up our Offensive Line since last year.
But (at least for the moment), that’s neither here nor there.
Still for my money, I’m rolling with Shady.
EAGLEMANIACAL.com 
It’s funny you’re defending Shady here considering how you used to rip him and his play. If you look at their careers so far Shady’s been the better back, but these last two season with Chip Kelly have been terrible for his body. Nearly 700 touches in two seasons with Chip. Not that I think Shady’s slowing down. In the contrary he got better as the season went on. Shady is a guy in one season rushed for 17 touchdowns, but for some reason Chip didn’t get him the ball in the red zone. Then again his spread offense has been pretty useless in the red zone too so…. Demarco Murray is a one cut back like you wrote, but he hasn’t been close to Shady’s production until last season and he’s only played a full season once. Can Murray be the guy that bucks the trend of guys with over 400 carries in one season falling off the map? I don’t yet, just like I don’t know how many of Chip’s changes are going to produce. Funny thing is McCoy has had more carries/touches than Murray, but he’s actually the younger back. Truthfully at this point if I had to chose one of them I would say neither. Realistically both have two to three more productive seasons left, and cost too much money. Chip’s offense calls for a guy to just run it between the tackles and not necessarily be dynamic. A rookie could have done that and far cheaper than any of the tree backs the Eagles have on the roster right now. Chip should have drafted McCoy’s replacement last season. Smart franchises groom replacements. They don’t abruptly end relationships with quality players and not have some kind of plan to replace that player. Chip has a lot of bad ingredients working right now. Too many new players. Too many players returning from injuries, and a lack of young players being groomed to replace some of these aging veterans. Most importantly in this league you need a legit QB to win. Is Sam Bradford that guy? Well so far (unless you’re willing to give him a bunch of excuses) Sam Bradford hasn’t shown he is nor has he shown he can be. I don’t like his chances to prove otherwise considering this offense has had 4 starting QB injuries in two seasons.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’m less defending McCoy and more pointing out that he’s the more special player between the two. As I said, if I had those TWO to pick from. (Starting from scratch, I’d go with a RB like Arian Foster or LeVeon Bell.)
LikeLike
Foster is a prime example that you don’t need to invest early picks on backs and he’s also an example of a back who gets a ton of touches eventually breaking down. If Chip wants to run sets with multiple backs I don’t get why he decided to sign and trade for old ones and on top of that he decided to go with very young receivers. Seems to me in the NFL it is much harder to learn how to be a receiver than it is to learn how to be a running back. I’m just not that sold on GM Chip.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Neither am I. The Draft didn’t impress me as far as RB’s, but FA, had more than enough options if he wanted a less dynamic RB.
LikeLike
Agreed he could have gotten cheaper options for a running back by committee system and used some of that money to sure up his offensive line.
LikeLiked by 1 person
But that would have been too much like doing it the tried and true way.
LikeLike