Murray Had 1 Good Year

[TwistedMetal]

One day Murray may be a HOFer. Maybe 2015 was his breakout year for a historical career. Perhaps he will have his # retired by the Philadelphia Eagles after leading them to their first of multiple SuperBowls where he will be win multiple SuperBowl MVPs. Seriously. Crazier things have happened in sports.

However, as of today, May 14, 2015, Demarco Murray has had 1 really good professional NFL year.

365 days ago, Murray was considered an average back - perhaps slightly above average - but a back that also had durability issues.

In 2014 Murray lead the league in yards. Although some important stats such as YPC and broken tackle average dropped significantly in the last 1/4 of the season.

Now we currently have:

Joseph Randle - a back that had more YPC than Demarco in 2014, albeit with far fewer carries. Can he maintain a better pace than Murray with 20-25 carries a game. No one knows. But Randle was much improved from 2013 to 2014. That was crystal clear in watching film.

Darren McFadden - a back who also had 1 good year (2011) before injury cut it short. Similar power runner as Murray. Similar fumble issues. Faster back with more breakaway speed. But like Murray 365 days ago, much concern about his durability. Can McFadden duplicate 2011? No reason to believe he magically will, but if his body is in as good of shape as Murray, no real logical argument to why he can't either.

Ryan Williams - signed multi year deal after being on PS and turning down interests from other teams. Not your typical PS back. Great pedigree. Low/no mileage. It's probably his last shot at rebooting his career. Physically no reason to believe he can't. But that's hardly a reason to believe he will either.

Dunbar - not an every down back so not in this discussion other than to say Dunbar could potentially shoulder more of the load than he did last year - which would not be difficult given that he only saw the field 5 or so plays a game.

Free Agent Possibilities:

Chris Johnson - former All-Pro that ran pretty good last year for the Jets.
Knowshon Moreno - another accomplished back that could be an option.

Overall: as far as "on-the-field" ability and injury risk/reward scenarios, I think the loss of Murray has a better chance than not of being made up for in some way - 1 back or multiple back performances.

Was there some Murray off-the-field intangibles - i.e. leadership or motivator that made Dallas better and cannot be replaced? Hard to know. It's always possible.

But in totality, I am not as worried as most. Why? Simply because, as of right now, Murray is still an NFL back that had ONE GOOD YEAR.

DMC, Randle and Williams at RBBC and it will work, love the post.

 

[LittleBoyBlue]

Understand?

I do....

The solid run game was built through the trenches and the oline.

I understand this too. More significant than the one RB is the multiple players on the line.

Murray had 1 all-time great year and 1 good year(2013).

Understood and agreed.

Bottom line: I wanted to keep the band together. Murray went for the payday. I don't blame him.
You don't pay a running back AFTER a great year.

It's going to be rough for him this year.
New QB. Wait... They don't have a QB.
New offense.
Philly. Yuk! Duck!!

 

[TheSkaven]

I think that Michael Irvin makes a very good point. If "anyone" can run behind this offensive line, why did Garrett continue to feed the ball to Murray - nearly 400 carries? My take - I don't think he trusts Dunbar and Randle in pass protection and he doesn't believe they are durable. Run DMC falls more into the Dunbar and Randle category than the Murray category.

I don't see free agency as the answer either. This is going to be RBBC - with McFadden taking the bulk of the carries. I believe there's a chance that Randle doesn't make the team - Synjyn Days will be the guy who grinds out the short yardage carries.

Regardless - I see why Irvin believes we'll shift more into a pass-first offense. But I'd like to think that Garrett learned is lesson on that.

At this point, we've boxed ourselves into a hole and we're going to war with the guys that we've got. Barring a trade for you-know-who.

 

[KJJ]

Murray had one great season the best in franchise history as far as yards and it led to a 12-4 season and a playoff win. That was last season and the only good season McFadden had was 5 seasons ago. His last 3 seasons combined is over 200 yards behind what Murray gained last season. As for Randle he was a back who averaged more YPC than Murray last season because he benefitted from fewer carries and facing defenses that had been softened up by Murray. Felix Jones averaged almost 9 YPC in 08 with 30 carries subbing for Barber. The more carries he got the less he averaged. Randle was great in games where he received 7 carries or less because he always managed to break off a 15 plus yard run but in the one game he received more than 13 carries he averaged 3.7 a carry. His YPC average during the season was inflated by some long runs. You could drive a truck through some of the holes he ran through.

It was the same thing in 2013 with him his only good YPC game was inflated by a 19 yard run. He had 3 games where he received 11 or more carries and never averaged more than 3.4 a carry because he didn't break off a long run. He has yet to prove he can carry the ball 10-plus times and average more than 4 YPC. McFadden has averaged 3.3 YPC the past 3 seasons which is the lowest in the league for a back not named Trent Richardson. Ryan Williams won't see the field much if any if his blocking doesn't improve. Dunbar was being fazed out late last season but now is back in the fold with the departure of Murray. If this thread was to designed to lessen the concern at RB it failed.

 

[big dog cowboy]

At this point, we've boxed ourselves into a hole and we're going to war with the guys that we've got.

We really did not paint ourselves into a corner at RB. At any point we could have completely altered our current RB position and voluntarily chose not to. There is a reason for that.

 

[tyke1doe]

I think that Michael Irvin makes a very good point. If "anyone" can run behind this offensive line, why did Garrett continue to feed the ball to Murray - nearly 400 carries? My take - I don't think he trusts Dunbar and Randle in pass protection and he doesn't believe they are durable. Run DMC falls more into the Dunbar and Randle category than the Murray category.

Because Murray was had the hot hand, so to speak.
Why not ride him if he's doing well? That doesn't mean others can't run behind the line. It simply means the Cowboys decided to ride the hot hand.

I'm not going to knock Murray. He was a very good back while here in Dallas. But the league isn't such that running backs carry much value, unless you're in the Adrian Peterson stratosphere.

That's the simple truth.

 

[Manwiththeplan]

If you want to knob gobble on and on about Murray there is an appropriate place you can do that these days.... an Eagles forum. Go there and show all the praise you want for him. But please understand this, the man is dead in Dallas. We are moving forward without him. At this point, whining about Murray being gone accomplishes nothing. He is the past so leave the past in the past and move on. If it was a bad decision to let him go, okay then we will find out and then fix it. But for goodness sakes, let's be forward thinkers. It's clear that many folks have no confidence with our current RBs but the FO has made it clear they do not share in that sentiment. So let's wait and see what we have before we give up on the current RB's.

And feel free to put me on ignore, either way all things about the 2014 Dallas Cowboys is still very much relevant on a Dallas Cowboys message prior to the Dallas Cowboys playing one game in 2015.

 

[KJJ]

At this point, we've boxed ourselves into a hole and we're going to war with the guys that we've got. Barring a trade for you-know-who.

The Cowboys are stuck with what they have unless there's a trade for Peterson or Forte those are the only 2 backs that would upgrade their current situation.