Murray ranked as most overrated OP in the NFL

[gimmesix]

While I think Murray is hugely under-rated by a large portion of our fanbase, I can't agree that his absence hurt us in any meaningful way last year. The running game would have done nothing more with Murray than it did with McFadden. Murray was tired and slow last year, and the lack of a passing threat would have made him look as bad as he did for the Eagles - well, maybe not quite that bad.

And saying that our running game looked good in garbage time last year implies that we were getting beaten badly. We were in nearly every game, there was very little garbage time to be had. Our running game started to look good when we jettisoned Randle. Had McFadden been the starter all of last year he likely would have gained more yards for us than a tired and shopworn Murray would have. We ran Murray into the ground in 2014, the odds were heavily stacked against him being good in 2015 just based on his over-use the previous season. The Eagles did us a favor, had they not signed him he would likely have looked like a shell of his 2014 form because we wouldn't have had any passing threat and he would have been worn out. Then we would have looked like fools for re-signing him when everyone knows that approaching 400 touches pretty much kills any running back not named Emmitt or Dickerson.

I do agree that he would not have had much of an effect on last season simply because we were not going far without Romo and mostly without Bryant. However, Murray is a different back than McFadden and a different back in this offense than in what Philly ran. I have little doubt he would have performed at least as well as McFadden last year and possibly better in some aspects such as TD runs and I think we likely would have won a few of those close games that we lost, probably ending up around 6-10. (So maybe from the draft aspect it also was best that we did not re-sign him.)

 

[percyhoward]

Even with a healthy Romo the Cowboys running game couldn't dominate. Their yardage during garbage time made them look respectable...

Wrong. Dallas' offensive line was so good last year that our running backs rushed for more of their yards while the game was close than any other top rushing team. By a wide margin, in fact.

RB yards while margin was one score or less
as a percentage of total RB yards
of Top 10 rushing teams in 2015
DAL 79.8% (1434 of 1798)
CAR 70.7% (1163 of 1646)
TB 69.8% (1361 of 1949)
ARI 66.6% (1260 of 1892)
MIN 64.5% (1303 of 2019)
STL 63.7% (1230 of 1931)
KC 58.6% (906 of 1546)
BUF 58.2% (1047 of 1800)
SEA 55.7% (956 of 1715)
NYJ 50.5% (802 of 1588)

A piece of unsolicited advice: You should get your facts straight, and give this OL its due.

 

[Idgit]

I think Murray did the right thing. He got more money out of the deal, which he was looking for (despite his laughable 'Going to the Eagles to win a Super Bowl' comments).

Let's assume he had stayed here. Let's assume we go 4-12 again. Does anyone think the Cowboys would have NOT taken Zeke Elliott even with Murray on the roster?

I think Zeke still would have been the pick, and Murray would be trade bait.

I can't hate him for securing that one big contract he was looking for - a contract his career won't outlive. And even if he does last longer than his contract, he won't see another one like it.

He passed up more money from OAK to go to a division rival that was not a fit. Then he imploded. He'd have been better off taking the biggest deal on the table. Or maybe even in taking the money in Dallas which was a reasonable contract and a good situation for him. Now he's in TEN, with a rookie breathing down his neck and basically two years on his deal.

Had he signed here, no, I don't think there's any way we draft Zeke, too. We'd have traded back with BAL and gone defense.

 

[tyke1doe]

He passed up more money from OAK to go to a division rival that was not a fit. Then he imploded. He'd have been better off taking the biggest deal on the table. Or maybe even in taking the money in Dallas which was a reasonable contract and a good situation for him. Now he's in TEN, with a rookie breathing down his neck and basically two years on his deal.

Had he signed here, no, I don't think there's any way we draft Zeke, too. We'd have traded back with BAL and gone defense.

I disagree. Had he signed with Dallas, he would be two years older, and we would have needed a running back anyway. Even though he was let go and signed by the Titans, Tennessee STILL took a running back. What that tells me is they plan to rotate their backs. We would have done the same thing, IMO.

Face it. Murray is on his last leg.

As for the Raiders' deal, was that even a strong offer or a tease offer? I don't recall that being serious. In fact, I don't recall it at all.

 

[Idgit]

I disagree. Had he signed with Dallas, he would be two years older, and we would have needed a running back anyway. Even though he was let go and signed by the Titans, Tennessee STILL took a running back. What that tells me is they plan to rotate their backs. We would have done the same thing, IMO.

Face it. Murray is on his last leg.

As for the Raiders' deal, was that even a strong offer or a tease offer? I don't recall that being serious. In fact, I don't recall it at all.

No way of knowing what we might have done, but Murray would have run hard behind our OL even with Romo down. We slot position groups by salary and bringing in a top 5 pick the year after you give a temperamental guy like Murray a big extension that's still lower than he originally wanted would be playing with fire.

As for the OAK contract, Murray's the one who said after signing in PHI that he turned down more money from OAK to play with a 'contender.' No word on whether the guarantees were actually more or not. I'm assuming they were as that's what players typically mean when they say 'more money,' but it might have just been more money overall. Either way, that's a better spot for him to have gone just about any way you look at it if he wasn't staying in Dallas. He went to PHI because of Bradford and because he was butthurt, and it blew up on him.

EDIT I had the details of the other deal(s) a bit mixed, but the gist is the same. http://www.ibabuzz.com/oaklandraide...-offered-more-in-free-agency-than-the-eagles/

 

[tyke1doe]

No way of knowing what we might have done, but Murray would have run hard behind our OL even with Romo down. We slot position groups by salary and bringing in a top 5 pick the year after you give a temperamental guy like Murray a big extension that's still lower than he originally wanted would be playing with fire.

As for the OAK contract, Murray's the one who said after signing in PHI that he turned down more money from OAK to play with a 'contender.' No word on whether the guarantees were actually more or not. I'm assuming they were as that's what players typically mean when they say 'more money,' but it might have just been more money overall. Either way, that's a better spot for him to have gone just about any way you look at it if he wasn't staying in Dallas. He went to PHI because of Bradford and because he was butthurt, and it blew up on him.

EDIT I had the details of the other deal(s) a bit mixed, but the gist is the same. http://www.ibabuzz.com/oaklandraide...-offered-more-in-free-agency-than-the-eagles/

Thanks for the link.

 

[DandyDon52]

It is an absolute myth that a season of close to 400 carries will wear out a RB. Its simply not true and was started by some media people that were way too proud of the C- they got in Statistics for Journaism Majors.

If you use Murray's number of carrries (392) as the median and take the record carries (416) as the upper bound then the lower bound becomes he number of carries that are also within that range but the opposite direction (368).

We can now correctly say that we included all RB's that are within 24 carries of DeMarco Murray.

What we get is a Who's Who of elite RB's in history. There are 35 occasions in which a RB had 24 carries withing Murray's total, including the NFL record.

And now the relevent stats:

19% of those seasons were performed by someone who did it at least twice.

48% of those seasons were by a Hall of Famer.

Their average career was 10.5 seasons.

Again, Ive moved on and beleive Ezekiel will help us forget about Murray's circunstances with Dallas. But as far as the NFL is concerned, he is not going away.

The Titans have Mariota and correctly surmised that a power running game would be his best friend.

The Titans drafted an offensive lineman in the 1st round this year. That is the 3rd time they have drafted a O-lineman in the 1st round in the past 4 drafts. Sound familiar?

yes I am waiting to see how the titans do this year in the run game, the coach says they are going to run alot, and with murray and henry
it could get interesting.

 

[DandyDon52]

No way of knowing what we might have done, but Murray would have run hard behind our OL even with Romo down. We slot position groups by salary and bringing in a top 5 pick the year after you give a temperamental guy like Murray a big extension that's still lower than he originally wanted would be playing with fire.

As for the OAK contract, Murray's the one who said after signing in PHI that he turned down more money from OAK to play with a 'contender.' No word on whether the guarantees were actually more or not. I'm assuming they were as that's what players typically mean when they say 'more money,' but it might have just been more money overall. Either way, that's a better spot for him to have gone just about any way you look at it if he wasn't staying in Dallas. He went to PHI because of Bradford and because he was butthurt, and it blew up on him.

EDIT I had the details of the other deal(s) a bit mixed, but the gist is the same. http://www.ibabuzz.com/oaklandraide...-offered-more-in-free-agency-than-the-eagles/

Well murray could have been lying when he said that, and it was never made public what oakland or jags offered.
I think with bradford in phil, and the 18-20 mil guaranteed is what made him sign so quickly, I think the G money was alot more than the other offers,
People forget he was only making around 500.000 a year in dallas, so he was anxious for the big payday.

 

[Section446]

EE > Murray. All day long

Definitely more dynamic.

 

[DandyDon52]

EE > Murray. All day long

Murray > than Elliot with the women

 

[plasticman]

Wrong. Dallas' offensive line was so good last year that our running backs rushed for more of their yards while the game was close than any other top rushing team. By a wide margin, in fact.

RB yards while margin was one score or less
as a percentage of total RB yards
of Top 10 rushing teams in 2015
DAL 79.8% (1434 of 1798)
CAR 70.7% (1163 of 1646)
TB 69.8% (1361 of 1949)
ARI 66.6% (1260 of 1892)
MIN 64.5% (1303 of 2019)
STL 63.7% (1230 of 1931)
KC 58.6% (906 of 1546)
BUF 58.2% (1047 of 1800)
SEA 55.7% (956 of 1715)
NYJ 50.5% (802 of 1588)

A piece of unsolicited advice: You should get your facts straight, and give this OL its due.

I never meant in terms of total yardage. No team is going to get the majority of rushing yardage in garbage time, they are passing most of the time.

The misunderstanding was my fault I should have qualified my statement.

What I meantI was they got most of their best runs during garbage time and it spiked their overall average yards per carry so that it seems to compare favorably with 2014.

The Cowboys led the league in average yards per carry in the 2nd half when trailing by more than a TD, obviously because the defense was keying on a very poor passing game.

I was attempting to show that the rushing averages of 2015 should not be compared favorably with 2014 because the circumstances were completely different.

In 2014 the Cowboys were running to protect a lead. As it has already been pointed out, those leads were less frequent last season.

 

[DandyDon52]

I never meant in terms of total yardage. No team is going to get the majority of rushing yardage in garbage time, they are passing most of the time.

The misunderstanding was my fault I should have qualified my statement.

What I meantI was they got most of their best runs during garbage time and it spiked their overall average yards per carry so that it seems to compare favorably with 2014.

The Cowboys led the league in average yards per carry in the 2nd half when trailing by more than a TD, obviously because the defense was keying on a very poor passing game.

I was attempting to show that the rushing averages of 2015 should not be compared favorably with 2014 because the circumstances were completely different.

In 2014 the Cowboys were running to protect a lead. As it has already been pointed out, those leads were less frequent last season.

If your going to compare 2014 to 2015, you should only use the games romo played, and see what the run did in those games.
I know when dallas beat seattle in 2014, the go ahead td was by murray, and the whole drive was pretty much all murray.

 

[lqmac1]

I think after 2015 for Murray we can finally put the "not resigning Murray" argument to bed.

Granted he wasn't used properly in Philly, but he was never worth the price and them trading him at the end of the season solidified it even more. Murray had a dream year with health in a dream offense with a dream Oline and got a dream 400 carries in 2014. Once in a life time perfect storm that he will probably never have again.

How could that be? I thought he was the reason our offensive line looked so good? This has to be some troll that had nothing else to write about.

 

[darthseinfeld]

Wrong. Dallas' offensive line was so good last year that our running backs rushed for more of their yards while the game was close than any other top rushing team. By a wide margin, in fact.

RB yards while margin was one score or less
as a percentage of total RB yards
of Top 10 rushing teams in 2015
DAL 79.8% (1434 of 1798)
CAR 70.7% (1163 of 1646)
TB 69.8% (1361 of 1949)
ARI 66.6% (1260 of 1892)
MIN 64.5% (1303 of 2019)
STL 63.7% (1230 of 1931)
KC 58.6% (906 of 1546)
BUF 58.2% (1047 of 1800)
SEA 55.7% (956 of 1715)
NYJ 50.5% (802 of 1588)

A piece of unsolicited advice: You should get your facts straight, and give this OL its due.

Plus we were rarely in " garbage time" last year. Most of our games were decided by a score or less

 

[percyhoward]

What I meant was they got most of their best runs during garbage time and it spiked their overall average yards per carry so that it seems to compare favorably with 2014.

It doesn't matter whether you're talking about totals or averages. There was no "garbage time" advantage.

YPC while margin was one score or less
2014: 4.6
2015: 4.6

I was attempting to show that the rushing averages of 2015 should not be compared favorably with 2014 because the circumstances were completely different.

The 2015 average is actually more impressive because defenders didn't have to worry about the ball going over their heads. Almost everything was in front of them, so they could crowd the LOS and not even have to turn their backs to the play.

 

[TheMarathonContinues]

Screw Demarco Murray. He took the money to play for a division rival. Dallas offered him what was actually a right-sized deal for a back of his age and miles. Had he stayed, he might have ended up with more money overall and just a better career overall. As it is, he went to a hated rival, embarrassed himself, was somehow traded, and now plays for an NFL also-ran with another 2nd round pick nipping at his heels. He'll probably be out of the league entirely in two years.

So he was suppose to take a pay cut playing the toughest position in the NFL in regards to getting beating? I didn't see Romo or Dez or Tyron offering to take a pay cut.

 

[Idgit]

So he was suppose to take a pay cut playing the toughest position in the NFL in regards to getting beating? I didn't see Romo or Dez or Tyron offering to take a pay cut.

He wasn't supposed to do anything. He could have taken the bigger offer that was on the table and not gone to a division rival, but he didn't. Now he gets to live with the consequences of that decision. Pretty straightforward.