I'm far more excited about this 2015 team than I was even about our team after it made it to the playoffs last year. I think this team isn't as reliant on any individual for success, which is a good thing, especially at the running back position.
I hear so many people lamenting the loss of DeMarco Murray. I never wanted to sign him back for anything much more than 4 million a year, certainly not anything close to the 8 million per year that the Eagles gave him, which like Laurent Robinson who was aided by Tony Romo, I think the Eagles will find that the DeMarco Murray experiment in Philly is short lived. His production will wane, and as he gets older and slower, his dependability will reduce greatly. I'm sure fumbles will continue to be a problem for him as well.
It's very interesting what the Eagles have done. They really want to be the 2014 Dallas Cowboys, but with a better defense and a worse offense. They think that they can win the time of possession battle with the running backs that they have, but without an offense that can actually score points, that will never come to fruition.
Don't get me wrong, DeMarco Murray is a great player, but he average 4.7 yards per carry last year. That isn't insanely good. It was primarily great for how many carries he had, but he also slowed down in the second half of the year, especially in the last quarter.
In the second half of the season he dropped from 5.1 yards per carry to 4.2 yards per carry. In December he averaged 3.8 yards per carry. Again, this isn't a knock on him, what it is, is a knock on the idea that you can put the weight of the entire running game on one person the entire season, and expect to maintain production through out. To Philly's credit, that is not what they are doing here. And to our credit that is not what we are doing here anymore either.
The idea that you need one person to replace Murray's production and the fact that we do not have that player is looking at the situation wrong. Instead of having one player we have three players who are all more explosive and dynamic than Murray. Each has the ability with the offensive line's run blocking to average more than 5.1 yards per carry in my mind. By relying on 3 guys instead of 1 or even 2, you know have the ability to sustain production for the entire year as opposed to have a huge drop off at the end of the year.
This brings me back to the 2015 team. I think this team is going to be much more dynamic and explosive on offense than the 2014 team. I think you're going to see huge gains out of the running game on a regular basis, and I think you're going to see the passing pick up the slack when it comes to consistently moving the chain when the running game isn't completely successful. I think that is why we re-signed Cole Beasley, and I think that investment has already shown dividends if you've seen him in training camp or in the blue/white scrimmage. I expect to see us pass the ball more, and that isn't a bad thing. We were 7th in the league in yards last year and only 5th in scoring, because we handcuffed the offense.
This brings me to a greater point, which is that this team will be completely different from the 2014 team. We no longer need to win the time of possession in order to beat teams. We can be aggressive and dynamic on offense without the fear of putting the defense on the field for a long time. This is a complete game changer. Being more aggressive on offense and defense will pay dividends, similar to what we saw from the Saints in 2009. Early leads, leading to reckless and aggressive play by opposing QBs which will lead to more turnovers. This is the first time since 2009 that we've had an offense and a defense, and I think we'll have them from the get go, despite suspensions to Hardy and McClain.
The 2014 team was fundamentally flawed, and that is why we didn't make it further. That fundamental flaw is no longer an issue, and our greatest strength last year was not the running game. The running game simply represented our crutches. We are off those crutches now, but people still think we need to rely on them and are freaking out that we don't have them. We can walk now, hell we can run now. That isn't to say we will abandon the run going forward, but we don't need to use it to the extent that we did last year. There are other options that are just as good if not better i.e. more targets to Cole Beasley, which are high percentage in nature. At 8.5 yards per target, expanding Beasley's involvement in the offense is the best way to make up the difference in consistency and production.
