Eagles running back DeMarco Murray has complained this season that he should be getting the ball more. In reality, he should be getting the ball less.
Sunday night’s loss to the Panthers showed once again that in Philadelphia’s offense, Ryan Mathews is a better running back than Murray -- even as the Eagles continue to give Murray the ball more often. On Sunday, Murray carried 18 times for 65 yards and no touchdowns, while Mathews carried six times for 97 yards, and one touchdown. Mathews also caught all three of the passes thrown to him and added 24 receiving yards, while Murray only caught two of the four passes thrown to him and gained just five receiving yards.
Overall this season, Mathews has averaged 6.1 yards a carry, while Murray has averaged 3.5 yards a carry. Yards per carry isn’t everything, and a running back whose average yardage is low can still be a good player. For instance, if Murray were getting a lot of two-yard gains on third-and-1, his average yards per carry would be low, but he’d still be a valuable player in the Eagles’ offense. But that’s not the case at all in Philadelphia: Mathews has gained first downs on 32.1 percent of his carries, and scored touchdowns on 5.4 percent of his carries. Murray has gained first downs on 21.6 percent of his carries, and scored touchdowns on 3.4 percent of his carries.
And yet the Eagles keep giving the ball more to Murray: In every game that Murray has played, Murray has had more carries than Mathews.
The one game Murray missed was perhaps the Eagles’ best offensive performance, a 24-17 win over the Jets in which Mathews carried 24 times for 108 yards and also added a 23-yard receiving touchdown. You’d think that game would have shown Eagles coach Chip Kelly that the offense works better when Mathews is heavily involved, and yet in the four games since then, the Eagles have never given Mathews more than nine carries.
So why does Kelly keep giving Murray more carries than Mathews? It may simply be that Kelly went into this season thinking he had scored a big coup in free agency when he landed Murray, the reigning NFL Offensive Player of the Year, and he doesn’t want to admit to himself -- or anyone else -- that the cheaper, less-heralded signing is actually proving himself to be the better fit in Philadelphia’s offense.
There have been reports that it’s actually Eagles running backs coach Duce Staley who decides which running back will play, but the reality is that on a football team, what the head coach says, goes. If Kelly wanted Mathews to get the ball more than Murray, Mathews would get the ball more than Murray. The decision to keep going to Murray over Mathews falls on Kelly.
At Oregon, Kelly was revered as an innovator who always wanted to try new things. In Philadelphia, Kelly seems stubborn and stuck in his ways. So Kelly will probably continue call more plays for Murray. Even if Mathews continues to do more, with fewer opportunities.
