Eagles coach Chip Kelly has finally begun to realize that DeMarco Murray, his prized free-agent signing, is not a good fit in his offense. But Kelly is still giving Murray more touches than his production warrants.
In Sunday’s win over the Bills, Murray didn’t start, but contrary to a report that he had dropped to fourth on the depth chart, he actually got plenty of touches: Murray had 11 carries for 34 yards, plus two catches for three yards.
That continues a trend that has been going on all season: Murray is getting the ball a lot and not doing much of anything with it. Murray has 174 carries for 603 yards this season, an average of 3.5 yards a carry. Murray’s average is by far the worst on the team: Ryan Mathews averages 5.3 yards per carry with 465 yards on 87 carries, Kenjon Barner averages 4.6 yards a carry with 106 yards on 23 carries and Darren Sproles averages 4.0 yards a carry with 275 yards on 69 carries.
Sunday was Murray’s sixth game this year with eight or more carries and 36 or fewer yards. No other running back in the NFL has that many such games this year. Murray is the only running back in the NFL with 170 or more carries and fewer than 700 yards, and of the Top 20 running backs in total rushing attempts this season, Murray is the only one averaging less than three and a half yards a carry.
The bottom line is that Kelly, though he deserves some credit for reducing Murray’s workload in the last couple of weeks, is still stubbornly sticking with the guy he gave the $40 million contract, even though his three lower-paid running backs are all out-producing Murray. Even 13 touches is more than Murray deserves.