THANKS TO a plodding schedule and the NFL’s overinflated sense of importance, football divas provide the juiciest storylines in sports. Or if it rolls back there and they get it on the 20-yard line, it’s one less play that (Josh) Huff has to return.
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Deliciously, their paths collide Sunday.
A win against one of the best teams in the National Football League should have stabilized things for the Philadelphia Eagles and Chip Kelly, right?
Who will be the leading rusher in Sunday’s Eagles-Bills game?
Murray is not a whiner and complainer.
The Eagles did not confirm it Tuesday. Per Werder, Murray was trying to avoid making a scene. As he scooted out the locker room he said, “See ya Thursday, baby”. We have a game here in two days. And they understand that when you perform on the training field that you’re going to get an opportunity, and I think that’s what’s showing right there. Mathews was averaging 5.7 yards per carry before he got hurt.
Ignore him, for now.
Given the nature of Murray’s contract, it will be extremely hard for any sort of movement out of Philadelphia for quite some time. According to Spotrac.com, moving Murray in even the 2nd year of his contract would cost the team $13 million in dead cap space. “I think we play all the running backs”. Not only that but Murray suffered the lowest amount of rushing yards since week 2 of this season. He signed a $40 million free agent deal with the Eagles in March. They also would have to absorb criticism of Kelly’s first big free-agency whiff. “Things we were doing were working so it went well for us”. When he found it, McCoy made spectacular runs.
Kelly said immediately after the win Sunday that he liked the matchup of smaller, quicker backs against New England’s bigger linebackers. Consequentially, Coach Kelly has had very little talent to work with. If he is more concerned with carries than wins or losses, it doesn’t sound like he’ll be happy with his situation in Philadelphia any time soon.
DeMarco Murray’s rough first season in Philly just keeps getting rougher. “He’s actually had more snaps than the other three guys combined over the course of the season”, Shurmur said.
“I don’t know why it matters… We are just trying to win football games”.
Murray played just 14 snaps against the Patriots and finished with 24 yards on just eight carries. Murray got out-carried by both Darren Sproles and Kenjon Barner in Sunday’s upset of the Patriots. The Eagles would go down and score and were up 35-14 early in the fourth. “Who is healthy has a lot to do with it. Where does Ryan fit in when he gets back healthy?” They needed to pound the ball and chew the clock, but Murray did not get a call.
Murray, who rushed for more than 100 yards in 11 games in 2014, has topped 100 just once with the Eagles. But their defence did a good job pressuring Brady and forced two intercepts. Murray had the most carries in each of the previous 10 games that he played in.
This year, Murray’s body language after a run is that of some guy coming out of a stone quarry after picking rock all day. The problem with that move was he couldn’t bring his stellar Cowboy offensive line with him and now is in an offensive scheme that forces the north-south runner into an east-west type guy.
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The matter becomes murkier this week.
