We keep hearing how DeMarco Murray is more of a Chip Kelly kind of back than LeSean McCoy because he hits the hole and he’s decisive and he's always going forward, whereas McCoy dances around and can’t make up his mind where to run.
We keep hearing about how McCoy has all these runs for zero yards or less, and Murray doesn’t.
We keep hearing it and reading it, it must be true.
Maybe not.
McCoy does historically have a higher percentage of negative runs than Murray, but the difference is not that big.
And the numbers for most of last year will definitely surprise you.
Generally, however you compare Murray and McCoy, Shady has either 3 or 4 percent more runs for no yards or fewer than Murray.
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He also has far more long touchdown runs, too.
Last year, Murray actually led the NFL in negative runs, but he also led the NFL in attempts, so it’s not that surprising.
In 2014, McCoy ran for no gain or less 22.1 percent of the time, and Murray did 18.4 percent of the time.
Over the past two years -- a span in which McCoy and Murray are the NFL’s two leading rushers and took turns leading the league in rushing -- McCoy ran for zero or fewer yards 19.9 percent of the time and Murray did 16.4 percent of the time.
Based on 22 carries per game, that comes out to less than one carry difference per game.
The Eagles traded 2013 NFL rushing leader McCoy to the Bills for linebacker Kiko Alonso and then signed Murray, who led the NFL in rushing for Dallas last year.
Murray has a higher career rushing average than McCoy (4.8 to 4.6), but McCoy has been more durable, playing in 91 percent of his possible career games compared to Murray’s 83 percent.
It’s interesting to note that as the 2014 season progressed and the Eagles began getting injured (Evan Mathis, Jason Kelce) or suspended (Lane Johnson) offensive linemen back, McCoy’s percentage of negative runs decreased dramatically.
And as Murray’s workload piled up -- 392 carries during the regular season -- his number of runs for zero or fewer yards increased.
First half of last year, McCoy failed to gain positive yards on 27 percent of his carries, compared to 16 percent for Murray.
The second half, McCoy was down to 16.9 percent and Murray was up to 20.9 percent.
In fact, even from Week 5 on -- when Johnson returned from his suspension -- McCoy had a lower percentage of negative runs than Murray, who was running behind the NFL’s best offensive line.
During the last 12 weeks of the season, Murray was at 18.7 percent and McCoy 18.1 percent.
The flip side of negative runs is big runs, and McCoy does have a huge edge there.
McCoy has 11 career touchdown runs of 30 yards or more.
Murray has one.
In fact, 51 active players have more TD runs of at least 30 yards than Murray. Including Bryce Brown, Cam Newton, Colin Kaepernick, Russell Wilson and Ronnie Brown.
McCoy already has an NFL-record seven fourth-quarter touchdown runs of 40 yards or more.
Murray has never had a fourth-quarter touchdown run longer than 15 yards.
Kind of makes you look at the phrase "north-south runner" in a new light.
All figures in this story come from Pro-Football-Reference’s game play finder.