It was only one play, but the symbolism was pretty powerful. At the least it signified what we’ve known for a while — the guy they hired to be the main man hasn’t been. Or hasn’t been allowed to be in important situations. Or both.
As lingering questions go, the biggest might be in the backfield. DeMarco Murray or Ryan Mathews? Who’s the Eagles’ best back? Right now. For this system. For this team. For what the Eagles hope to achieve.
That one play. It was big and telling. With the game tied against the Saints, the Eagles had 1st-and-goal from the Saints’ 2-yard line. It was an obvious running down (even for the sometimes unnecessarily tricky Eagles’ play callers). That’s what they Eagles did. They ran. They scored. But the person they elected to carry the ball was really the thing. They went with Mathews in a critical spot. They did not go with Murray.
In the aftermath, Chip Kelly said he lets his position coaches rotate players. That’s what they’re paid to do, Kelly insisted. Which is fine. It really is. At that juncture, running backs’ coach Duce Staley sent Mathews in and kept Murray idling on the sideline. It worked out. But there, again, the result was retroactively less interesting than the means. And if that decision was telling, so was something else Kelly said.
“We think of both of those guys as the same player,” Kelly said. “So it doesn't affect what we're doing from a play call standpoint.”
They did not think of those guys as the same player in the offseason, nor would it have made sense to think of them as the same player. The Eagles, you will recall, signed Murray to a hefty deal. Mathews was awarded a much smaller contract — something closer to a quarter of the guaranteed money allotted to Murray, depending on which salary reports you prefer. Either way, Murray got more money. And he deserved it. He was, after all, the league’s leading rusher a year ago. But that was a year ago. The circumstances and the team are different now, and the matter is accordingly complicated for the Eagles. While it’s easy enough to rotate them from a play-calling standpoint, as Kelly noted, the payroll commitment would seem to stipulate something else entirely. What to do?
Mathews has carried the ball 41 times. Murray, despite missing the Jets game, has 49 carries. Mathews has rushed for 205 yards and two touchdowns. Murray has rushed for 130 yards and two touchdowns. The math confirms what your eyes already suspected: Mathews (five yards per carry) has so far been better than Murray (2.7 yards per carry). It should be noted that Murray averaged 4.7 yards per carry last year with Dallas. Again, different situation. But as it applies to this year and this team and what they’re paying both backs, Murray hasn’t performed as well as he or the Eagles would like. The money, relative to the production, is lopsided. The ROI has been excellent for one and not-so-excellent for the other.
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Part of the concern with Murray was that he was billed as a north-south runner, the perfect fit for the offense and a necessary course-correction to his predecessor, LeSean McCoy, who was often accused of cutting too much rather than hitting the hole. But a review of Murray’s play so far would suggest that he has perhaps “left some meat on the bone.” This week, offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur was asked whether the Eagles have been happy with Murray’s decision making. Naturally, Shurmur said yes. Because that is what you would expect any offensive coordinator to say about his player, but especially Shurmur who — if he ever finds himself in the unfortunate situation of being on an actual sinking ship, would no-doubt credit the water for doing a really good job — tends to be unyieldingly positive even when presented with facts to the contrary.
But back to the Saints game and the running back rotation and the attendant stats. As Kelly pointed out, the next time the Eagles “had the ball down by the goal line, DeMarco ran it in for a touchdown.” Which is absolutely true, though Kelly omitted the critical context. When Murray ran the ball into the end zone, the game wasn’t tied. The Eagles were up 22 points. More context: While Murray had his best statistical game of the season against the Saints — 20 carries for 84 yards and a score — much of it was accrued when the game was already in hand. And subtracting his 24-yard run, Murray averaged 3.1 yards on the remaining 19 carries.
It’s been something of a slog for Murray this year. If you’re considering his previous accomplishments and the paychecks the Eagles send him, he should be the Eagles' primary ball carrier, particularly in important situations where, say, the Eagles need to punch the ball across the goal line in a tie game. But if you’re considering merit and performance, stats and simple eye tests, then deciding between Murray and Mathews becomes much harder. That’s where the Eagles are with the Giants coming to town for a Monday Night Football matchup with serious implications in the division.