Darren McFadden

[JBond]

Only comparison that I can make to Murray is that McFadden sure likes to vigorously finish a lot of his runs.

He's not afraid to lay his hat on someone.

Stiff arm's a killer too.

I have the opposite view. He has a nice wiggle and jump back, plus he has great acceleration, but I would not rely on him to beat down and bruise opponents.

 

[Statman]

DeMarco Murray is ranked in the middle of the pack for missed games as a percentage of overall games played during his career at 17%. Surprised? He has started the last 26 consecutive games and averaged 105 yards on the ground and 25 yards in receptions.

Among active RB's with significant starts and playing time, the #1 ranked RB in percentage of missed games is Darren McFadden with over 25%

When I said that Randle had the same BMI (Body Mass Index) as Reggie Bush and Felix Jones, I was referring to body frame and physical structure. Among his group, Reggie Bush is the leading rusher this century. Felix is #2. Randle is #3 with just over 500 yards. That's pathetic.

RB's built like Randle have brief careers lasting 2 to 3 seasons as backups. This is another case of Jerry Jones's dreadful evaluation at this position. He has historically been terrible at understanding the critical aspects of an effective running game. It starts with his lowball contract offer to Emmitt Smith with the subsequent holdout that created a 0-2 beginning to the 1993 seasons and continues with the absurd fantasy that an offensive line would ever be so talented that you could be successful with marginal talent at the RB position.

He simply doesn't understand the relationship between the mutual success among individual players or squads.

Emmitt Smith could never have been everything he was without Troy Aikman and visa versa. Before the two of them, Michael Irvin was an injury prone bust.

Does anyone seriously believe that Tony Romo's #1 passer rating was unrelated to Murray's record breaking season? Could there possibly be some reason that Bryant wasn't constantly double termed on every single play, could the opponent defense have been preoccupied elsewhere?

How many of you are aware that the 3rd leading receiver over the past 4 seasons had been DeMarco Murray?

"DeMarco is slow, DeMarco lacks instinct, DeMarco has no vision".....please!

Demarco Murray is probably the strongest RB in the league today. His muscles have muscles. He is a power back that can catch, block, break to the outside or get the tough yards inside.

The Cowboy were 20-2 whenever DeMarco touched the ball 25 or more times in a game. He didn't have just one good season, he averaged better yardage in 2 of the previous 3 seasons.

The real issue is that last year marked the first time in a decade that the Cowboy's coaches decided that passing 70% of the time may not be the best strategy.

McFadden lacks intensity, desire, work ethic, competitive nature, and commitment. he has the physical gifts but not the instinctive nature that separates the great ones.

Randle lacks intelligence, common sense, character, and humility. I predict he will gain plenty of the latter this coming season.

The success and perception of talent level of RB's and their O-lines are always an interlocked relationship. However, how could anyone explain Murray rushing for 700 yards in his first 7 starts as a rookie in 2011 behind a line of Nagy or Kosier, Holland, Costa, rookie Tyron Smith at RT and Doug Free at LT?

That year Murray averaged 5.5 yards a carry, the remaining backs averaged a combined 3.7 yards a carry.

If the Cowboys are to find success in the running game this season then we must hope that there is a pleasant surprise, a diamond in the rough among the rookie free agents

 

[Doomsday]

Murray will get to prove now he wasn't a one year phenom.

 

[Omegasupreme]

Nice post Statman (kind of a mix of Adamjt13 and Jonathan Bales). Completely agree. For all intents and purposes, Murray was the fastest player on the offense, his yards after contact on runs averaged 2.6 (that's the majority of 5 ypc), and 53 and 57 recs in two seasons while running for over 1200 yds in both seasons is not exactly easily replaceable. Welcome to the Cabal

 

[Statman]

Murray was physically beat up to hell the last third or so of the year. That's why he looked slower and didn't break as many tackles as he could have.

And yet, he was the leading rusher for the combined last 5 games of the season with 491. He also carried the ball 35% more than any other RB for those last 5 weeks.

There is also the suspicion that, after the rest of the league recovered from their shock, they began to think it might be a good idea to find out more about this guy. Perhaps gameplanning him would be prudent. With his productivity still the top of the league combined with more determined opponents, it may have looked as though he was wearing down. To the contrary, he had to fight harder to get those yards. This is why I happen to find Klepto Joe so dense.

While this was happening during the last 5 games, Romo climbed to the position of top rated QB on the strength of a combined 117.1 passer rating for those games, a full 14 points higher than the 2nd place QB. It was the passing game that profited mightily as a result of the attention placed on Murray.He had to be respected. Apparently. not as much by his own team's management.

I hope I'm not going out on a limb if I declare that Dez Bryant's salary demands are in part due to his big play potential evolving during this very same point in time. However, his selfishness played a big part in being unable to retain the guy responsible for creating his opportunities.

 

[ravidubey]

There's a small part of me that's hoping for a resurgence from McFadden, like Charles White and Garrison Hearst had when they went to better teams late in their careers.

McFadden will have the best team around him he's ever had for sure, but is there too much tread on his tires to take advantage? He must toughen up.

From the Cowboy's part they need to place a new emphasis on the screen game. We have the athletic linemen to pull it off, and McFadden was born to catch screens.

Those RB option passes are also intriguing.

 

[LAZARUS_LOGAN]

There was talk going into last year that Linehan liked to use screens.

Maybe.

Be still my beating heart. We've got the linemen to run screens. Yes they are road-graders, but they are very athletic. Can you imagine the damage that Dunbar would do on a screen? Well actually we've seen it. Now this (screens) is where I truly think that Randal, McFadden, and Dunbar are all superior to Murray. The beauty of it is that you could have either one in and the opposing defense would not know if and when they would run a screen with them.

 

[Dodger12]

Great post(s) Statman. This is what kills me when the fools think Murray was a product of the OL. Nothing is as simple as what it appears and the success of each player or unit depends on one another. This idea that any back can run behind our OL is silly and Emmitt's hold out proved that. We finally find a recipe for success that supposedly took us 4 years to build and we dismantle it within a year. I can understand the business side of not paying Murray big money but to devalue the RB position as a product of our OL is assinine.

 

[Doomsday]

While this was happening during the last 5 games, Romo climbed to the position of top rated QB on the strength of a combined 117.1 passer rating for those games, a full 14 points higher than the 2nd place QB. It was the passing game that profited mightily as a result of the attention placed on Murray.He had to be respected. Apparently. not as much by his own team's management.

I hope I'm not going out on a limb if I declare that Dez Bryant's salary demands are in part due to his big play potential evolving during this very same point in time. However, his selfishness played a big part in being unable to retain the guy responsible for creating his opportunities.

You make some very good points but let's not start pretending there was any way we could afford both of them. Dallas didn't let Murray go due to lack of respect, it was lack of funds.

 

[ThoughtExperiment]

And yet, he was the leading rusher for the combined last 5 games of the season with 491. He also carried the ball 35% more than any other RB for those last 5 weeks.

Exactly, they still refused to play anyone else or give him a break even though he was obviously beat up. No thanks to our head coach Mr. Direction refusing to step in and tell these players they have to come out even if they don't want to -- just like Witten. Would love to hear Gregg Poppavich's honest opinion on that. Who knows, with a little more rest, maybe Murray gets through that hole instead of fumbling in that playoff game.

I actually think we'll probably be okay with the guys we have, but it's definitely not going to be the same formula we used last year. And again, the problem wasn't letting Murray go, because he's not worth that much and will probably never be that good again. It was passing on all these good backs and convincing ourselves that the running game will be as good (or better, per Jerry) compared to last year with a collection of junk at RB.

 

[NoShame]

I actually think we'll probably be okay with the guys we have, but it's definitely not going to be the same formula we used last year.

I've been warming up to what we're going into the season with at RB, too.

Yea, I'd MUCH rather have a feature back but RB by committees have worked in the past in this league. No reason to think it can't work for us behind this OLine and the combo of Romo/Dez keeping defenses honest.

Like you said, different formula but I actually tend think we can have the same results.

I agree tho definitely wish we woulda drafted a RB at some point in the draft. Its very likely McFadden goes down to injury, Randle gets suspended cuz he's a knucklehead, and we're looking at Dunbar/Williams. Even tho I'm high on Williams, thats not a backfield you want to be heading down the stretch with when most of our success last season was built on our running game.

 

[LAZARUS_LOGAN]

Statman... were presenting these stats on Murray at this very same time last year? Stats are fine, but they cannot measure a player's motive. It was a contract year for Murray, and he played balls to the wall and was rewarded for it.

The Eagles snagging Murray, had less to do with them needing or wanting an RB, even after being spurned by Gore; and more with keeping him away from the Cowboys. Murray was their third choice. A lot of money to pay a guy that was a third choice, and they do not even plan to use him as the Cowboys did.

But Statman... tell us about the stats or RBs that had 370+ carries the previous season, and how they did the following.

 

[lons]

I'll preface this as pure speculation, but you can hold me to it.

How many of his carries were yards before contact. That is all about the O line. Then triple that for break outs after contact. And that's where I see us this year.
So 539 X 3 and we have... 1617 rushing yards from running backs this year. Net loss of 228 rushing yards or 2 games of Murray.

Fumbles? 3. Fumbles recovered 2. More on Mr. Fumble later.

Receiving yards from running backs this year 628. Net Gain 212 yards.

Total Net Murray yards lost from last year. 228 Rushing / +212 Receiving leaving -16 lost.

This won't be because we needed Murray, but because our Defense has more Turn overs, More Sacks, and less chance of letting the other team march down the !#@!$@ing field in 20 seconds.

The whole reason we leaned on Murray the way we did, wasn't because our Offense couldn't score. But because our DEFENSE had no business playing NFL teams last year and was exposed in the last game, because of ... MURRAY FUMBLING A GOD DAMN SURE FIRE TOUCH DOWN. He makes that play, we don't pass that ball on 4th and 2 or if we do, Dez doesn't try to score so GOD DAMN HARD that it's a flip of a coin that we lost on whether or not it was a catch. We run the fucking time down and score a TD and put those bishes away last year. But no, Murray fumbled away 2 games last year. Our Defense was gas and injured and put back on the field twice more than they should have been and the result was we got to see Seattle beat a really shitty fucking Green Bay team.

But back to the point. Yeah, we are gonna be missing a lot of rushing yards, because I didn't add in Randals numbers from last year or Dunbars. But I'll put this out there. Last year was the first and only year that Murray has been available for every game since his freshman year of college. He owed us EVERY GOD DAMN YARD HE MADE LAST YEAR for paying his ass while he sat on his fucking couch the last 4 years prior by mid season.

Do I wish he'd stayed? Yup. Do I think we will miss him? Yup. Do I think he will make it through another full season ever again? No. Do I think we'd be screaming at how stupid a GM Jerrah was for signing him to such a huge contract within 2 years when he turned into MB3? I SURE FUCKING DO! Ever God damn one of you on this site, bitches when Jerrah makes one of those hair brain deals. AND THIS YEAR, he didn't. Hell, for the last 3 fucking years he hasn't. But now, that he didn't sell us down the river like he did we Roy Willie, TO, Roy Willie WR, MB3, Austin, and yes... ok.. Romo's contract (although had Romo hit the open market he'd be making even more money right now than he is) Ware's contract. I foresee him making a hair brained deal with Dez or Hardy at the end of this season tho. I'm willing to bet a $100 bucks virtual cash on that right here and now.

I figure our Rushing Total and Receiving Total yards from Running backs will decline significantly this year. I'm talking close to 6 or 700 yards combined. But that's only because we didn't need the yards. Not because Murray wasn't here. If he'd signed Murray, Murray would have been broken by week 4, I know that like I know my first girl friend's titties were so firm I could bounce a quarter off them.

 

[Dodger12]

How many of his carries were yards before contact. That is all about the O line. Then triple that for break outs after contact. And that's where I see us this year.

Why is yards before contact all about the OL? Why can't it be a combination of OL play and a RB with good vision, patience, balance and knows where the play is supposed to go?

McCoy isn't with the Eagles not because he's not a talented RB, but because he dancedc to the outside too many times. Murray will do well with the Eagles for what they want him to do; hit the hole and get the 4 or 5 tough yards to get to 2nd and short.

So 539 X 3 and we have... 1617 rushing yards from running backs this year. Net loss of 228 rushing yards or 2 games of Murray.

Not sure I understand this math. is the 539 the yards before contact? And why do you multiply it by 3?

I figure our Rushing Total and Receiving Total yards from Running backs will decline significantly this year. I'm talking close to 6 or 700 yards combined. But that's only because we didn't need the yards. Not because Murray wasn't here.

We don't need the yards? What kind of assinine logic is this? I'm convinced this fan base would turn on Romo the minute he signed with another team. Why do we need 4,000 yards passing and 30 TD's if we finish 8 and 8? In 2012, Romo had over 4900 passing yards and 28 TD's. We didn't need those yards because we still finished 8 and 8.

I get a kick out of folks digging so deep into McFadden's stats looking for a silver lining. I mean, folks are looking into his runs when OAK was ahead and what his average runs were when they were behind, etc. Couple that with a sig pic of Murray running through a wide open hole and bingo, we have an adequate replacement for a RB who ran for 1800 yards and had over 400 receiving yards.

Everybody gets it. Murray was too expensive to keep. But thinking DMac or Randle can do for our offense what Murray did is silly.

 

[LAZARUS_LOGAN]

I foresee him making a hair brained deal with Dez or Hardy at the end of this season tho. I'm willing to bet a $100 bucks virtual cash on that right here and now.

Dez is going to have to be paid. Period. I do not see it as hair-brained. When they chose to franchise Dez over Murray, that right there signaled that they made their commitment to Dez, and rightfully so. We can sustain a losing Murray, but not Dez. I know the Oline gets a lot of credit, but Dez made the Oline's job all that much easier. Dez is special. Though he has not signed his franchise tender, he is out there practicing/working out with the team. This is voluntary OTAs.

I think you are wrong about Hardy. I do not think he even reaches the benchmarks set to get his full contract. I trust Marinelli. I think --- mainly hope, that the DE rotation of Gregory, Lawrence, Russell, and Mincey will negate the need for Hardy.

 

[LAZARUS_LOGAN]

Why is yards before contact all about the OL? Why can't it be a combination of OL play and a RB with good vision, patience, balance and knows where the play is supposed to go?

McCoy isn't with the Eagles not because he's not a talented RB, but because he dancedc to the outside too many times. Murray will do well with the Eagles for what they want him to do; hit the hole and get the 4 or 5 tough yards to get to 2nd and short.



Not sure I understand this math. is the 539 the yards before contact? And why do you multiply it by 3?



We don't need the yards? What kind of assinine logic is this? I'm convinced this fan base would turn on Romo the minute he signed with another team. Why do we need 4,000 yards passing and 30 TD's if we finish 8 and 8? In 2012, Romo had over 4900 passing yards and 28 TD's. We didn't need those yards because we still finished 8 and 8.

I get a kick out of folks digging so deep into McFadden's stats looking for a silver lining. I mean, folks are looking into his runs when OAK was ahead and what his average runs were when they were behind, etc. Couple that with a sig pic of Murray running through a wide open hole and bingo, we have an adequate replacement for a RB who ran for 1800 yards and had over 400 receiving yards.

Everybody gets it. Murray was too expensive to keep. But thinking DMac or Randle can do for our offense what Murray did is silly.

Nobody is thinking that DMac OR Randal will do what Murray did.

But is it silly in thinking that DMac AND Randal can do for our offense what Murray did?

And how silly would it have been at this exact same time LAST year, if someone came up to you and told you that Murray would rush for over 1,800+ yards, knowing for him to accomplish such he would have to play a full season, something he NEVER DONE since his freshman year in college.

The point is, nobody knew at this very same moment last year, that Murray would have the kind of season that he did; just like nobody right now knows what McFaddan OR Randal will do this upcoming season, to claim otherwise is what is silly.

 

[Doomsday]

Dez is going to have to be paid. Period. I do not see it as hair-brained. When they chose to franchise Dez over Murray, that right there signaled that they made their commitment to Dez, and rightfully so. We can sustain a losing Murray, but not Dez. I know the Oline gets a lot of credit, but Dez made the Oline's job all that much easier. Dez is special. Though he has not signed his franchise tender, he is out there practicing/working out with the team. This is voluntary OTAs.

That would be, hare brained - as in having the brain of a rabbit.

But your point is valid, regarding their commitment is to Dez. And if they can't get a deal done this year they can franchise him again. Third time though, would be unaffordable because then he gets the top 5 average of all players not just top 5 players at his position. Meaning all the huge QB contracts come into play, to make his average for the tender.

Hopefully they can meet somewhere in the middle between Dez's demands, and their current long term offer. If that doesn't look to be in the cards I think they need to seriously start looking to replace him and sooner not later.

 

[Doomsday]

And how silly would it have been at this exact same time LAST year, if someone came up to you and told you that Murray would rush for over 1,800+ yards, knowing for him to accomplish such he would have to play a full season, something he NEVER DONE since his freshman year in college.

I asked that on here awhile back, and most every reply was "I did I did I even had him on my FANTASY team!!!!!"

No one will admit they were surprised at Murray's production or his staying power last year.

 

[LAZARUS_LOGAN]

I asked that on here awhile back, and most every reply was "I did I did I even had him on my FANTASY team!!!!!"

No one will admit they were surprised at Murray's production or his staying power last year.

Thanks for the typo info. And those assholes are lying.

 

[Doomsday]

Thanks for the typo info. And those assholes are lying.

I don't believe anyone did and in fact I never saw, anyone predicting the season Murray would have in fact I saw nothing close to it. He had shown absolutely NO propensity for this in his entire playing history. Just like McFadden hasn't.

We don't know and can't possibly and McFadden running wild on people is just as reasonable to predict as not IMO.