March 26, 2015
Brandon Wade/AP
DeMarco Murray runs the ball against the Giants during the first half of an October, 2014 game in Arlington, Texas.
Over a 10 day span beginning in the days before free agency through until the Eagles completed the signings of DeMarco Murray and Ryan Mathews, the Eagles went through a lot of drama at the running back position. First, they traded LeSean McCoy to the Bills for ILB Kiko Alonso, opening up a huge hole at the RB position.
Then during the "legal tampering" phase of free agency, the Eagles reportedly agreed to terms with 49ers RB Frank Gore. A day later, Gore changed his mind, and he eventually signed with the Colts instead.
Then the real fun began. With Ryan Mathews already in town and having reportedly already agreed to terms with the Eagles, DeMarco Murray was on his way to the NovaCare Complex while being followed by helicopters. Mathews' signing with the Eagles then became in doubt, but the Eagles would up signing both players.
The offseason running back drama has led to questions about what prompted those decision, as well as what Kelly values in his running backs. We'll attempt to sort through of that here:
At the owners' meetings, Chip Kelly said that money was the determining factor in replacing LeSean McCoy.
"I'm really fond of LeSean McCoy," said Kelly. "I think we all are. But when you look at moving forward, (McCoy's contract) was just a really big number, and they weren't moving off the numbers, so that was where the decision was made."
Kelly also gave a rundown of the 2015 cap hits for McCoy vs. Murray, Mathews, and Darren Sproles.
#JimmyVerdict: I believe Kelly that McCoy's contract, for the type of runner he is, was a major factor in his trade.
Kelly downplayed the notion that McCoy did not fit the style of runner that he preferred.
"When I was at Oregon, I had Jonathan Stewart and LeGarrette Blount, (who both weighed) 230+ pounds. I also had (smaller backs like) LaMichael James and Kenjon Barner. We can work with whatever we have. It's just depending on what you want to do and how to scheme it up... The guys that were available were downhill one-cut runners. Can they fit into what we do offensively? Yeah."
However, speaking to reporters at the owners meetings a day earlier, owner Jeffrey Lurie said that Kelly had a preference for one-cut style runners.
“LeSean McCoy is a great running back, an all-time running back," said Lurie. "To maximize his offense … Chip always liked the one-cut runner.”
#JimmyVerdict: While Chip certainly had a variety of runners at Oregon, I absolutely believe that he has a preference. It certainly appears that he prefers a north-south, one-cut style of runner.
After the Eagles signed both Murray and Mathews, some speculated that the Eagles only signed Mathews because they felt they had to honor an agreement they had with him before talks with Murray heightened, and that they wouldn't have signed Mathews if the timeline of events had been different. Kelly, however, was adamant that the plan all along was to sign two running backs, via Sheil Kapadia of Birds 24/7:
"We obviously lost a tremendous running back in LeSean," Kelly said Thursday at the NovaCare Complex. "So how do you replace that productivity? What’s available out there? And obviously we thought the three best guys were Frank and DeMarco and Ryan. And we wanted to target two of them. And we ended up with two of them.
"Did we have a master plan that it was always gonna work out like this? No, but we went into it with an idea that if we lose LeSean, we better get two guys."
A timeline of Kelly's running back history at Oregon:
• Chip Kelly became the offensive coordinator in 2007. His first year at Oregon, the Ducks had a star running back in Jonathan Stewart, who was drafted 13th overall in the 2008 NFL draft. He received the bulk of the carries in 2007:
| 2007 | Carries | Yards | YPC | TD |
| Jonathan Stewart | 280 | 1722 | 6.2 | 11 |
| Dennis Dixon (QB) | 105 | 583 | 5.6 | 9 |
| Andre Crenshaw | 82 | 415 | 5.1 | 4 |
| Jeremiah Johnson | 54 | 344 | 6.4 | 5 |
• In 2008, the Ducks moved more toward a two-back attack:
| 2008 | Carries | Yards | YPC | TD |
| Jeremiah Johnson | 168 | 1201 | 7.1 | 13 |
| LeGarrette Blount | 137 | 1002 | 7.3 | 17 |
| Jeremiah Masoli (QB) | 127 | 718 | 5.7 | 10 |
• 2009 was Kelly's first season as the Ducks' head coach, and he had another star college player in LaMichael James, who saw the bulk of the carries:
| 2009 | Carries | Yards | YPC | TD |
| LaMichael James | 230 | 1546 | 6.7 | 14 |
| Jeremiah Masoli (QB) | 121 | 668 | 5.5 | 13 |
| Kenjon Barner | 61 | 366 | 6.0 | 3 |
| Andre Crenshaw | 50 | 152 | 3.0 | 3 |
• In 2010, James was still around, but Barner saw his role increase, and Remene Alston Jr. got some action as well (although he typically didn't play in close games). The Ducks ran 629 times in 2010.
| 2010 | Carries | Yards | YPC | TD |
| LaMichael James | 294 | 1731 | 5.9 | 21 |
| Kenjon Barner | 91 | 551 | 6.1 | 6 |
| Darron Thomas (QB) | 93 | 486 | 5.2 | 5 |
| Remene Alston | 63 | 356 | 5.7 | 5 |
• In 2011, Oregon once again ran the crap out of the ball (629 times again) with a whole slew of contributors.
| 2011 | Carries | Yards | YPC | TD |
| LaMichael James | 247 | 1805 | 7.3 | 18 |
| Kenjon Barner | 152 | 939 | 6.2 | 11 |
| De'Anthony Thomas | 55 | 595 | 10.8 | 7 |
| Tra Carson | 45 | 254 | 5.6 | 1 |
| Darron Thomas (QB) | 56 | 206 | 3.7 | 3 |
• And finally, in Kelly's last season at Oregon, Barner was the lead back, but three other players got at least 87 carries each. The Ducks ran a whopping 685 times.
| 2012 | Carries | Yards | YPC | TD |
| Kenjon Barner | 278 | 1767 | 6.4 | 21 |
| Marcus Mariota (QB) | 106 | 752 | 7.1 | 5 |
| De'Anthony Thomas | 92 | 701 | 7.6 | 11 |
| Byron Marshall | 87 | 447 | 5.1 | 4 |
• In Kelly's first two seasons with the Eagles, LeSean McCoy dominated the carries. First, 2013:
| 2013 | Carries | Yards | YPC | TD |
| LeSean McCoy | 314 | 1607 | 5.1 | 9 |
| Bryce Brown | 75 | 314 | 4.2 | 2 |
| Michael Vick (QB) | 36 | 306 | 8.5 | 2 |
| Nick Foles (QB) | 57 | 221 | 3.9 | 3 |
| Chris Polk | 11 | 98 | 8.9 | 3 |
• And in 2014:
| 2014 | Carries | Yards | YPC | TD |
| LeSean McCoy | 312 | 1319 | 4.2 | 5 |
| Darren Sproles | 57 | 329 | 5.8 | 6 |
| Chris Polk | 46 | 172 | 3.7 | 4 |
#JimmyVerdict: In 2013 and 2014, McCoy carried the ball more times than any player ever did under Kelly's watch at Oregon. And yet, the Eagles never ran the ball as a team as much as any of Kelly's teams at Oregon. Kelly's history at Oregon supports the notion that he prefers to utilize multiple backs, and I think we'll see a far more even distribution of carries in 2015 and beyond.
Follow Jimmy on Twitter: @JimmyKempski
