It'll certainly be interesting for fans of the Philadelphia Eagles and the general NFL viewing public to see if the new Philly backfield, comprised of DeMarco Murray, Ryan Mathews and Darren Sproles, can replace or even improve upon the numbers posted by an Eagles running back depth chart led by the franchise's all-time leading rusher LeSean McCoy last year and every year since the team took McCoy in the second-round of the 2009 NFL Draft.
Since that 2009 draft, McCoy has turned himself into one of the best runners in the league, having posted over 1,000-yards rushing in four of his six professional seasons and being selected to three Pro Bowls and garnering two first-team All Pro honors.
It's not surprising then - though it'll likely be a little painful to hear for Eagles fans - that at least one unnamed NFL personnel executive believes McCoy is the better player over Murray, the man who led the NFL in rushing last year and is expected to assume McCoy's place at the top of the Philly running back depth chart in 2015 and beyond.
"I'll take McCoy over Murray every time,'' the unnamed personnel executive said, via Mark Eckel of NJ.com. "When you played the Eagles, you feared McCoy. He was the guy who scared you the most. When you played Dallas, you didn't fear Murray. He's good. But you didn't fear him. You feared Dez (Bryant), or (Tony) Romo, but not Murray.''
That's a little puzzling, considering Murray managed 1,845 rushing yards, over 2,200 all-purpose-yards and 13 touchdowns as a Dallas Cowboy last season. Then again, he was fortunate enough to play behind a Cowboys offensive line considered to be the best in the league, so that certainly had something to do with his astounding producting.
"That's the difference in my mind,'' the executive said. "Don't get me wrong, Murray is good and he had a great year last year. But McCoy is a game breaker. He can turn a game around with one big run.''
Of course, it seems to come down to a stylistic preference - Murray and Mathews are north-south, one-cut and go runners, while McCoy is more of a shimmy, shake, make-em-miss and then dart upfield for positive yardage kind of back.
In the end, it's often difficult to quantify whether one player is better than another - for what it's worth, Murray was recently voted the fourth-best player in the league by his peers, whereas McCoy came in at No. 29 - but it's still interesting to hear that at least one man paid to assess and acquire NFL talent views McCoy as a better player than Murray, the man tasked with replacing him in Philadelphia.
