From all indications, the Philadelphia Eagles will be featuring the running game pretty prominently next season.
Despite the fact that they jettisoned the franchise's all-time leading rusher in LeSean McCoy, Eagles head coach Chip Kelly seems to have his heart set on building a midnight green road grating machine in Philly in 2015.
With McCoy off to Buffalo, Kelly added one cut and go runners DeMarco Murray and Ryan Mathews in free agency. While Murray, last season's leading rusher in the NFL, seems to have a leg up on Mathews where carries are concerned, Eagles offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur indicated recently that the distribution of snaps will be much more equitable.
"They're two really fine players," Shurmur said Wednesday, via Bob Grotz of the Delaware County Daily Times. "They're two guys that have been starters in places that they've been and they're going to come here and kind of share the role. I think that's terrific that that's their mindset. It shows us that you've got really, really fine players that understand it's important to be a good teammate. Any time you can add good players to a unit you make yourself better because you need more than one to play the year."
Murray finished last season with the Cowboys with 1,845-yards rushing on 392 carries and over 2,200 all-purpose yards. Mathews, who struggled to stay healthy in 2014, managed just 32 carries for 330 yards and three touchdowns in six games for the Chargers.
"As time's gone on I think at running back, I really believe it takes a village," Shurmur said. "If you play the season you need one, two, three and maybe four guys. They're a key part of what we do offensively. So to have a group that we feel has improved here in the offseason, now it's just a matter of getting them all up to speed as quickly as we can so they can master what we're doing."
As Murray and Mathews share a similarly physical running style, it's likely that one or both will miss a handful of games next year. Adding two players with dynamic skillsets able to seamlessly fit into his scheme was a coup by Kelly - even if de facto No. 1 back Murray misses time, the offense shouldn't miss a beat with Mathews or even Matthew Tucker taking the majority of snaps for a game or two.
It's especially important because, as Eagles running back coach Duce Staley noted, Kelly and the coaching staff came to the conclusion while doing their offseason review that the running game needed to have a starring role going forward in order for the team to find success.
"Definitely," Staley said, via Sheil Kapadia of Philly Mag. "We want to get back to running the ball. We want to get back to just taking over the line of scrimmage. You do that of course with the offensive line. And you do that with good running backs."
