DeMarco Murray is having the worst rushing start in NFL history
For reference to that chart, Demarco is at 21 ATT, 11 YRDS
No player in the past 55 years has had a worse rushing start to the season than Philadelphia Eagles back DeMarco Murray. And frankly, it’s not even close.
Murray has a jaw-dropping 11 yards on 21 carries through Philly’s first two games. That’s an average of just over a half-yard per carry or 1.1 YPA less than Peyton Manning has in his 18-year NFL career. It’s simply a stunning number of ineptitude for a guy who made everything look so easy en route to a dominant rushing title while leading Dallas to a division title in 2014.
Since 1960 (which is as far back as the searchable game-to-game box scores go back on the indispensable pro-football-reference.com), only seven players have carried the ball more than 20 times in his team’s first two games and gained less than 50 yards. Of them, the previous low yardage was 38 on 20 carries for Montee Ball in 2008. No one on the list had a YPA on less than 1.7.
Put that into perspective: Murray could have been three as times as “good” as he’s been this year and still have the worst rushing start in NFL history.
Last year, Murray won the NFL rushing title by more than 500 yards, netting 1,845 yards on the ground for the Dallas Cowboys. There was much chicken and the egg debate about whether Murray was simply running behind a tremendous offensive line or whether it was a breakout year for a new running back star. (Why not both?) But it’s getting hard to back Murray in that debate now.
At this point in 2014, Murray had 285 yards through his first two games and people were extrapolating his numbers and wondering if he could break Eric dikkerson’s 30-yard-old single-season rushing record. (At that pace, he would have had 2,280 yards over 16 games, well over dikkerson’s mark.)
Murray’s pace this year: 176 yards, a total he surpassed in a single game last season.
For reference to that chart, Demarco is at 21 ATT, 11 YRDS
