DeMarco Murray is feeling good about the upcoming season as a member of the Tennessee Titans. He has a reason for optimism, as Jim Wyatt of Titansonline.com quoted the running back saying, “I feel like I took a year off last year, so I am fresh.’’
Well, that’s one way of putting it.
There might have been some humor in Murray’s words, but strangely the running back has a point.
While he didn’t entirely take 2015 off, he wasn’t subjected to a season’s worth of wear-and-tear, either. His 193 carries in 2015 for the Philadelphia Eagles weren’t even half of his 2014 total of 392 with the Dallas Cowboys.
Of course, there was a reason that Murray didn’t get as many carries, as he wasn’t exactly effective in 2015, either. His 3.6 yards per carry in 2015 was more than a full yard below the 4.7 he generated in 2014. Scheme, of course, had a lot to do with that. His downhill style of running wasn’t conducive to Chip Kelly’s zone scheme.
With all of that being said, Murray is only 28, which is far from over the hill, even for a running back. Given that he did go through a season with a comparatively minor workload, it wouldn’t be surprising to see him revitalize his career in Tennessee.