Eagles Have No Ace Running Back? Duce is wild
Duce Staley is the Philadelphia Eagles running back coach, and has been since head coach Chip Kelly promoted him from special teams quality control coach. And if you haven't talked about "the Deuce" recently, don't feel bad. It's difficult to acknowledge the coaching staff assembled by the Philadelphia Eagles when the head coach is the headliner for the team. And if you manage to dive deeper, you find Pat Shurmur, and the quarterback coach turnstile now paused with Ryan Day.
So it's easy to overlook the running back coach on this team.
But it's impossible to ignore the results. The Eagles have finished in the top 10 rushing offenses since Staley took over to coach running backs: 1st in 2013, and falling to 9th in 2014. While much of that fell to the shoulders of LeSean McCoy, even "Shady" had his top two rushing years while coached by Staley.
Some might think that it's about Chip Kelly's offense. Others will point to the Eagles superior offensive line. Still others will point to the quality of the Eagles running backs in the past two years.
As always, there's more to this story.
DUUUUUUUCE!
To understand that story, we need to go back to the 1997 NFL draft and revisit the third round selection by the Eagles for the running back out of South Carolina. Staley joined an Eagles backfield in disarray. The quarterback was a committee of Ty Detmer, Bobby Hoying, and Rodney Peete. While the Eagles did have a notable wide receiver in Irving Fryar, they also had a well stock backfield with running backs Ricky Watters, Charlie Garner, and fullback Kevin Turner. Staley had seven rushes that first year, and gained a sum total of 29 yards and two first downs.
The following year he replaced Ricky Watters as the featured back, and rushed for 1,065 yards and five touchdowns under then head coach Ray Rhodes. He was the running back on record when the Philadelphia Eagles hired Andy Reid, and subsequently drafted Donovan McNabb. Staley rushed for a career high 1,273 yards that year.
Staley's running style was not a shake and shimmey type. He was a downhill runner, and when his rushing saw daylight, the entire stadium would echo with the chant "DUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCE".
Unfortunately, he suffered a Lis Franc in the 2000 season and was never quite the same afterwards.
Those Who Can't , Coach
Duce returned to the Philadelphia Eagles as a coach intern under Andy Reid in 2010 and was promoted the following year to special teams quality control. When Reid was fired following the 2012 season, the Eagles signed Oregon's then head coach Chip Kelly. When Kelly arrived, not only did he retain Staley, but he promoted him to running back's coach.
Staley embodied that which he wanted from his running backs. Work hard, keep the legs churning, trust the holes to open up, run north/south. Staley coached the Eagles running backs to lead the NFL in his first year as a position coach. Some will point to McCoy's production as McCoy's talent, and they would be correct to a point. But when you look at the quality of Bryce Brown and Chris Polk, the preparation and fierceness of the young undrafted free agents is nearly impossible to ignore Staley's impact.
So when the Eagles signed the likes of Ryan Matthews and DeMarco Murray to add to the already dangerous Darren Sproles and rounding out with depth in Kenjon Barner, rookie Raheem Mostert, and Matthew Tucker, they placed a great deal of talent into the hands of a coach who has a short but great track record of getting the most of that talent.
On an average year, this Eagles team will rush for 2,300 yards. But I don't see this as being an average year. The Philadelphia Eagles have the talent to do something that has not been done since the 1973 Buffalo Bills: rush for over 3000 yards.
I will repeat myself: the Philadelphia Eagles could rush for over 3,000 yards in 2015. What do they need to do to achieve that very elusive benchmark?
I. They will need to rush more than 50% of their plays. Since the offense generates nearly 1,100 plays, that means they will need 550+ rushing attempts this year.
II. DeMarco Murray will need to average better than 5.0 yards per carry and carry the ball more than 280 times. His career average is 4.8 yards per carry, but he has had seasons of 5.5 and 5.2 yards per carry. If he hits on both, he will generate more than 1,400 yards rushing, and we'll be well on our way.
III. Dareen Sproles will need to average better than 6.0 yards per carry, and get 80 touches. Sproles is capable of both, and did so in 2011 with the New Orleans Saints. Sproles was well on his way in 2014, but injuries to Chris Polk created a shallow running back pool for Chip Kelly. Subsequently, he limited Sproles usage to ensure the team had sufficient depth for McCoy. This is another 480 yards, totaling 1,880 yards rushing. And we've more talent to discuss.
IV. Ryan Matthews will need to carry the ball 120 times and average 5.0 yards per carry. While this is a projected career high for Matthews on a YPC basis, it's balanced by designing a much lighter workload for him. We're up to 480 carries and 2,480 yards.
V. Bradford, Barner, Tucker. Between the quarterback scrambles and sprinkled in rushes by reserve backs, the team needs to generate 70 more carries and 520 yards, or approximately 7.5 yards per carry. Is that a stretch? Yes, if the lumbering efforts of Bradford prove to be too painful to watch. But with a fully functional quarterback engaging defenses in a read option, there will be many occasions where ten yard rushes are available. Oh… I forgot one name… Tebow. He doesn't do much else, but he can run. In a red zone offensive formation, he could be used to run specific read option plays to devastating success.
Will the team need some luck to break the 3,000 yard rushing barrier in 2015? Yes, I think so. But one thing the Eagles will not need is better coaching of their running backs. It's virtually a certainty that the young man who ran so hard for the Eagles as a running back, will now push running backs to run hard as a running back coach.
Yes, the Eagles do not have LeSean McCoy to fall back upon in 2015. Perhaps we don't have our "Ace" in the backfield. But we still have our Duce… and Duce is running wild.
