#29. Philadelphia Eagles: DeMarco Murray
PFF grade (position rank): -8.1 (66th)
2015 salary cap hit: $5.0 million
One of last offseason’s biggest free agent signings, Murray inked a five-year, $40 million deal with Philadelphia to be the new featured back in Chip Kelly‘s offense.
It proved to be an ill-advised personnel move in a coaching tenure full of them. Murray was a poor fit for Kelly’s running scheme, which emphasized outside-zone plays instead of the north-south running style Murray excels with. The 27-year-old endured the worst professional season of his career just one year after leading the NFL in rushing while the exceptional play of backfield mates Ryan Mathews and Darren Sproles pushed Murray to the sideline as the season went on. He ended up playing in less than half of Philly’s snaps, rushing for a career-worst 3.6 yards per carry.
It was basically a lost year. Murray will get a fresh start under a new coaching regime headed by Doug Peterson since it’d cost the Eagles $13 million of cap space to cut him before next season.