If you want to know exactly why Chip Kelly traded LeSean McCoy and brought in DeMarco Murray, look no further than the description he gave of the type of running back he likes during a lecture at USC back in 2008.
Kelly, who was with Oregon at the time, spoke at length about inside zone rushing plays and being a “physical, downhill-running football team.”
“The philosophy of the play is a tough running play,” Kelly explained, via NJ.com’s Matt Lombardo. “If the line can get up two yards on the defense, the back can, too. We want him to jam the ball into the hole and be a tough runner. We do not want a jingle-footed back trying to hit a home run. We want him to hit the ball into the line and get the tough yards. We are a blue-collar guy going to work. The line will have a hat on the five defenders in the box. The unblocked defenders on the perimeter are following the ballcarrier. If he gets downhill and runs hard, it is hard for them to make the tackle. However, if he jiggles in the hole, they will make the tackle.
“When we talk to the back, we tell him it is speed through the hole, not speed to the hole. When the running back receives the ball, he is at 85-percent speed. As he gets the handoff and makes a decision to take the ball frontside or cut it back, he makes one cut. When he makes his cut to the line, he changes speeds and runs through the hole.”
When McCoy accused Kelly of being racist after Kelly traded him, Chip should have just distributed copies of that excerpt to the media and called it a day.
McCoy is a phenomenal athlete and an electric runner, but there’s no question Murray runs with a more north-south style. McCoy is the best in the business at making defenders miss, and Murray is one of the best at running through them.
McCoy has said a number of things publicly (here’s another) in an attempt to justify Kelly getting rid of him. The bottom line is Chip trusts his system above all else. Any player who doesn’t fit into it is expendable, and McCoy was one of those players.
