I see that Latavius Murray is saying he’s excited to be spelled more. He was pretty much a one-man show in Oakland last year. Now they’ve drafted DeAndre Washington, who popped a couple of decent plays against Arizona, and they’ve also got George Atkinson III (who I thought looked even better than Washington in that game).
There’s an article that the Associated Press pumped out. Appears at the website of the Register-Pajaronian in Watsonville.
In there, it’s pointed out that Murray was on the field for 680 snaps, 4th-most among running backs. He says he welcomes the addition of somebody else to pick up the load.
"That's going to be the difference this year for me, having somebody to come in and carry the load for a little while and keep me fresh so when I come in I can do better things and have more of those explosive and big runs that I showed I can have," Murray said.
Murray last year ran for 1,066 yards. The team’s other running backs ran for only 259. So he accounted for over 80 percent of their rushing yards from that position.
That doesn’t happen that often. In the last five years, only 16 other backs have accounted for over 80 percent of their team’s rushing yards. (This is after setting aside quarterbacks; if you leave the scrambles in there, you won’t see any running back with a quarterback like Newton or Wilson go over 80 percent).
| BACKS WITH 80 PERCENT OF RUSHING YARDS (2011-15) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Player | Run | Team | Pct |
| 2012 | Chris Johnson, Tenn. | 1,243 | 1,344 | 92% |
| 2012 | Adrian Peterson, Minn. | 2,097 | 2,275 | 92% |
| 2012 | Alfred Morris, Wash. | 1,613 | 1,768 | 91% |
| 2012 | Doug Martin, T.B. | 1,454 | 1,656 | 88% |
| 2011 | Maurice Jones-Drew, Jac. | 1,606 | 1,838 | 87% |
| 2013 | Matt Forte, Chi. | 1,339 | 1,536 | 87% |
| 2014 | Matt Forte, Chi. | 1,038 | 1,196 | 87% |
| 2011 | LeSean McCoy, Phil. | 1,309 | 1,553 | 84% |
| 2015 | Frank Gore, Ind. | 967 | 1,167 | 83% |
| 2013 | Jamaal Charles, K.C. | 1,287 | 1,556 | 83% |
| 2015 | Darren McFadden, Dall. | 1,089 | 1,325 | 82% |
| 2014 | LeVeon Bell, Pitt. | 1,361 | 1,683 | 81% |
| 2014 | DeMarco Murray, Dall. | 1,845 | 2,287 | 81% |
| 2011 | Chris Johnson, Tenn. | 1,047 | 1,300 | 81% |
| 2015 | Latavius Murray, Oak. | 1,066 | 1,325 | 80% |
| 2013 | Alfred Morris, Wash. | 1,275 | 1,590 | 80% |
| 2013 | LeSean McCoy, Phil. | 1,607 | 2,019 | 80% |
—Ian Allan