Can DeMarco Murray and Derrick Henry Actually Become the NFL’s Best RB Duo?

As evidenced by having a top-two pick in successive NFL drafts, the Tennessee Titans are a team that needs some work. They took a big step in the right direction a year ago, drafting the player they hope is their franchise quarterback of the future in Marcus Mariota.

In 2016, the work has turned to improving the weapons around Mariota. And in the free-agent acquisition of DeMarco Murray and the selection of Alabama’s Derrick Henry, the Titans have the ingredients for the sort of punishing ground game that could be a recipe for success for the team in 2016.

One thing was sure entering the offseason: Much like the rest of the roster, the Titans’ ground game was in dire need of an overhaul. Tennessee ranked a moribund 25th in the NFL in rushing last season at 92.8 yards per game. The team’s leading rusher, Antonio Andrews, barely cleared 500 yards on the ground and averaged well under four yards a carry.

The team’s second-leading rusher? Their rookie quarterback. That’s what’s known in football as a red flag, folks.

The Titans wasted no time getting to work in that regard. The league year had barely started before the Titans sent their fourth-round pick to the Philadelphia Eagles in exchange for their pick in that same round and Murray.

The fact all it took to get Murray was a 13-spot difference on the draft’s third day is a testimonial to just how bad 2015 was for the 2014 NFL Offensive Player of the Year.

After leading the NFL with 1,845 rushing yards two years ago, Murray signed a fat free-agent deal to be the centerpiece of Chip Kelly’s offense in Philadelphia. Instead, he was the centerpiece for everything that went wrong for the Eagles last year.

Share Tweet

Murray’s production fell off a cliff. Over 1,100 fewer rushing yards. Over a yard less per carry. Not even half the touchdowns. By season’s end, Murray was barely being used by the team, to the tune of 30 carries total over the last month of the campaign.

Critics looked at Murray’s immense workload with the Dallas Cowboys the year before and spoke of “The Curse of 370.” Apologists bemoaned Murray’s misuse by an Eagles team that both wouldn’t let him find his groove and repeatedly asked a north-south runner to run stretches and sweeps.

Both were right to a point, but one point couldn’t be denied by anyone with eyes: Murray was awful.

Still, we are talking about a player who averaged almost five yards a pop while almost single-handedly carrying the Cowboys to the playoffs two years ago. For a slight Day 3 slide, the Titans got a player who would have been their best tailback even during last year’s faceplant.

The worst case is that Murray’s 2015 struggles were less aberration and more harbinger. The best case is a rejuvenated Murray returns to form and becomes one of the biggest steals of free agency.

Murray certainly sounded rejuvenated while talking to Jim Wyatt of the team’s website after the trade:

Whatever they ask me to do I am willing to do it, whether it is carrying the ball 20 times, 30 times, whatever. I’m excited, and I am going to do my best to help this team out and do as much as I can.

It’s a great opportunity to come here, work hard, and make some things happen. I feel like this truly is a team on the upswing, and I know I can help this team out in a lot of different ways.

With Murray on board, conventional wisdom held that the Titans were likely done investing heavily in the ground game in 2016. Yes, the team was awash in draft picks after dealing the No. 1 overall pick to the Los …

continue reading in source www.bleacherreport.com