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Oakland Raiders: Murray And Musgrave Combination Could Be Deadly

By Jonathan George

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As the NFL is edging closer and closer to training camp and preseason games, fans of every team now have a good understanding of what their favorite teams rosters will look like to start the year. The storylines change from who will be on the team to who will start at each position. For the Oakland Raiders, many of those positions are spoken for, and most of the spots that have any question marks have favorites to win out.

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The running back position could be in this category, as most expect Latavius Murray to beat out his competition in Trent Richardson and Roy Helu Jr.. In fact, per Adam Caplan of ESPN and his twitter account, some on the team believe this has already happened:

This is good news if you are a Raider fan. You want Murray and the rest of the running back core to know their roles and responsibilities, so they can focus on learning the offense and being the best they can be. Even better than this news would be the thought of what potential Murray can do as the clear-cut starter in Bill Musgrave’s offense, if he can stay healthy. A look at what backs have done under Musgrave should make any Oakland fan squirm with delight.

The easiest example of this is of course Adrian Peterson, where while calling the plays in Minnesota from 2011 to 2013 Peterson saw major success, including a year in 2012 where he came within a few yards of breaking the record for rushing yards in a season and a AP offensive player of the year award. Under Musgrave’s direction in 2012, Peterson totaled over 300 rushing yards and almost 500 total yards more than he has in any other year in the league; pretty impressive when you consider Peterson’s H.O.F. resume.

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But what a lot of people forget is the fact that Musgrave was the OC under Jack Del Rio in 2003 and 2004 in Jacksonville, and in those two years the Jaguars saw some of their franchises best single season rushing results. In 2003, then starter Fred Taylor had the 2nd highest rushing total in Jaguars history with 1,572 yards. In 2004, Taylor saw the 7th highest in franchise history with over 1,200 yards. Oh and by the way, in 2004 Taylor also recorded the second highest rushing TD total in Jaguars history with 14 (Stats courtesy of Pro Football Reference).

While all eyes are on the passing attack after Oakland added Amari Cooper and Clive Walford in the draft to go along with exciting 2nd year quarterback Derek Carr, a lot of folks have forgotten just how exciting Murray was for the Raiders in the fairly limited chances he had in 2014. While Oakland was in the bottom half of the league in offensive efficiency and scoring, Murray had several games that made fans jump out of their seats in excitement.

Remember the Kansas City game, where he carried the ball 4 measly times but ran for 112 yards and 2 TD’s? This wasn’t against a power puff defense either; the Chiefs finished 7th overall in total team defense, per ESPN stats. And this wasn’t the only example of what Murray could do when healthy. When you look at yards per attempt, he had good games against San Diego on the road, and at home against Buffalo. Both of these teams also boasted good defensive units.

While it’s true that Murray has not put together a big enough sample in terms of rushing history to call him an early favorite for MVP, AP OPOY, or even a Pro Bowl favorite, he has shown several flashes of speed and vision that should make any Raider fan extremely hopeful in 2015. There is no doubt the Raiders should be much improved on offense this year; the question is just how big of a leap Murray can take under Musgrave’s direction.

History says that leap could be astronomical.

Next: Oakland Raiders: 5 Key Stats

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