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LeSean McCoy Is Still An Elite Player For Philadelphia Eagles

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LeSean McCoy is still every bit the elite running back the Philadelphia Eagles and their fans have come to know.

Last year, the love for McCoy was so thick in the air you could almost gag on it. It was understandable though — 1,607 rushing yards and 539 receiving yards with 11 total touchdowns will do that to a football fan. He was a reliable ball carrier too, having only lost the football once.

Watching him destroy the Detroit Lions on a field covered in snow was a thing of pure beauty, as was his part in the nationally televised dismantling of the Chicago Bears two weeks later. Nick Foles might have gotten all the hype, but in reality, everyone knew McCoy was the engine that kept this offense rolling.

I suppose expecting a continuance of that dominance this year might have been asking for too much, but even though we didn’t have the McCoy highlight-reel performances this year, his play in 2014 hasn’t gotten the credit it really deserves.

So much emphasis was put on the struggling quarterback play of Foles and Mark Sanchez that, in my opinion, not enough emphasis was put on the decimated offensive line the Eagles dealt with early on. Looking back, I think we expected Chip Kelly and company to prevail no matter what the circumstances were.

This idea that Kelly’s offense is bulletproof is true to a certain extent — you can’t deny that the X’s and O’s of what Kelly does is almost impossible to fully defend. But no matter how solid any offensive attack is, in the end, they all rely on effective blocking, and the Eagles just didn’t have that early on.

What’s funny to me is that generally when there’s poor pass blocking, running back receptions usually increase. This season, McCoy only had 28 receptions this season for 155 yards, which is well off the mark from last year, where McCoy tallied 52 catches for 529 yards. That much I chalk up to the tendency of both Foles and Sanchez this season to target the receivers more.

This article isn’t to completely absolve McCoy of any responsibility, though. By now, Eagles fans have come to see that McCoy isn’t the world’s most patient runner. Instead of chugging out yards three or four at a time, McCoy will dance around the backfield looking for that big-play opening. Kelly’s attempts at fixing this part of McCoy’s game are well documented, and it appears there’s still work needed there.

Despite all of those things happening at once, McCoy still managed 1,474 total yards and five touchdowns. Most of those yards weren’t pretty yards, and really none of those touchdowns were game changers, but when you look at the big picture, McCoy handed in a very solid season.

He’s still the same old Shady, and I fully expect him to silence the critics next season.

Doug Green is a blogger for www.RantSports.com covering the Philadelphia Eagles and the NFL.  Follow him on Twitter @DGreenNFL.

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