Somebody Pay Me! The DeMarco Murray Story

Show Murray the money!

And it looks like Philadelphia will.

It's difficult to believe that DeMarco Murray, of all people, was on the open market this long. Unless, of course, one is a subscriber to the Mongo Theorem, ironically delivered by NFL legend Alex Karras:

Something's up.

Ryan Mathews, who can't bend over without suffering some type of serious injury, is in the Eagles' training facility, but has yet to sign. It's clear the Chipster wants two top-tier RBs, but Murray's appearance puts Mathews in the second-banana role.

The market's been set. Mark Ingram re-signed with New Orleans, as did Marshawn Lynch with Seattle.

But, tell me again: who, statistically, was the single best rusher in the NFL? Thought so.

In fact, according to Murray's recent social media activity, he feels disrespected by the Dallas Cowboys. By taking down anything 'Boy-related on his Twitter account and announcing his visit to Philadelphia, Murray wanted to be taken more seriously than simply being an alternative.

How interested was Dallas, though?

Yes, Murray went above and beyond for his employer. Not only did he play hurt, but he did everything that was asked of him. His production went beyond expectations. We all knew that Murray was a solid running back, but no one had him in the preseason MVP discussion. A year later, Murray proved his offensive value by rushing for 1845 yards on 392 carries.

That's a brutal amount of carries, given how the NFL has transitioned into such a pass-heavy league.

Despite this workload, the former Sooner still provides significant value. He's on the right side of 30, and as long as a team doesn't continue to overload him with carries -- apparently what the Chipster has in mind, among other things -- Murray's production shouldn't drastically drop in the near future.

Until the Eagles' two-back plans surfaced, though, fantasy mavens weren't going to count on him. Maybe the Cowboys' hired geeks felt the same way.

Or maybe Jerry Jones wants to make Adrian Peterson's fantasies come true.

The stars seem to be aligning in that direction, and some of them are on Dallas helmets.

In 2000, Eddie George carried the ball 403 times for Tennessee. Consequently, he wasn't as efficient as a running back after that season. However, he still managed two 1,000 yard seasons and 26 touchdowns after that grueling year.

Bottom Line: Don't overwork your assets. You can apply that to anything. It's the Law of Diminishing Returns. Once your body or mind reaches a certain level of stress, your results start bottoming out.

Murray's probably better off in Philly.