NFL Winners and Losers: Would you pay DeMarco Murray?
DeMarco Murray might be one of the toughest calls in NFL free agency in many years.
Somehow the Dallas Cowboys will have to reconcile these two points: It’s unwise to invest big money or high draft picks in running backs because their primes are so short, yet their tailback has a good case as the MVP of the entire NFL this season.
Murray finished with 1,845 yards and won the NFL rushing title. Pittsburgh Steelers running back Le’Veon Bell was second, and he needed more than 500 yards in Sunday night’s finale to pass Murray. Murray broke Emmitt Smith’s team record for rushing yards in a season, and Murray now ranks 17th on the NFL’s all-time list for rushing yards in a season. He finished his season in style, with 100 yards in a 44-17 Cowboys win.
The Cowboys’ entire blueprint for success this season centered around Murray running the ball behind a fantastic offensive line. Murray controlled games, keeping the defense off the field. He made it so quarterback Tony Romo didn’t have to do it all, and Romo responded with a very good season. The Cowboys’ entire approach in their 12-4 season was centered around Murray, and that’s his argument to be the NFL MVP (he shouldn’t win, and if you’ve read Winners and Losers before you know who should … and we’ll get to him in a moment).
The Cowboys also used Murray this season like they had no concern about what effect the workload would have on him in future years. He finished with a whopping 392 carries. Cowboys coach Jason Garrett gave him eight carries with a 28-0 lead last week, six days after Murray had surgery for a broken hand. The Cowboys showed no concern about wearing him down. The Cowboys used Murray like they were worried about this year, not anything beyond that.
But Murray has been so successful this season, can the Cowboys let him go? He has been so good, he might force the Cowboys’ hand. And it wouldn’t look good on Dallas if Murray hurried back to play with a broken hand, just to get passed over in the offseason. Let’s say Murray carries the Cowboys to a long playoff run, would the answer change then? Would the extra 100 carries or so if the Cowboys made the Super Bowl matter in that equation? Or would another team, one that won’t have Dallas’ great offensive line, drop a huge contract on Murray if he hits free agency? That doesn’t really happen much with running backs anymore, but maybe Murray will be an exception to that rule.
No matter what, Murray faces a potentially strange offseason. Murray might be among the top three or four candidates for MVP, and he might have a tough time getting a contract that comes anywhere close to what he probably deserves. And it’s also a fair guess that receiver Dez Bryant ranks first among the Cowboys’ free-agency priorities.
Mamas, don’t let your babies grow up to be running backs.
Here are the rest of the winners and losers from Week 17 of the NFL season:
WINNERS
Rex Ryan: Assuming Ryan hits coaching free agency soon, Sunday will work as a good reference for future employers.
The Jets played hard and well in what everyone assumed was Ryan’s final game as their coach, winning 37-24 at Miami. Those who have played for Ryan often speak of his ability has a motivator, and the win over the Dolphins was a great example.
“For me, personally, this game was for him [Ryan],” Jets outside linebacker Calvin Pace said, according to Kimberley Martin of Newsday.
Ryan didn’t talk about his future after the game. It has been reported that general manager John Idzik might get fired after the Jets’ 4-12 season. It has been speculated for a while that Ryan will be out too. If Jim Harbaugh goes to the University of Michigan, which practically everyone has speculated he will, Ryan might be the top available candidate, at least among those with NFL head-coaching experience.
It makes you wonder if the Jets will really be better off without Ryan.
Ryan Lindley: As it turned out, there was nothing the Arizona Cardinals could do to change their playoff seed on Sunday. The Seattle Seahawks won, and they took the NFC West title. But even in a 20-17 loss at San Francisco, the Cardinals have to feel a little better about Lindley going into the playoffs.
Lindley was 23 of 39 for 316 yards and two touchdowns against a pretty good 49ers defense. He also threw three interceptions, so he’s far from perfect. But at this point the Cardinals need to focus on the positive. Lindley’s first touchdown came on his 229th attempt, as he finally broke an NFL record for most attempts without a TD pass. He looked far more competent on Sunday than he had in any of his previous NFL games.
Lindley is the reason a lot of people will pick the 7-8-1 Panthers over the 11-5 Cardinals in a wild-card game next week. But there were some signs of life from Lindley on Sunday. After being so inept before Sunday, the Cardinals can at least feel a little better going into the postseason.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers: The Bucs finally did something right this season. They found a new way to lose, blowing a game against New Orleans that they controlled most of the way, but this time it was for the best. And it looked like that might have been their plan.
For a while on Sunday, the Buccaneers looked like they’d win and the Tennessee Titans would get the No. 1 pick. The Bucs led 20-7 in the fourth quarter. But Tampa Bay did something pretty strange – they played a lot of backups, and those backups were on the field as the Buccaneers were outscored 16-0 in the fourth quarter. Tanking? Nahhhh.
“Yeah, we didn’t have some of our best players there right in the end,” Buccaneers coach Lovie Smith, who said the team was not taking, said after the game according to ESPN.com. “But the guys we had in there we felt like we could move the ball and be able to win.”
The integrity of the game might have taken a hit, but now the Buccaneers can choose whichever quarterback they’d like to start rebuilding around with the first pick.
#JJforMVP: Now that the season is done, and Watt finished it with another dominating performance, there’s just no reason to not vote for the most deserving player for NFL MVP.
LOSERS
Jay Cutler and the Chicago Bears: Something happened on Sunday that we’ve become used to seeing: Cutler playing an underwhelming game at quarterback for the Bears.
Cutler had a chance to go into 2015 on a high note, when Week 16 starter Jimmy Clausen was ruled out with a concussion. If the Bears plan to trade Cutler this offseason, they might be wishing now that they’d have started rookie David Fales. Cutler did nothing to improve his stock with a ho-hum 23-of-36, 172-yard performance. The Bears never scored a touchdown in a 13-9 loss to the Minnesota Vikings.
A lot has to be sorted out before the Bears decide what to do with Cutler, but Week 17 was another reminder that Cutler has a long way to go before he comes close to living up to his huge contract.
The NFL without Jim Harbaugh: Harbaugh is one of the few coaches in the NFL who shows enough personality to make the game more fun. And the league won’t be better off with him coaching at Michigan, if that happens as expected.
Harbaugh, who is officially out as the 49ers’ head coach, would be a very rare case if he lands at Michigan. Almost every time a coach goes from the NFL to college, it’s because he failed in the pros. Dan Devine, Steve Spurrier, Nick Saban and Mike Riley are a few who fled back to college after flopping in the NFL. Harbaugh was far from a flop. He was among the NFL’s best coaches in his four seasons. Now he’s going to coach a college program that has more losing seasons (three) than 10-win seasons (one) over the past eight years.
The NFL is not better off without Harbaugh, although one has to wonder when the pro game might lure him back. He was asked if he’ll miss the NFL in his postgame news conference.
“Is the NFL going somewhere?” Harbaugh asked back.
Philip Rivers: I don’t blame Rivers. He is clearly playing through a few injuries, and he has done a remarkable job fighting through that. But the fact is, he’s running out of time in his career, and the San Diego Chargers let a great opportunity to make the playoffs slip past them.
Facing Kansas City Chiefs fill-in quarterback Chase Daniel in his second career start, the Chargers just had to win to get into the playoffs. And while the Chargers held Daniel and the Chiefs to a manageable 19 points, the Chargers offense didn’t do much. San Diego scored just seven points in a loss that ended its season.
That’s not all on Rivers – the Chargers were without running back Ryan Mathews, receiver Keenan Allen and about a dozen injured centers. But it still has to sting for Rivers that he will be sitting home next weekend. Rivers just turned 33, and his only trip to the conference championship came seven seasons ago. He doesn’t have a lot of opportunities remaining.
Detroit Lions: The Lions held Aaron Rodgers without a completion in the first quarter. Rodgers was carted off with a calf injury near the end of the first half, missed one series in the second half and it’s hard to imagine he was 100 percent when he returned.
And the Lions still lost by 10 points.
The Lions have a lot of talent, and they’re a pretty good team this season. But it’s hard to take them too seriously if they can’t win a game like Sunday at Green Bay. It’s not easy to win at Lambeau Field. But if they want to be included among the NFL’s very best teams, they need to find a way to win some like that. Maybe it’ll happen on Sunday at Dallas, when they play the Cowboys in a great playoff matchup. But given all the years of not winning big games like that, the odds can’t be in the Lions’ favor. We need to see it before we believe in them.
Matt Ryan: How much of the Atlanta Falcons’ embarrassing 34-3 loss to Carolina with the NFC South crown on the line goes on Ryan’s shoulders?
Head coach Mike Smith will likely take the biggest fall. It’s almost impossible to imagine he keeps his job after Atlanta went 6-10 and came up so small on Sunday. But Ryan didn’t play well, either.
Ryan was 29 of 47 for 260 yards, no touchdowns and two interceptions. Both of his interceptions were returned for touchdowns. The Falcons didn’t score a touchdown, which is hard to explain for a team with Julio Jones and Roddy White (although fullback Patrick DiMarco did drop a sure touchdown catch).
How much blame does Ryan deserve? He wasn’t terrible this season, but he wasn’t great either. The Falcons’ issues run deeper than Ryan, of course. Their defense is bad, the offensive line is still an issue and the running game doesn’t take much pressure off Ryan. But after Ryan came up with such a poor performance on Sunday, it’ll be a long offseason for him.
– – – – – – –
Frank Schwab is the editor of Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @YahooSchwab
