Dan Graziano, ESPN’s NFC East blogger, put up a quick note on LeSean McCoy today. Graziano was reading a piece on RBs and was blown away by the fact that Shady still hasn’t turned 25 (that will happen on July 12).
No, the point is that as brilliant as McCoy has been, it’s incredible to imagine what’s still possible for him, considering he’s still only 24 as I write this. When we watch McCoy run, we see him do things other backs can’t do in terms of vision and speed and shiftiness. Add to the fact that players his age aren’t generally as good as they will eventually be, and you can start forecasting levels of brilliance for McCoy that boggle the mind. He missed time last year due to injury, and the popular perception of him has been bogged down somewhat in the argument about the extent to which Andy Reid did or did not use him. But with Chip Kelly now coaching in Philadelphia, I believe the offense is going to be heavily based on the run game. And with a weapon like McCoy, with as much as he likely still has left in the tank at this point in his career, why wouldn’t it be?
We’re all looking forward to seeing what Shady does in Chip Kelly’s system.
It is, I believe, proven that the threat of an option QB improves the running of any RB. Though NF and MB can both likely run at least a limited read option, I don’t there is much question who would run it most effectively in terms of opening holes for the RB by demanding defenses focus on him.
I am not at all convinced Vick will embrace and employ the offense well enough to even make the team, but in terms of hoping for a top running attack, I am rooting like crazy that he does.
When you combine the read option with Shady (who might be the kind of RB you would dream of to run in such a system), I would think that has to be extremely tempting for Chip and co.