Shady McCoy will probably end up Eagles all-time career rushing leader…

Funny how life works out sometimes. Ironically, the running back we love to hate now as the prodigal son of the Eagles (and now a member of the Buffalo Bills) will quite probably be staring down on us from atop the Eagles’ career stats mountain for the rest of our lives.

ATV —our “yeah, ya know it!” guy from Henderson, Nevada— mentioned in passing yesterday that LeSean McCoy is the all-time career leader in rushing for the Eagles.

I knew that in my head, but ATV bold-faced that fact and stuck it in my gut.

I’m as excited as anyone about getting DeMarco Murray to replace Shady as the Eagles feature back.

But ATV gave me pause to further appreciate how much McCoy has really meant to this team over the last six years.

Then Spiffo from Florida with tongue-in-cheek suggested that Shady’s career numbers with the Eagles look better than they are because of the franchise’s lack of great running backs in the past.

I knew Spiffo was kidding. But his remark inspired me to look it up.

I will just list the Top 29 all-time Eagles running backs in team history, as reproduced from the archives of Pro Football Reference.com:

Rk		From	To	G	Pos	AV	Att	Yds	TD	Lng	Y/A	Y/G	Fmb
1	LeSean McCoy	2009	2014	90	RB	61	1461	6792	44	66	4.6	75.5	14
2	Wilbert Montgomery	1977	1984	100	RB	79	1465	6538	45	90	4.5	65.4	42
3	Brian Westbrook	2002	2009	107	RB	77	1308	5995	37	71	4.6	56.0	12
4	Steve Van Buren	1944	1951	83	HB		1320	5860	69	70	4.4	70.6	34
5	Duce Staley	1997	2003	98	RB	51	1200	4807	22	64	4.0	49.1	18
6	Randall Cunningham	1985	1995	121	QB	102	677	4482	32	52	6.6	37.0	89
7	Ricky Watters	1995	1997	48	RB	35	975	3794	31	57	3.9	79.0	14
8	Timmy Brown	1960	1967	96	RB	73	850	3703	29	61	4.4	38.6	39
9	Tom Woodeshick	1963	1971	111	RB	42	831	3563	21	57	4.3	32.1	24
10	Donovan McNabb	1999	2009	148	QB	126	573	3249	28	54	5.7	22.0	83
11	Tom Sullivan	1972	1977	80	RB	39	871	3135	17	37	3.6	39.2	20
12	Clarence Peaks	1957	1963	83	FB	27	786	2927	19	57	3.7	35.3	39
13	Keith Byars	1986	1992	105	RB	52	750	2672	17	52	3.6	25.4	25
14	Billy Ray Barnes	1957	1961	60	HB	11	689	2391	20	70	3.5	39.9	31
15	Herschel Walker	1992	1994	48	RB	30	554	2344	14	91	4.2	48.8	13
16	Anthony Toney	1986	1990	67	RB	25	639	2294	14	44	3.6	34.2	14
17	Charlie Garner	1994	1998	66	RB	17	495	2261	17	55	4.6	34.3	8
18	Correll Buckhalter	2001	2008	74	RB	23	476	2155	18	64	4.5	29.1	8
19	Heath Sherman	1989	1993	76	RB	21	537	2130	10	37	4.0	28.0	17
20	Michael Vick	2009	2013	54	QB	41	298	1998	15	61	6.7	37.0	36
21	Frank Ziegler	1949	1953	57	HB		519	1926	11	52	3.7	33.8	23
22	Swede Hanson	1933	1937	45	B		493	1907	12	0	3.9	42.4	0
23	Mike Hogan	1976	1980	41	RB	17	435	1758	5	33	4.0	42.9	15
24	Bosh Pritchard	1942	1951	54	HB		378	1734	11	77	4.6	32.1	19
25	Jim Parmer	1948	1956	88	FB		452	1636	20	42	3.6	18.6	17
26	Earl Gros	1964	1966	41	FB	21	401	1623	16	59	4.0	39.6	10
27	Ernie Steele	1942	1948	69	HB		258	1337	14	56	5.2	19.4	12
28	Po James	1972	1975	49	RB	17	328	1215	4	51	3.7	24.8	11
29	Michael Haddix	1983	1988	88	RB	17	401	1189	3	21	3.0	13.5	11

There are some pretty good athletes on that list and some big numbers put up by the top half of that list.

It’s possible to imagine DeMarco Murray breaking McCoy’s career rushing total of 6,792 yards  if you combine his Cowboys stats with his eventual Eagles production.  But it seems unlikely to me that Murray could match McCoy’s totals strictly as an Eagles running back.

6,792 rushing yards, 44 rushing TD’s and just for good measure throw in 300 career receptions for 2282 yards and 10 more TD’s— that’s a lot of Shady offense in only 6 years. McCoy was drafted in the 2nd round in 2009 by the Birds out of Pitt.

You would hope that DeMarco Murray might play for the Eagles for the next 6 years and have outstanding success. Maybe he could come close to matching McCoy’s numbers at the end of his run here. But that’s asking a lot in terms of touches and durability.

With Murray the technique in how he runs his plays probably matters more than the fancy yardage numbers accumulated—at least that is the mindset Eagles fans are being asked to buy into as the main reason we let Shady go.

But something tells me, when the dust has settled ten years from now on the history of Eagles football after the McCoy and Murray eras in the Philly offense are defined, it will be Shady  laughing the loudest from Stat Mountain.

A SB win here will be the only thing to keep Shady from telling us then that he was the greatest running back in Eagles history.