The Oakland Raiders Should Let Latavius Murray Walk

Latavius Murray in an unrestricted free agent, and the Oakland Raiders should let him walk.

14 games played, 788 rushing yards on 195 carries and 12 touchdowns. Those are not bad numbers. But fortunately, “not bad” is no longer enough to maintain a spot on the Oakland Raiders roster. Now that he’s an unrestricted free agent, Latavius Murray may have played his last game for the Raiders.

Those 12 touchdowns stand out at first, but that stat is actually a little bit misleading. Exactly half of them were 1-yard runs — three against the Broncos, and one each against the Falcons, Bills and Chiefs. Then there were five other touchdowns that went only single-digit in length — 2, 3, 4, 6 and 9, respectively. Finally, there was one touchdown that went for 22 yards, which looks like an outlier compared to the rest.

As everyone knows, the Raiders carry a fullback on its roster, and a very good one at that. Jamize Olawale is a much tougher runner compared to Murray, so it’s fair to imagine that if all of the goal line carries went to Jamize instead of Latavius, that the results would probably be very similar.

For example, former offensive coordinator Bill Musgrave used to turn to Olawale when the team needed one or two tough yards, typically with success. Plus, Olawale provides a receiving threat, as he can line up basically anywhere in the backfield and help stretch the field if called upon. This fantastic play proves my point:

Similarly to Olawale, both “twins” — DeAndre Washington and Jalen Richard — can also get those tough yards given their hard-nosed running style. They also had better yards per carry averages than Murray, too. The former ran for 467 yards in 87 attempts, while the latter galloped for 491 yards in 83 carries, which gives them very healthy averages of 5.4 and 5.9 yards, respectively.

By the way, with those 5.9 yards per run Richard led the NFL among running backs with more than 80 carries, and Washington ranked 5th in the same category.

Those are absolutely outstanding numbers and they are even more impressive when we remember that Richard was undrafted. Just for comparison purposes, the hyped trio of Ezekiel Elliott, Le’Veon Bell and David Johnson averaged 5.1, 4.9 and 4.2 yards. Reggie McKenzie’s award for Executive of the Year was very deserved.

Anyway, Murray’s average was 4.0, which was the exact same as it was in 2015, with a much worse offensive line in front of him. The Raiders run game clearly evolved in 2016, particularly due to the addition of Kelechi Osemele, but Murray’s production remain the same. And with the same offensive line, both Washington and Richard were far more productive than Murray.

Again, just like with Olawale, Washington and Richard are also receiving threats, besides being way, way shiftier backs.

Murray continues to be unable to make defenders miss. His elusive rate is sometimes mediocre, but most times it’s well below average. Actually, the only aspect of his game which improved in 2016 was that he started falling forward once he was tackled. Until 2015, it was very common for him to instead lose yards in the same situation. Washington and Richard, however, make a ton of people miss tackles.

Richard’s first career touchdown is a great example:

Another very important issue is that Murray’s 12 touchdowns will draw the attention of other teams. This means that he may command more money the Raiders should be willing to hand out.

On the other hand, if nothing changes, in 2017 Washington and Richard will each have base salaries of $540K, while Olawale will take home a salary of $1.5M. Murray will easily clear what the other backs make combined, whereas he isn’t even the most valuable player in his own backfield.

Finally, one last reason for the Raiders not to pursuit Murray in free agency is that this year’s draft is loaded with quality running back prospects, such as Dalvin Cook, Leonard Fournette, Christian McCaffrey, D’Onta Foreman, Alvin Kamara and Samaje Perine, just to mention a few.

Let’s not forget that McKenzie likes to draft running backs late. Murray himself was a sixth-rounder, while Washington was a fifth-rounder. In this draft class, there are plenty of options to whom McKenzie might give a shot.

The bottom line is that Murray became expendable in 2016.

Simply put, he is a big back who does not play like a big back, and in order to get to his top speed, he needs to be untouched, which is obviously a rarity. There is not one thing that Murray can do that someone else on the roster can’t also do. And there are quite a few things Olawale, Washington and Richard can do that Murray can’t, with a much lower price tag.

Next: Raiders Prospect Profile: D'Onta Foreman

Murray is a nice, hard-working guy and will likely find another home, but my guess is that his days in Oakland are numbered.