I think the fact that football is a team sport, is not emphasized nearly enough. When comparing individual players, you must also compare the teams which they played on.
Eagles second-year running back LeSean McCoy is a great young running back, but I think it’s much too soon to be comparing him to the guy, who I think was the best running back in Eagles history, Brian Westbrook.
I do believe that McCoy has the same level of ability as Westbrook when it comes to making tacklers miss in open field. He might even be superior to Westbrook at cutting on a dime, but he doesn’t have Westbrook’s straight ahead speed and he’s nowhere near Westbrook’s level as a receiver.
The former Eagles and current 49ers running back’s superior speed made him much more likely to take the ball the distance than McCoy when he got out in front of defenders. His speed also made him more of a threat to get the ball outside and around the corner on sweeps.
During part of the time that Westbrook was with the Eagles, he carried the burden of being both the team’s best ball carrier as well as their best receiver. Andy Reid and Marty Mornhinweg loved to walk Westbrook outside and match him up with safeties and cornerbacks.
During the post season of the Eagles trip to the Super Bowl, Reid and Mornhinweg moved Westbrook outside on passing plays and used him as their number one wide receiver when Terrell Owens went down with a leg injury.
McCoy has learned to run the screens with much the same patience as Westbrook did. He’s got the same great vision that BWest possessed.
Yet, the presence of speedsters DeSean Jackson and Jeremy Maclin eliminates the need to move McCoy outside and ask him to play the wide receiver position. It also makes it nearly impossible for teams to focus on McCoy as a runner or as a pass receiver.
Teams are reluctant to jump into an eight-man front by moving the safety into the box versus this current Eagles squad,but they loved to do it versus Westbrook. A defense knows they’re playing with fire. if they dare move a safety up with Jackson and Maclin outside.
The two-deep coverage which teams love to employ to stop both Jackson and Maclin from getting deep is very weak versus the run. The safeties can’t help stop running plays when they’re lined up 15 yards deep and afraid to get caught going toward the line of scrimmage on a run fake. That’s one of the reasons that there’s nobody there when McCoy breaks through the line.
The mere fact that Jackson is lined up outside in the flanker position makes McCoy a better football player. Take away both Jackson and Maclin, then line McCoy up against the Giants and ask him to single-handedly move the ball on the ground and in the air and you would have a legitimate test to compare McCoy to Westbrook.
Thankfully for the Eagles, McCoy will probably never be in that situation, which is the reason that they have a better offense now, than they had in the year’s when Westbrook was carrying so much of the load.
So my bottom line concerning McCoy is that he’s headed in the right direction but not there yet.
Westbrook was fantastic and teams would have to game-plan against him since the Eagles really had no other Consistent threats to have to worry about which makes his perfomances and Stats
even more impressive.. Talk to every Defender, D/C and Coach from the Eagles opponents over years that Westbrook played (outside of 2004 during the TO Year), They will all say the same thing, we have to stop,minimize Westbrook..he’s the key to stopping the Eagle Offense and for the most part, that was true during his last 5 Seasons with the Eagles..
McCoy will put up similar stats while touching the ball less, which is a good thing I think.This Eagles Offense has too many other weapons for Defenses and DC to worry about.. Most opponents/DC’s will say, that they will try to take D-Jax & Vick first from making big plays and take their chances with McCoy carrying the load for the Eagles.. When the Eagles take advantage of this, McCoy has mostly come thru and produced some big games (Lions,49ers,Cowboys) as examples,,, The nut of it is, a more balanced approach to utilizing all the skills and talents of the many weapons on this current Eagle Offense make this team harder to defend and instead of 1 or 2 players with huge statistics, the plays,yards,TD’s and Stats are spread out over 4-5-6 players… which would you rather have.. give me balance any day and spread the ball out to as many playmakers you have because you become harder to defend and unpredictable which was one thing I think this Eagle Offense was during Westbrooks last couple of seasons here, they were very predictable..
McCoy is comfortable in his own skin and doesn’t have to think he has to become the next Brian Westbrook, just keep on doing his thing,working hard and doing wahtever it takes to make plays
and keep protecting the ball for he has really improved 110% in this area for he has a lot of touches
one last thing to keep in mind if you think about it… McCoy is definitely further aheaed than Westbrook was in his 2nd year.. Westbrook worked hard to become a great reciever and great blocker but he wasn’t at first… I like McCoy for he has shown the same desire and work ethic to become the best RB he can be, in an Eagle Offense that is one of the most demanding to play for in all the NFL with all the verious formations,pass plays,pass blocking,etc,etc…
I miss O’L Westbrook…… Westbrook was a great player……. In his younger years he was primarily used as a utility player…… Return kickoffs….. Receiving purposes/ running…….. Just all around player….. Lb’s and safetys couldnt match up with him!!!! Great vision/ and had great hands…. SOme people said it was almost un-fair on how he was a great route-runner and a great Rb. at the same time LMAO!>>>>>>> Solid leader…… And could change a game in a heartbeat….. McCoy is a player who could be a great Rb!!!!….. I like the kid…. The only thing that worries me is how he carries the ball……. Very shifty runner who can break ankles and could make a camera man shift his camera as well LOL!!! He’s got some years to catch up with Westbrook…… But I like what I see with mcCoy……. I see Westbrook in him when he plays……..
I agree G. He is no Westbrook. We all see the potential as a very good NFL RB. He probably will never be the receiver that BWest was because he doesn’t need to be and you can’t teach speed. But McCoy is his own players. All the comparisons for a 2nd year player are just plain dumb. The average shelf life of a RB is around 6 years so let’s see how long Shady can play at high level. It’s good for him he has the benefit of having other very good skilled players around him. I wouldn’t imagine him putting up these stats so soon if he was the only real weapon the defense had to worry about.
westbrook 65 yard td recetion sunday
i still watch ya 36 west
Yeah PW, he still out there making plays. Nice to see since it doesn’t affect us in any way.
I think that you make a very good point that I agree with G that he is definitely not Westy yet, but he has the possibility of mirroring that production in a different way. He doesn’t have the speed, but he has more power than WB, so I could see him surviving between the tackles longer.
He is 4th in the league right now for yards from scrimmage, He almost has 1000 yards rushing and he has 70 receptions for over 500 yards. 9 TDs through 13 games and a legit shot at 2000 total yards from scrimmage. Those sound an awful lot like #36 numbers. The coverages that defenses have to employ to stop the WRs should be taken into consideration, but I think that you also have to think about the O-line that McCoy is playing behind. Westbrook had Tre and Runyan and a consistent line that McCoy has never seen.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EoHVhhUjjBc ….mccoy making tacklers miss like westbrook. I love mccoy but watch this highlight run. hes not even close to westbrook yet
Two totally different animals. Enough said.
There was an article on Philly.com by the Moving the Chains guy. I cant recall his name right now but he’s awesome. He said that Shady has four 50 yd plus career runs already and BWest had 3 such runs in his whole Eagles career. That leads me to believe that McCoy is more likely to get to the crib on a running play than Westbrook was. I believe that almost no RB in NFL history set up his blockers and ran the screen game better than Brian Westbrook. He has the edge over anyone I’ve ever seen on film except for Gale Sayers when it came to getting a screen/swing pass out of the backfield. Shady is pretty good in the screen game but Westbrook was sublime. BWest out of the backfield with a screen pass was a thing of beauty. It seemed like he could break off a 50 yard gain at any time. You were literally holding your breath when he got behind those blockers. I don’t get that feeling with Shady. Yet.