Is it a hot take if you think Latavius Murray is just a guy? Because Latavius Murray might be just a guy.
In 2016, the Raiders had the 15th-ranked schedule-adjusted rushing offense in football, according to our Net Expected Points (or NEP, which you can read more about in our Jalen Richard and DeAndre Washington this past year:
| Name | Rushing NEP per Rush | League Average | Success Rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Latavius Murray | 0.04 | -0.02 | 40.51% |
| DeAndre Washington | 0.04 | -0.02 | 45.35% |
| Jalen Richard | 0.13 | -0.02 | 47.62% |
What these numbers tell us is that the Raiders running backs were really efficient in 2016 (far better than the league-average rate in Rushing NEP per rush), but Murray was the least consistent of the three players, given he was creating a positive expected points play on just 40.51% of his rushes.
If NEP doesn't really do it for you, then maybe this will put things into context a bit: among the 42 running backs with 100 or more carries last year, only Matt Forte saw a larger discrepancy between his yards per carry average compared to his running back teammates' rate than Murray did to his. The Raiders averaged 5.31 yards per attempt on the ground, while Murray's yards per rush was just 4.04.
This is just a continuation from 2015, too. I actually wrote an article entering this past season titled Minnesota behind a line that produced the worst rushing offense our database has seen since 2012, Latavius.