Why LeSean McCoy makes sense for the Kansas City Chiefs
By Kole Berrey
This first bit is obvious. McCoy was at his peak when he was with Andy Reid in Philadelphia. The two made magic together on that football field.
In his Eagles career, with McCoy amassing over 9,000 all purpose yards and 50+ touchdowns. Obviously, McCoy isn’t going to be at that level in Kansas City. He will, however, be a player that knows Big Red’s system and can add a veteran presence in a backfield that has little to no experience as starting NFL running backs.
This isn’t just the history of Shady and Reid as a player/coach duo. We also need to look at the notion of 30 year old running backs being washed up and their recent history in the league. You need to look no further than Adrian Peterson to find a recent running back who was able to resurrect his career after appearing to be in decline.
Peterson only appeared in three games in 2016 and ten games in 2017. Over those 13 games, he played for three teams (Minnesota, New Orleans and Arizona) and only rushed for 601 total yards and tw touchdowns. This equated to just 3.1 yards per carry. Going into 2018, Peterson was now on his 4th team (Washington) in three years, and it appeared the days of a productive Adrian “All Day” Peterson were over. Fast forward to the end of the year, and Peterson ended up running for 1,042 yards, seven touchdowns with a 4.2 yards a carry. He was also 34 years old.
So can McCoy pull an Adrian Peterson style turn around? Well, absolutely. McCoy’s yards per carry last year was 3.2. You know who else had a sub four yards per carry average? David Johnson, who averaged 3.6 yards per carry. He, just like McCoy, played on a terrible offense in 2018.
Overall team talent matters. That is the reason McCoy is going to the perfect situation or him in Kansas City.