DeMarco Murray and Sam Bradford see Philadelphia Eagles debut tonight

By Jake Robison | September 15, 2015

All eyes are on DeMarco Murray and Sam Bradford tonight as they make their Philadelphia Eagles debut in the opening Monday Night Football game of the 2015. One arrives via free agency and the other via trade, and they each replace former cornerstones of the Eagles offensive gameplan, making the pressure even stronger for them each to succeed right out of the gate. So what can be expected of each?

The Sam Bradford story is more straightforward. He replaces Nick Foles, who seemed to do well in the Chip Kelly offense but was never a pure fit. Bradford’s career has been defined by strong play interspersed between major injuries which have cost him about half his NFL career to this point. So his mandate is simply to stay healthy, or else Philadelphia could be right back to starting Mark Sanchez, who didn’t get the job done last year. But the DeMarco Murray situation is arguably more intriguing.

LeSean McCoy was jettisoned to the Buffalo Bills for reasons which still aren’t clear, and was ultimately replaced by Dallas Cowboys star running back DeMarco Murray instead. The move wounded the Cowboys, but must now also translate into a stronger ground game for the Philadelphia Eagles for the move to have ultimately made any sense. All eyes will be on Murray and Sam Bradford tonight, sink or swim, as the nation tunes in for the Monday Night Football game.