LeSean “Shady” McCoy was a consensus top-three draft selection entering the 2012 fantasy football season. He had exploded for 1,307 yards rushing yards, caught 48 passes for another 315 yards, and totaled 20 touchdowns in 2011. Unfortunately, he was not able to meet the sky-high expectations in 2012. Recent quotes from Philadelphia’s new offensive coordinator, Pat Shurmur, have now given more reason to doubt a rebound year in 2013 for Shady:

“It’s a long season, and a guy can run out of gas quickly,” said Shurmur, “If you have guys who are different, you can use them in different ways, and you try to play to their strengths.”

In other words, Bryce Brown will have a role on this team. Still, I don’t find any cause for alarm from that statement because it was assumed that Brown wouldn’t disappear to the bench. To further quell your concerns of a Bryce Brown takeover, Shurmur continued:

“I’ve always believed there’s a place on the roster for two good running backs. You have your starter, but the other guy needs to play so they can all get through the season.”

I understand that to imply McCoy will be the lead running back, while Brown will assume a change of pace role and likely pick up much of the short-yardage work. Basically, Shurmur just clarified what the overwhelming speculation was in regards to the two players’ snaps.

The dominos have yet to fall, but I’m going to go out on a short limb and say that people overreact. Consequently, McCoy’s ADP will result in some very nice return. I have no doubts that Shady will return to RB1 status, barring an injury of course, and is worthy of a first round selection. If it backfires, you can send me as many hateful tweets as you’d like.

McCoy will only be 25 years old at the start of the season and I have every reason to believe he is in the prime of his career. The two major reasons for his disappointing campaign were severe offensive line troubles and a concussion that sidelined him for four weeks. Even with those problems, his season wasn’t all that bad. He managed to average 101.1 total yards per game (TYPG), which was not far from his 108.3 TYPG in 2011, and would have translated to 1,618 yards over a sixteen-game season. As a comparison, Arian Foster and Ray Rice totaled 1,641 and 1,621 yards respectively last year.

As I mentioned, one of the Eagles’ greatest deficiencies this past year was the offensive line. They allowed a league-leading 118 hits on the quarterback and also relinquished 48 sacks, which ranked among the NFL’s worst five teams. Although Michael Vick’s pocket presence and scrambling ability may have contributed to those numbers, it was an absolute horror to watch that unit play at times. As a result, Sports Illustrated stated that the Eagles must “remake the O-line through free agency.” In response to that statement, Mike Clay of Pro Football Focus and PhiladelphiaEagles.com tweeted:

I agree with Mike Clay and presume that the unit will be much better in 2013. The absence of Jason Peters, who ruptured his Achilles tendon in the offseason, at left tackle cannot be overlooked; he was chosen as an All-Pro First-Team tackle in 2011, earning his fourth All-Pro selection in a five-year span. However, the injuries to this beleaguered offensive line did not stop there. Peters was joined on the injured reserve list by the Eagles’ starting center, Jason Kelce, after Week 2, and also by the starting right tackle, Todd Herremans, after Week 9. All three of them should be healthy at the start of the 2013 season and unite with left guard, Evan Mathis, who graded out as the best guard in the NFL according to Pro Football Focus’ ratings. I fully expect the offensive line to perform much closer to their 2011 level, when they placed the among the top-half of NFL teams in sacks allowed (with 32) and quarterback hits permitted (with 72).

Just how big of a threat is Bryce Brown? He looked awfully good in Weeks 12 and 13, racking up 347 rushing yards and 4 touchdowns. However, he then came crashing back to Earth, likely ruining some people’s fantasy seasons on the way. Brown averaged a putrid 1.43 yards on 28 carries over his next two starts. Subsequently, in Week 16, McCoy was cleared to return. Andy Reid said that Shady would be limited at first, but McCoy ended up with 13 carries for 35 rushing yards and caught 9 of 11 targets for 77 receiving yards. The following week, he was on the field for 83% of the Eagles’ snaps en route to totaling 106 yards. McCoy led all NFL running backs in 2011 with a snap percentage 81.1%, so it was clearly not a two-back system under Reid after McCoy became healthy enough to play. Like I said earlier, Shurmur, along with Chip Kelly, fully intend to utilize Brown. I just don’t believe it will be nearly as detrimental to Shady’s fantasy value as most will believe. McCoy is the more talented runner. Reid realized that and the new regime will realize it too; that is if they haven’t already.

Speaking of Chip Kelly, his arrival should only be beneficial to McCoy’s production. Fast paced offenses have excelled at every level of football because they create substitution problems for opposing defenses, which result in mismatches and fatigue. At the University of Oregon, Kelly brought the no-huddle offense to another level. Let’s compare his 2012 Oregon Ducks with the NFL’s fastest offense in 2012, the New England Patriots: