AP

All DeMarco Murray did last season was lead the league in rushing.

But the league’s all-time leading rusher says he should have done even more.

During an interview with SportsRadio 1310-AM, Cowboys Hall of Famer Emmitt Smith said he thought Murray could have made even more of an impact last year than the 1,845 yards he put on the board thanks to the cast around him.

Of course, Smith himself was able to take advantage of a great offensive line as well, so he’s a little familiar with the common criticism of Murray.

“At some time it does become a little insulting,” Smith said, via the Dallas Morning News. When I think about DeMarco Murray, he has his own talent but when I was watching him run last year, and this is just me evaluating, I saw some opportunities there that was left on the football field where he could’ve had 2,500 yards, but he maximized what he had and he did the best with what he had. He had tremendous opportunities and the Cowboys — here’s the most important thing — the Cowboys gave him the opportunity to do it, which showed, truly what his ability was like and how good that offensive line was in terms of combination.

“At the end of the day, you’ve got to have something yourself individually that makes everything look better and click better and feel better. . . . There are certain talents out there that turn sugar into wine. DeMarco did that on his own, and yes he did have a great line in front of him to make that happen too.”

Smith has previously insisted that the Cowboys were going to be just fine at running back this year without Murray, so this isn’t a revelation. What’s surprising is how firmly rooted this narrative is that Murray was merely a product of his environment.

We’ll find out this year when it’s on Joseph Randle and Lance Dunbar and Darren McFadden if it’s true.