Through four games of the 2014 season, Dallas Cowboys running back DeMarco Murray has gained 534 yards on the ground. That improbably puts Murray, who barely cracked anyone’s top 10 in preseason fantasy football rankings, on a pace for 2,136 rushing yards, a total which would break Eric Dickerson’s 30-year-old NFL record.

It’s still tremendously early, of course. We’re not even to October. Still, Murray and the Cowboys are one-fourth of the way through their season. And if the Dallas fans who’ve endured three straight 8-8 seasons and a 2-7 playoff record in the past 18 years can’t get a little irrational about Murray and the team’s 3-1 start, then what’s the point of fandom?

(Getty Images)

Among the seven members of the 2,000-yard club, Murray’s yardage through Week 4 would rank third overall. That’s because many of the best rushing seasons in history got off to slow starts. (Tree of the top four rushers weren’t even on a 100-yard per-game pace after four games.) That either means Murray is well ahead of the curve or in danger of peaking too quickly.

Here are the members of the 2,000 club, listed with their totals through Week 4 and their final stats. Murray has 534 yards and five touchdowns.

1. Eric Dickerson (1984) — 378 yards, 2 TD — 2,105 yards, 14 TD

Eric Dickerson in 1985. (AP)

2. Adrian Peterson (2012) — 332 yards, 2 TD — 2,097 yards, 12 TD

3. Jamal Lewis (2003) — 551 yards, 5 TD — 2,066 yards, 14 TD

4. Barry Sanders (1997) — 327 yards, 0 TD — 2,053 yards, 11 TD

(AP)

5. Terrell Davis (1998) — 489 yards, 6 TD –2,008 yards, 21 TD

6. Chris Johnson (2009) — 434 yards, 2 TD — 2,006 yards, 14 TD

7. O.J. Simpson (1973) — 647 yards, 4 TD — 2,003 yards, 12 TD (14 game season)

(AP)

By these metrics, Murray is off to one of the best starts in recent rushing history. But does this mean he’ll break the single-season rushing record?

It’s doubtful. That Dickerson season has withstood a number of challenges over the past 30 years, including from Peterson, who carried the ball a then-career high 34 times in an attempt to break the mark in Week 17 of 2012. For Murray to make it through 2014 at the same blistering pace, with the same brutal workload, without getting an injury and without defenses loading the box to stop him is unlikely.

But 2,000 yards is still an exclusive club and a realistic goal. He can also hope to continue his streak of 100-yard, one TD games, a feat that’s put Murray in fine athletic company through the season’s first month.

DeMarco Murray has started the season with 100 yds and a TD every game. #SNF pic.twitter.com/EQJnWDOFID

— SNF on NBC (@SNFonNBC) September 29, 2014

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