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Raiders 'curious' to see more from Latavius Murray

Latavius Murray returned to practice on Wednesday, after missing Week 13 due to a concussion. Barring a setback he'll be ready to face off against the San Francisco 49ers this Sunday.

The 24-year-old running back burst into the national consciousness with 112 yards on four carries with two touchdown runs, including one 90-yarder, on Thursday Night Football in Week 12.

However, the rookie has just 14 NFL carries to his name.

"I love the way Latavius runs the football, but I've seen (14) carries," coach Tony Sparano said, per the Bay Area News Group. "I want to see more of them. I'm curious, too. I'm, curious, just like the fans are curious."

To be fair, they were a pretty spectacular 14 carries. Even if you took out the 90 yard attempt, he's still averaging 5.85 yards per carry. That is more than 2.5 yards better per attempt than Darren McFadden and much, much better than Maurice Jones-Drew's floundering this season.

"Now he's got everybody curious right now," Sparano said. "If all goes according to script this weekend, he'll get his turns. He'll get his chance to run the football and hopefully we'll see a little bit more of that."

Given that the Raiders have a better than 50 percent chance at the No. 1 overall pick, we'd assume they'd like to see a boatload of Murray down the stretch. However, later on Wednesday Sparano told SiriusXM NFL Radio's Alex Marvez that Murray won't be the "workhorse" runner.

Of course the Raiders would rather run McFadden and MJD into the line for no gain 15 times a game instead of testing to see if the young player has a future as a "workhorse" back down the line. Of course they would. That's why they're 1-11 in the first place.

The latest Around The NFL Podcast previews Cowboys-Bears and reacts to Brian Hoyer earning the nod over Johnny Manziel. Find more Around The NFL content on NFL NOW.

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