Dallas Cowboys: Free agency for DeMarco Murray right choice

Let’s get everything out in the open right off the bat…

The Dallas Cowboys wouldn’t have had the NFC East championship season they achieved without the play of running back DeMarco Murray.

That is a fact, plain and simple. Murray was a joy to watch run the football this past season. But with the contract Murray is most likely seeking, paying a running back a high amount of money just doesn’t fit the plans of the Cowboys.

Don’t get me wrong, it would be great to see No. 29 in the Cowboys’ backfield for the 2015 season and beyond. However, it will all come down to the right amount of money that makes sense for the Cowboys. And that most likely won’t be enough to keep Murray on the roster.

Murray is coming off a season where he had 392 carries in 16 regular-season games. He finished with a new franchise single-season record for rushing yards (1,845 yards), averaging 4.7 yards per carry and 13 touchdowns.

In two playoff games, Murray added 44 more carries to his season for 198 yards and two more rushing touchdowns. In the playoffs, Murray averaged 3.9 yards per carry against the Detroit Lions (19-75-1) and 4.9 yards per carry vs. the Green Bay Packers (25-123-1).

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Any team would love to have a running back with those type of numbers – including the Cowboys – or they wouldn’t have ran Murray a grand total of 436 times for 2,043 yards in 18 games.

The main concern to have about Murray isn’t his talent level, because he plays at a very high level. The question has been his durability. In his four seasons with the Cowboys Murray has played a full season just once (2014) and this past season was also the first time in his career he’s carried the ball over 300 times.

Murray’s previous seasons saw him carry the ball no more than 200 times on one occasion in ’13 with 217 carries in 14 games. In fact, before the ’14 season Murray never played in more than 14 games per season, with 13 games his rookie season in ’11 and 10 games in ’12.

In those 53 games, Murray has 934 career regular season carries for 4,526 yards and 28 touchdowns.

One concern with Murray besides his long-term health is the history of running backs once they have the type of season Murray had in ’14. Most never repeat the success from the previous season, plus Murray did carry the football over 400 times this past season.

With his injury history, being 27 years old and all the workload he had in 2014, what are the odds Murray repeats the season he just had during his “contract season?”

It isn’t the fact the Cowboys can “plug-in” a player at the position, but there are possibly some quality options that could make more sense (on the salary cap) for the franchise, instead of giving Murray a long-term contract.

Nov 27, 2014; Arlington, TX, USA;Dallas Cowboys running back DeMarco Murray (29) runs the ball against the Philadelphia Eagles in the third quarter at AT&T Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Tim Heitman-USA TODAY Sports

The Dallas Morning News has a free agent series going on and beat writer Brandon George wrote this about Murray:

"“The Cowboys want to re-sign Murray, but identifying his market value hasn’t been easy. The running back position has been devalued by teams for years because of the players’ short shelf life.”"

The draft has some running backs who could be drafted in the second and third rounds, with the third through tenth rated running backs projected for rounds two and three.

Murray himself was a third round selection, 71st overall, in the 2011 draft, so the Cowboys have went this route before, and to be honest it wouldn’t be a surprise if it were to happen again.

Some of the possible running backs the Cowboys could look at in the second round (according to CBS Sports NFL Draft Rankings) are Ameer Abdullah (Nebraska), Jay Ajayi (Boise State), Duke Johnson (Miami, Fla.), Tevin Coleman (Indiana), David Johnson (Northern Iowa) and Jeremy Langford (Michigan State).

In another piece by George for the Dallas Morning News, the columnist wrote this about running backs and their value:

"“No running backs have been taken in the first round of the last two drafts…This is more than a reflection of the talent available at those positions. It represents a growing consensus that quality backs can be acquired later in the draft. This, in turn, lessens their overall value.”"

Allowing Murray to test free agency is a tough decision for the Cowboys with all that he did for the franchise in 2014. But as tough as it may have been it was the right decision for the team to make.

Next: Is Brandon Weeden the right backup QB?

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