Philadelphia - NFL rushing leader DeMarco Murray on Thursday inked a five-year contract with the Philadelphia Eagles, NFC East division rivals of his former team Dallas.
Murray ran 392 times for a league-best 1,845 yards and 13 touchdowns last season for the Cowboys and caught 57 passes for 416 yards, all of those statistics being career-highs for the fourth-year NFL player.
But the door was opened for Murray to depart Dallas last week, when the Cowboys opted to use their "franchise tag" on team-mate Dez Bryant, who caught 88 passes for 1,320 yards and a career-high 16 touchdowns last year
That allowed the Cowboys to keep Bryant off the free agency market. The franchise tag means a player will receive a one-year contract for the average of the top-five NFL salaries at the position, which for Bryant is about $12.8 million (11.4 million euros).
But Murray was able to test his value and no team prized a running back like the Eagles, who had made a deal to trade away their own star rusher, LeSean McCoy, to Buffalo.
"I felt that this was a great opportunity to win a Super Bowl," Murray said of the move.
The Eagles had reportedly agreed to terms with free agent Frank Gore, formerly of San Francisco, but Gore ended up going to the Indianapolis Colts, leaving a void in the Philadelphia backfield.
The Eagles made a quick move for former San Diego rusher Ryan Matthews, but then Murray became a factor in the Eagles consideration.
At the same time as the running back situation was unfolding, Eagles coach Chip Kelly was making a switch at quarterback, obtaining Sam Bradford from St. Louis for Nick Foles in a swap of injured signal callers.
Bradford, a collegiate teammate of Murray for three seasons at Oklahoma, missed all of last season with a torn left knee ligament while Foles suffered a broken collarbone on November 2 that ended his season.
ESPN reported that Murray's contract was worth $42 million, with half of that amount guaranteed.
"We are very grateful to DeMarco Murray for his contribution to the Dallas Cowboys," Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said in a statement. "He is a quality person, a very good football player, and a player that we wanted to keep.
"We have great appreciation for his skills, and if there was no salary cap in place, DeMarco would be a Cowboy."
The Eagles will also have Matthews, who the team said Thursday has signed a three-year contract. He ran for more than 1,000 yards in two of the past four NFL seasons but was injured for more of the 2014 campaign.
AFP
