Dallas Cowboys Rumors: Team Hoping Soft Free Agent Market Will Bring DeMarco Murray Back, But Could Make Move On Adrian Peterson
The Dallas Cowboys are rumored to be rolling the dice on free agent DeMarco Murray, hoping that a soft market for running backs will bring him back to the team at a reasonable price.
If not, the team could be making moves to bring in troubled running back Adrian Peterson, who in the past has been connected both to Dallas and team owner Jerry Jones.
The picture regarding DeMarco Murray will come into sharper focus on Sunday, when he will be able to start communicating with teams. Sources close to the Dallas Cowboys say that the team hopes Murray will inform them of his best offer, allowing Dallas to match and keep him.
“The Cowboys believe Murray’s success flows not from his skill set but from the offense that has been constructed around him, with a stout offensive line, a franchise quarterback, a potential Hall of Fame tight end, and arguably the best receiver in football,” noted Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk. “The Cowboys also believe that other teams believe it, too.”
It’s not clear if DeMarco Murray is on board with the team’s plans to match his best offer. Some believe he will take whatever offer he feels best about and doesn’t feel a close connection to the Dallas Cowboys to necessarily offer a hometown discount.
There are many potential landing points. The San Francisco 49ers and Indianapolis Colts are both in need of a big, yardage-chewing running back, and the New York Jets and Oakland Raiders also need some help in the backfield.
The reason the Dallas Cowboys may not be sweating too much over DeMarco Murray might actually lay about 900 miles to the north. The Minnesota Vikings have said publicly that they want to keep Adrian Peterson, but sources say he is all but gone this year.
Even Adrian’s father thinks the team’s talk about bringing him back is empty.
“They can increase his worth by saying, ‘Hey, we want him back,”’ Nelson Peterson told the Pioneer Press. “That’s part of negotiations. Even if you don’t want a player, you’re telling the public, you’re going to tell everybody else that you want him back because therefore you can increase his value in case you try to trade him or whatever. You can get more for him in that way. You never know what’s going to happen now.”
There have been rumors for months that the Dallas Cowboys covet Adrian Peterson, dating back even before his legal troubles began. Last year, reports circulated that Jerry Jones called Adrian, telling him that he would like to see him in Dallas one day. That seems even more likely if DeMarco Murray finds a new team.
[Image via Getty]
