Seth Vigdor
After reports surfaced that DeMarco Murray met with Jeff Lurie to discuss his role on the Eagles, there’s been a ton of speculation on Murray’s future with the team. Per Ed Werder of ESPN, Murray didn’t want to cause a scene, but bypassing Chip Kelly to speak with the owner is exactly something that would cause a scene – especially in Philadelphia.
There now seems to be some confusion regarding how that “meeting” came about. Chip Kelly gave his take of the situation during a conference call with the Buffalo media today. Via Albert Breer of the NFL Network:
Chip on Murray: "He didn't have a meeting with (Lurie). He just happened to be sitting next to him on the plane. It wasn't orchestrated."
— Albert Breer (@AlbertBreer) December 9, 2015
Regardless of how the meeting came about, it certainly doesn’t change the fact that clearly the Eagles have a problem on their hands.
Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk speculates that if Chip Kelly is thinking about getting rid of Murray, it would carry financial and salary cap consequences. Florio states that the Eagles would owe Murray a fully-guaranteed base of $7 million for 2016. He would go on to speculate that perhaps the Eagles leaked the Murray/Lurie “meeting” story as a way to justify in advance any move(s) that they may or may not make involving Murray.
It’s amazing to think how things went so sour, so fast for Murray in Philadelphia. It’ll be interesting to see how things shake out.