Reactions To DeMarco Murray’s Retirement

Running back DeMarco Murray announced his retirement earlier today, ending a seven-year career during which he earned three Pro-Bowl nods, a First-Team All-Pro selection, and the league’s 2014 Offensive Player of the Year award. Murray was taken in the third round by the Cowboys back in 2011 out of Oklahoma, and quickly became a star in Dallas. He had a one year stop in Philadelphia before spending the last two years of his career with the Titans.

After Murray made the announcement on an ESPN broadcast of ‘NFL Live’, reactions quickly began trickling in. Many were quick to point out that this wasn’t a forced retirement from Murray, and that he had options to continue playing. Here are some of the responses from around the league:

• Former NFL agent and current CBS analyst Joel Corry pointed out that when a player expresses a recent desire to continue playing, like Murray did, and then suddenly retires, that “it usually means he didn’t like the type of money he was being offered” (Twitter link). It looks like Murray may have thought signing a minimum salary or low-guarantee deal simply wasn’t worth it.
• There were a “bunch of teams” interested in Murray’s services, according to Sirius XM NFL insider Adam Caplan (Twitter link). Caplan says his understanding was that Murray was “not retiring due to lack of interest” and that the veteran “would have had at least a backup role this season.” It seems like Murray would’ve only wanted to continue playing in a place where he had a clear path to playing time.
• Jim Wyatt of Titansonline.com took a look back at Murray’s career from a Titans perspective and examined his contributions to the team over the past two seasons. Wyatt notes that Murray “helped change the culture in the locker room” in Tennessee and that he “held teammates accountable” as part of his leadership role.