National Football League

Cowboys owner Jerry Jones speaks out on losing DeMarco Murray

Published Mar. 12, 2015 8:11 p.m. ET

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James Parziale

The Cowboys on Thursday lost the NFL's leading rusher in DeMarco Murray, who opted to sign with the rival Eagles.

The Cowboys reportedly offered Murray $5 million a year, while he got $42 million over five years with $21 million guaranteed from the Eagles. 

Murray helped the Cowboys win the NFC East title last season while rushing for a franchise-record 1,845 yards. He broke the Dallas record held by NFL career rushing leader Emmitt Smith and also set a league mark with eight straight 100-yard games to start the season.

Owner Jerry Jones wouldn't budge on the price he was willing to offer Murray, but released a statement saying he's upset about losing Murray.

Here is the full text:

We are very grateful to DeMarco Murray for his contributions to the Dallas Cowboys.  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.  This came down to an allocation of dollars within the management of the salary cap.

Obviously there is emotion involved in these decisions, but it is critical that there be must be discipline involved as well.  If it were a question of having an open checkbook with no salary cap constraints, we all know things would have worked out differently.

We have recently made significant commitments to top players who are currently on the team, specifically at key positions such as quarterback, left tackle and wide receiver, and we were comfortable with the offer that we made to DeMarco to include him in that structure. 

These are difficult decisions that are part of the NFL.  They are decisions that take into account the entire team, the current economic structure of the team, and the financial concerns for the short and long term future of the team.

At the end of the day, this is about finding the best way to collectively fit all of the individual pieces together, in terms of talent, offensive players, defensive players and dollars -- under the salary cap structure -- that gives you the best chance to have a championship team.

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