Cowboys waiting on DeMarco Murray to sign to trade for Adrian Peterson?

The Dallas Cowboys may end up losing DeMarco Murray over the next several days, but they reportedly have their sights set on Plan B if a deal can’t be reached. In fact, some believe Plan B may actually be Plan A at this point.

Peter King of The Monday Morning Quarterback reports that Peterson still wants out of Minnesota, despite having met with Vikings ownership on Monday to discuss his future. With teams like the Jaguars and Raiders reportedly interested in Murray, the Cowboys might not be feeling great about their chances of signing 2014’s leading rusher without having to overpay.

King speculates that the Cowboys could simply be waiting for Murray to sign elsewhere before they turn their attention toward acquiring Peterson. There has already been speculation that Peterson wants to play in Dallas, and AP’s father says the Vikings are only claiming they want to keep his son to boost his trade value.

For what it’s worth, Murray reportedly met privaately with Cowboys head coach Jason Garrett on Tuesday night.

Unless Peterson is going to restructure his contract to take significantly less money, I don’t understand why the Cowboys would be willing to trade for him but not bring Murray back. AP has a cap hit of $15.4 million in 2015 and his base salaries for the three seasons after that are$ 12.75 million, $14.75 million and $16.75 million.

If the Cowboys let Murray walk, one would assume they have no interest in using that much cap space on the running back position. Perhaps Jerry Jones’ ongoing love affair with Peterson is complicating things a bit.