DeMarco Murray did, in fact, express frustration with his role in the offense to Philadelphia Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie, but the meeting did not come together the way some people think.
In a conference call with reporters on Wednesday, Chip Kelly made it a point to stress that Murray and Lurie simply happened to be sitting together on the flight home from New England last Sunday.
“That isn’t what happened,” Kelly said, per Eliot Shorr-Parks of NJ.com. “He sat next to Mr. Lurie on the plane on the ride home. they were both in first class. They talked about the game and what happened. He was sitting next to Mr. Lurie on the plane. He didn’t go and request a meeting with the owner.”
Kelly also noted that he has since had a meeting with Murray and that Murray was unhappy that he wasn’t more involved in the Week 13 win over the Patriots. However, Kelly says Murray knew about the game plan heading into the matchup.
“He knew going into the game that we had a plan, and we knew exactly what we were going to do, we were going to have Darren (Sproles) and Kenjon (Barner) play more,” Kelly explained. “He knew that going into the game.”
While the original report did make it seem like Murray stormed up to Lurie’s office to complain, the conversation itself isn’t the most troubling part. The real concern is how ESPN’s Ed Werder came to find out that Murray spoke with Lurie. Did someone in Murray’s camp leak the info? That would be far more telling.
At least one Eagles player has questioned Murray’s level of effort, and it is very obvious that DeMarco isn’t pleased about the way things have gone this season. We’ll see if he gets the “squeaky wheel” treatment against the Bills this weekend with Ryan Mathews set to return.
