The drum beat to get rid of Dallas Cowboys inside linebacker Kenneth Murray began before the 2025 regular season did, and it’s seemingly going to continue until the bitter end as the franchise stumbles into its last 2 regular season games with a 6-8-1 record and eliminated from playoff contention.
Murray has been a constant target of criticism throughout the season as his poor play has been a touchpoint for how bad the Cowboys have been on that side of the ball.
Pro Football Focus has Murray with a bottom-feeding, 39.8 overall grade through 15 games, placing him 83nd out of 86 eligible players at his position. So, when people say Murray is the worst defensive starter in the NFL, there’s actually some evidence to back that up.
Not that Murray is listening. He gave a sharp response when asked if he’d been privy to any criticism of his game this year.
“I live under a rock, so could give two (expletives) about what somebody says, ” Murray told reporters on Tuesday, December 23.
Playing in the final season of a 2-year, $15.5 million contract, there’s a good chance Murray won’t have to worry what anyone says about his game next year — because there’s a good chance he’ll be unemployed.
Cowboys Traded for Multiple Inside Linebackers
With the uncertainty over the return of inside linebacker DeMarvion Overshown from a catastrophic knee injury — and what kind of player he might be when he got back — the Cowboys made 2 separate trades to acquire inside linebackers since the end of last season.
First, they sent the Tennessee Titans a 2025 sixth round pick in exchange for Murray in March. Then, they traded for Cincinnati Bengals inside linebacker Logan Wilson right at the NFL trade deadline
Murray, a 2020 first round pick (No. 23 overall) by the Los Angeles Chargers, will have approximately $28.6 million in career earnings following this season and has 77 tackles on the season with 14 starts.
“(Cowboys) traded for Kenneth Murray Jr., who, I’m just not a fan of his game, to be honest,” ESPN’s Mina Kimes said on June 4. “And I don’t think he solves any of their problem … that’s a very, very weak linebacker group. That’s been the Achilles heel of their defense, of course.”
According to Spotrac, Murray’s value in the 2026 free agent cycle equates to a 1-year, $5.1 million contract.
Cowboys Fans Totally Turned Against Murray
While the Cowboys finally benched Murray late in the season — after some public comments from owner Jerry Jones seemed to indicate as much — it was more of a case of too little, too late.
Cowboys fans turned against Murray a long time ago, and in the era of instant clips/lowlights able to go directly up on X, it was a weekly ritual to dice up the worst of Murray’s time on the field — most recently a head-scratching run read in a Week 15 loss to the Minnesota Vikings.
“GET KENNETH MURRAY OFF THE DAMN TEAM,” Cowboys fan The Middler 11 wrote on X with a clip of the play.
“I still don’t understand why Kenneth Murray is allowed to take the field on defense when you have Logan Wilson,” Cowboys fan Honest Gabe wrote on X. “The math isn’t mathing.”
