Titans Acquire DeMarco Murray

5:14pm: The Titans have officially acquired Murray and the Eagles’ fourth-round pick (15th in the round) from Philadelphia in exchange for Tennessee’s fourth-round pick (second in the round), the Eagles confirmed today (via Twitter).

WEDNESDAY, 10:28am: The Eagles and Titans are expected to swap fourth-round picks as part of this deal, tweets Geoff Mosher of 97.5 The Fanatic. That would allow Philadelphia to move up 13 spots in the round, giving the club the second pick on Day 3 of the draft.

TUESDAY, 6:08pm: Murray’s new contract has a four-year term and base value of $25.5MM, $12.5MM of which is guaranteed, reports Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk, who adds that it’s unclear whether or not that $12.5MM is fully guaranteed. Escalators can push the total value to $33MM.

For comparison’s sake, Murray had $31MM remaining on his old deal — $12MM of that total was guaranteed, and further $9MM of that was fully guaranteed.

MONDAY, 7:47pm: Even with Kelly out of the equation, Murray had been pressuring the Eagles to trade him since the season ended, tweets ESPN’s Ed Werder.

6:10pm: The Titans are finalizing a trade to acquire running back DeMarco Murray from the Eagles, reports ESPN’s Adam Schefter (Twitter link). There’s no word yet on what the Eagles will get in return. The deal will be consummated Wednesday, the first day of the league year, and will also include a new contract for Murray, his agency, SportsTrust Advisors, announced (Twitter link). However, Murray’s guarantees won’t change, according to Ian Rapoport of NFL.com (Twitter link). He’s due $7MM in 2016 and $7.5MM from 2017-19.

The Eagles shopped Murray over the last few weeks, per Rapoport (Twitter link), after the 28-year-old experienced a disastrous season in Philadelphia. Murray inked a five-year, $42MM deal to leave Dallas for Philly last offseason. At the time, Murray was coming off a season in which he earned AP Offensive Player of the Year honors thanks to a 392-carry, 1,845-yard, 13-touchdown showing. All of Murray’s numbers dropped precipitously under Chip Kelly, though, as he amassed 199 fewer attempts (193), over 1,100 fewer yards (702), and finished with six scores. Murray also averaged just 3.6 yards per rush, a full yard below his five-year career mark.

The Cowboys discussed the idea of reacquiring Murray, but that idea didn’t go very far, according to Todd Archer of ESPN.com.

In Tennessee, Murray will join a club that ranked 25th in rushing yards last season and 17th in per-carry average. Quarterback Marcus Mariota beefed up both stats, though, with his lofty 7.4 YPC. Their running back corps was much less threatening. Antonio Andrews led Titans backs in attempts (143), yards (520) and touchdowns (three). He matched Murray with a paltry 3.6 YPC.

The Murray trade is one of at least two the Eagles will finalize Wednesday. We learned earlier today that they will send cornerback Byron Maxwell and linebacker Kiko Alonso, two other Kelly acquisitions from last winter, to the Dolphins for draft-pick compensation. The Eagles might also deal running back Ryan Mathews, but that could change with Murray on the outs. Mathews was also a Kelly pickup a year ago. Regardless of whether Mathews exits, it’s clear that Eagles vice president Howie Roseman and Kelly’s replacement, Doug Pederson, are taking the club’s roster in a vastly different direction than it went in under Kelly.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

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