One important piece to new defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus’ defense is going to be the man wearing the green dot, and as you look at his career thus far, it makes you wonder can this team trust Kenneth Murray?
Dallas traded for former first-round pick Murray, who has racked up 416 tackles and 8.5 sacks in five years.
This past season, he gave the Tennessee Titans 95 tackles, 3.5 sacks, and one pick. Still, he’s not seen as a difference-maker, which is how the Cowboys landed him for a low price.
Defensive Outlook
Under new DC Eberflus (a notable linebacker whisperer), either one of them – or both – are expected to be in the starting lineup to start this season with DeMarvion Overshown still recovering from injury.
Marist Liufau and Damone Clark are other candidates to start as returners from last year.
In his first year with the Titans last year, Murray earned captain status on the defense and finished with 95 tackles and 3.5 sacks, as I noted above.
He started in every game he played in and has two more years of NFL experience than Sanborn. That is why he will be the one wearing the green dot, having direct communication with the coaching staff.
Cowboys LB Kenneth Murray Jr. has looked the part early on in his time in Dallas. pic.twitter.com/kW84Koi7QC
— Nick Harris (@NickHarrisFWST) May 29, 2025
“I think it’s a great fit,” Murray said, via Clarence Hill of All City DLLS. “I’ve been enjoying myself, obviously transitioning over from being traded and getting up to speed and stuff like that. Lot of things work to my strengths, coming down hill, playing the coverage, stuff like that. It’s been good. It’s been great being here during the offseason program, getting around the guys and just trying to come in and establish a culture and get better every day.”
It still poises the question: How much can we trust him?
He is a solid player, but nothing that he does jumps off the screen, and with a team that has been the worst at stopping the run, Murray needs to have his best year to date if this team wants to thrive on that side of the ball.
It will be very interesting to see if the front office adds any more guys to the roster this summer, but if not, they will roll with what they’ve got.
Even though Murray is younger, I think Eric Kendricks, in terms of running the defense last year, was probably better.
We will see how Murray handles the pressure of leading the green dot on the Dallas Cowboys defense.
Marist Liafu and Murray will start at linebacker along with ex Bear Sanford. The coaching staff have no choice but to trust them. Clark has under performed but he will get significant playing time too. Overshown needs to sit out this season.
The ex bear is Sanborn, not Sanford!! And I don’t think he’ll be the starter, unless Eberflus plays favorites, but if he’s gonna pick the best 3 then it will be Murray, Liufau and Clark as the starters and Sanborn will be the backup!! Clark hasn’t really underperformed, he just hasn’t been given much of a chance!! But now that Eberflus is here, Clark will get to play more, and he’ll be the best version of himself with Eberflus playing Clark to his strengths!!
And as far as Overshown goes, if he’s healed up and ready to go before the end of the season then there’s no reason to make him sit out all year!! If he’s 100% ready to go then he should be on the field playing!! It wouldn’t make any sense to sit one of our best LBs all year if he’s healed up and no longer injured!!
I was gonna say the same thing!! I read over that part 2 or 3 times trying to figure out if I missed something, but after reading it the last time, I realized I wasn’t missing anything, it was the writer that didn’t put everything in the article he was supposed to put in it!!
I don’t think Kendricks would be better than Murray, I think they mite turn out to be about the same!! I know Murray hasn’t played up to his draft position yet, but he hasn’t really played on any good defenses either, and he sure hasn’t gotten to play with a LB whisperer like Eberflus before either!! I think Murray has always been a good LB, he just hasn’t been put in many good situations!! But this year he gets to play on a defense that (no matter what other people think) is really good, and he gets to play with one of the best defensive coordinators in the NFL, who just so happens to be the best at coaching up his LBs!! So yeah, I think the defense can trust him!!
Murray has pretty consistently ranked among the worst linebackers in the NFL at stopping the run, Just what we needed.
a Dallas Cowboys fan, since the 70’s with Micah Parsons trying to get his money from Jerry Jones and LB DeMarvion Overshown he has trouble staying healthy the only option is LB Kenneth Murray also mostly everybody walked out the door because Jerry Jones couldn’t pay then that’s the other reason why the Cowboys defense has a lot of holes