DeMarco Murray On Light Workload: ‘You’ve Got To Be Smart’

Another day, another individualized practice regimen for DeMarco Murray. One day after being a full participant in the team’s training session, Murray spent part of today working with the trainer and appeared to have a light workload overall, but the 2014 rushing champ says there is nothing to be worried about.

“No, we we’re just doing some different things to get different parts of my body activated and strengthen certain areas,” Murray explained. “So it’s good to work with [director of sports science and reconditioning] Shaun [Huls], he’s a great guy and I’m just excited to be here.”

Murray missed a few days the first week of camp with an illness, but he told reporters that isn’t bothering him anymore and neither are the 500-plus touches he received last year as a member of the Cowboys. Instead, Murray claims his lack of work is just a product of him and the coaches working smarter in the offseason.

“I think there’s a difference between getting the reps you need and getting too many reps,” he said. “There are certain situations that we feel it is just key that I’m in there and then there’s certain situations where I’m comfortable in some things so it all depends on how [the coaches] rotate.

“You always want to get as many reps as you can and there’s some reps that I’ve gotten a lot of during OTAs and minicamp and training camp, but there’s some other reps where I haven’t gotten a chance to get some, but I think Duce [Staley] does a good job of putting me in different situations where I need to work on.

“You always want to be out there every rep, but you just got to be smart and make sure you’re doing the right things and not trying to kill each other out here and at the end of the day we’re a team and we’re trying to compete and get better, so you’ve got to be smart about certain situations.”

Murray went on to explain he didn’t even play in a few preseason games the last few years as a cautionary measure. Offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur told the media this morning that everything is going according to plan with the running back.

“Certainly we have a strong feeling about what he can do and he was out there the last couple of days,” Shurmur said. “He’s been able to execute our basic runs and really display a running style that fits what we want to do.

“We have an idea of what we want to do with each player as we go on or what we want to do with the ones, the twos and the threes.”

Murray also hinted at the fact that he may be a bit uncomfortable with parts of the playbook still, but he believes he will be able to rely on his experience when the Eagles travel to Atlanta for their season opener.

“It just depends on the plays, there are some plays where I’m comfortable,” he said. “There’s some plays where I definitely need to work on and I’m sure it will be like this throughout the season.”

“I think I’ve got a lot of experience under my belt, playing in games, playing in big games and I know how to get ready mentally and physically.”