Former Dallas Cowboys linebacker Kenneth Murray Jr. was released from the Houston Texans’ practice squad on Thursday, clearing a spot for defensive end Chris Braswell, the Texans announced.

The move ends a short-lived experiment for the 2020 first-round pick (23rd overall by the Chargers), who had been elevated for limited action after signing in mid-September as a Houston native seeking a homecoming role amid injuries at the position.

Murray’s lone season in Dallas in 2025 stands as the clearest Cowboys lens on the news.

Acquired from the Titans in March 2025 in a late-round pick swap (Dallas sent a sixth-rounder and received Murray plus a seventh-rounder used on running back Phil Mafah), he stepped into the middle linebacker role under defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus and started 16 of 17 games.

He finished with 81 combined tackles, one sack, four tackles for loss, and two passes defended, leading the team in total tackles in some counts.

The production looked solid on the surface, but advanced metrics and on-field results told a different story: Pro Football Focus graded him among the league’s lowest-rated linebackers, particularly in run defense, and he struggled to adapt to the scheme.

Dallas did not re-sign him, allowing him to hit free agency.

That unfulfilled promise resurfaced when Murray faced his former team in Week 4. Elevated for the matchup (a 34-30 Cowboys win), he started and delivered a late, unflagged hit on Dak Prescott on Dallas’s opening offensive play after the quarterback slid.

Prescott got up and exchanged words with his former teammate before play resumed. Murray recorded four tackles before exiting later with a possible concussion evaluation.

The moment underscored the personal edge of a player who never fully fit in Dallas and whose snaps dwindled further with the Texans once starters returned.

For Cowboys fans, Murray’s release serves as a quiet epilogue to a low-cost but low-impact acquisition.

The trade brought depth and a veteran who played every game, yet it failed to solve the linebacker questions that lingered through 2025.

At 27, with nearly 500 career tackles across stops with the Chargers, Titans, Cowboys, and Texans, Murray remains a depth option somewhere—just not one Dallas elected to keep after seeing him up close.

The brief Houston chapter, capped by the early confrontation with Prescott, simply closed the book on a chapter that never matched the first-round pedigree.