Murphy will be an unrestricted free agent if he and the Vikings don’t reach a long-term deal
The Minnesota Vikings will either have to come to a long-term agreement with cornerback Byron Murphy or allow him to hit unrestricted free agency.
According to a report from ESPN, the Vikings and Murphy came to a mutual agreement to push back the void date on his current contract to one day before the start of the new league year. The move gives the two sides more time to negotiate a long-term pact, but as a consequence of the agreement, the Vikings can no longer use the franchise tag on Murphy because the new void date comes after the franchise tag deadline.
Murphy’s deal was originally set to void this week. If he and the Vikings are unable to reach a new contract agreement by the day before the start of the 2025 league year, the remaining $4.2 million in signing bonus that is spread over the three void years of his contract will accelerate onto Minnesota’s books for the 2025 season. If he does sign a new deal, however, the Vikings can simply replace the void years with the new contract structure.
Murphy signed a two-year, $17.5 million contract with Minnesota prior to the 2023 season, and he played a significant role in defensive coordinator Brian Flores’ unit over the last two years.
He played 99% of the team’s defensive snaps in 2023 and 93% in 2024, which was the first Pro Bowl season of his career. He finished the year with six interceptions and 14 passes defensed, and according to Pro Football Focus he allowed the 24th-lowest passer rating (80.0) on throws in his direction out of the 127 cornerbacks who played at least 150 snaps in coverage.
The Vikings also have Stephon Gilmore, Camryn Bynum and Shaquill Griffin hitting free agency in the secondary, and don’t necessarily have a ready-made replacement for Murphy at cornerback. Coming to an agreement on a long-term deal would probably be preferable, but Murphy now has some pretty good leverage on his side without the possibility of a franchise tag.