In less than a month, the 2025 free agency period for the Minnesota Vikings and the rest of the NFL will be officially underway. In just a few weeks, we will likely know if guys like Sam Darnold, Byron Murphy Jr., Aaron Jones, and Camryn Bynum will be re-signing with the Vikings to remain with the team for at least one more season.
When it comes to Murphy, specifically, it will be interesting to see what takes place. He's been with Minnesota for the last two years and he's coming off a career-best season in 2024. Judging by their current lack of cornerback depth heading into free agency, the Vikings would probably like to re-sign Murphy this year, but it will really come down to how much they are willing to pay him to bring him back.
On Tuesday, ESPN's Dan Graziano shared that Minnesota and the veteran cornerback have reportedly agreed to move the void date of his current contract to March 11th, which is the day before the start of the new league year (when free agency officially begins). Murphy's contract was set to void this week, but now the Vikings have some extra time to see if they can work out a new deal with him before he hits the open market.
Unlike Byron Murphy Jr., Minnesota Vikings did not extend void date for Sam Darnold
In addition to the information Graziano revealed about Murphy on Tuesday, he also shared that unlike the cornerback and running back Aaron Jones, Minnesota and Darnold did not agree to extend the void date of the quarterback's contract with the team.
While this means the Vikings could be left with a small dead cap hit from the terms of Darnold's 2024 contract, they are now allowed to place the franchise or transition tag on him before free agency begins on March 12th.
Since Minnesota decided to recently extend the void dates of Murphy and Jones's deals, they can't place the franchise or transition tag on either of those players.
PFF currently has Murphy ranked as the sixth-best cornerback in free agency this offseason with a contract projection of three years for $52 million ($17.3 million average). That's a deal that the Vikings could definitely afford, but it just depends on whether they believe the 27-year-old corner is worth that kind of investment or not.