Vikings, Byron Murphy Jr. Agree to Move Contract Void Date

And the move has some possible consequences

The Minnesota Vikings have agreed to move the void date on the contract of another free agent, and this one could have some significant consequences as to whether or not the team uses their franchise player tag.

According to Dan Graziano of ESPN, the Vikings and cornerback Byron Murphy Jr. have agreed to move the void date of his contract to the day before the start of the new league year, which is 11 March.

While this delays the dead money hit that Murphy could put on the Vikings’ 2025 salary cap while the two sides work towards a possible long-term deal, the moving of the void date means that Murphy can no longer be franchised, as the deadline for tagging franchise and transition players is before the contract officially voids. Because the Vikings did not reach a similar agreement with quarterback Sam Darnold, he could still potentially be tagged as his contract has officially voided. However, Murphy can no longer have the tag placed on him, as it was speculated the Vikings might do a couple of days ago.

There are a couple of ways that this could be interpreted. One is that the Vikings and Murphy are, in fact, working on some sort of longer-term extension that would keep Murphy in Minnesota at a reasonable price. The other is that they don’t have any interest in bringing Murphy back after all and will allow him to test the free agency waters. That latter explanation would be a bit of a surprise, given how well Murphy performed last season and the fact that he should still have plenty of solid football ahead of him given that he’s only 27 years old.

Whatever might be going on behind the scenes, this development certainly lessens the chances that the Vikings will add to their relatively short history of using the franchise tag, since it doesn’t seem like using it on Darnold is in their plans and they really don’t have anyone else that would be worth placing it on.