The Vikings’ Next Roster Move
Kwesi Adofo-Mensah tends to keep busy.
Recently, the young GM extended his top defensive tackle. Doing so ensures that Harrison Phillips — affectionately and ironically known as Horrible Harry — sticks around until 2026. Does Adofo-Mensah have more business that he needs to take care of in the comings days/weeks? If so, what should the Vikings’ next move be?
The Vikings’ Next Move: Extending Byron Murphy Jr.
At 26, Byron Murphy Jr. finds himself in a great spot for the GM’s now infamous competitive rebuild.
The thinking is simply that he’s young enough to continue building around while being experienced enough to get a major workload, helping the team to compete in the immediate. After all, Murphy is the CB1/CB2 at present, depending on how one understands Stephon Gilmore’s role.
Most appealing about Murphy’s game is his versatility, his ability to line up as both a slot and boundary corner.
Brian Flores used the former Cardinal in creative ways last season, shifting Murphy around the defensive backfield. He picked up 596 snaps out wide and 214 in the slot, but then there were the 68 snaps in the box, 19 along the defensive line, and then 9 at free safety. Does Flores have more tricks up his sleeve with Murphy?
In Week 1, Murphy was all over the field, leading the Vikings in tackles with 9 while also picking up a pass defended.
He was targeted 8 times, allowing 6 receptions for 64 scoreless yards. He did so while playing 29 snaps as a boundary corner and 20 snaps as a slot corner (alongside 5 in the box and 1 tacked onto the d-line).
In Week 2, Murphy got targeted 6 times, allowing 5 receptions for 66 scoreless yards. The corner was playing along the boundary for 37 snaps and in the slot for 18 snaps.
In other words, QBs aren’t afraid to target the veteran in coverage but there has been a limit to how lethal these completions have been. Murphy hasn’t allowed a score and has been keeping the yardage to a reasonable limit.
The next step in his game is going to involve forcing more incompletions. Quite often, Byron Murphy is offering sticky coverage due to his quick feet, so he can be in a decent spot to make a play. Being a bit more disruptive at the catch point would be a welcome development.
The man is currently operating on the final year of his contract. As recently discussed on The Vikings Gazette, Minnesota is primarily working with veteran corners who are going to be free agents in 2025. All of Murphy, Gilmore, Shaq Griffin, and Fabian Moreau fit within this description. Does extending the youngest and most versatile one make sense?
Currently, Murphy is carrying a $10,911,765 cap charge. Only right tackle Brian O’Neill surpasses the total for the current season. Extending the corner would come with the potential of tossing $6,380,000 back into the 2024 budget.
Byron Murphy is sitting on 13 tackles, 1 pass defended, and a tackle for loss. He’ll be looking to add to these numbers when the Houston Texans — a team with a formidable collection of talent at wide receiver — visit U.S. Bank Stadium on Sunday, September 22nd.
The defender is in his sixth NFL season but will only turn 27 on January 18th.
Editor’s Note: Information from Pro Football Reference, PFF, and Over the Cap helped with this piece.
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K. Joudry is the Senior Editor for Vikings Territory and PurplePTSD. He has been covering the Vikings full time since the summer of 2021. He can be found on Twitter, as a co-host for Notes from the North, and as the proprietor at The Vikings Gazette, a humble Vikings Substack.
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