Latavius Murray is now a Viking. He may be a Viking for only one year.
Via Ben Goessling of ESPN.com, Murray’s three-year contract has $3.4 million guaranteed at signing. Another $5.15 million that is guaranteed less than fully at this point becomes fully guaranteed on the third day of the 2018 league year.
That gives the Vikings a chance to decide based on 2017 that they want to move on.
The deal has a total value (with incentives) of $15 million over three years. So the Vikings have hardly broken the bank on Murray, and they’ve hardly made a clear commitment to him.
The deal underscores the soft nature of the running back market, which doesn’t bode well for Adrian Peterson, Jamaal Charles, or any of the other players looking for jobs in an industry where plenty of rookies who can move the chains flood the market every year.