The Vikings announced early Thursday morning that they have signed free agent running back Latavius Murray. Murray’s deal with Minnesota is for three years, but can be voided after one season, Field Yates of ESPN.com (on Twitter). This means Murray could have a shot at free agency again in 2018 and that could be very lucrative for him if he gets back on track.
If the deal doesn’t void out, it’ll be a three-year deal worth roughly $15MM, a source tells Ian Rapoport of NFL.com (on Twitter). Over the three year period, the deal includes $8.5MM in guaranteed cash, Ben Goessling of ESPN.com tweets. 
The arrival of Murray could spell the end of Adrian Peterson‘s time in Minnesota. Peterson remains in free agent limbo, but it’s hard to see either Peterson or Murray agreeing to a timeshare with one another. Peterson, of course, is a prideful guy and is out to prove that he can still play like a star even after his latest setback. Murray, meanwhile, signed a deal with a one-year escape hatch. In order for him to maximize his value for next spring, he’ll have to get the majority of the carries in Minnesota. I would speculate that Murray’s reps asked the Vikings if they intended on re-signing Peterson. If they had said yes, Murray probably would have sought out this one-year, prove-it situation elsewhere.
Murray averaged 4.0 yards per carry in each of his two seasons as the Raiders’ primary starter. He rushed for 12 touchdowns in 2016, but young upstarts Jalen Richard and DeAndre Washington started cutting into his workload. He surpassed 1,000 yards in 2015 but rushed for only 788 last season. The Raiders reportedly had interest in bringing Murray back after he explored the open market, but we haven’t heard much on that front in the last seven days.
This offseason, we’ve seen two players sign multi-year deals with performance-driven clauses that can allow them to escape after one year: Murray and Cordarrelle Patterson. The two offensive standouts switched teams this month with Patterson joining the Raiders and Murray going to Minnesota.
Curious how much guaranteed $$ he got.
This seems to me like they are still planning on drafting a back early. Joe Mixon makes alot of sense with either of their 3rd round picks.
I doubt Mixon lasts that long. Even with character issues, he’s too talented.
That O-Line will really hurt his fantasy football ranking.
lol, to bad if you’d been paying attention minnesota is like mid process of a complete overhaul on that o line. Reiff and remmers were already picked up and if they pick up cook too then I garentee you see minnesota trying for O-line prospects in the draft.. what else would they really need. the signing of Jones really helped the defensive front with Greenway retiring and all.. Otherwise it’s still the o line and with the signing of Murray and if they sign cook minnesota actually has a decent looking offense.
Decent offense? Mediocre QB, #2 and #3 WRs, bad offensive line that just overpaid a guy who was a bad RT to play LT, and a dude that couldn’t get yards behind the Raider line, which was significantly better than Minnesota’s, something I hope I don’t have to tell you. Yeah, everybody in Minnesota is gettting fired after this year. Who is the next GM and coach?
I agree with you and I’m a lifelong Minnesota fan. Spielman is gone. Zimmer is a good coach, he just doesn’t have anything to work with.
Everybody in Minnesota is losing their job. Murray is a scrub, and you need a great back to hide how mediocre Bradford is, but of course, they can’t fix that because the draft with top end talent at RB, they don’t have a first round pick in because of that trade. What a mess. From my pick to play in the Super Bowl to this gross mismanagement. What a quick fall. This is why it’s beter to have a steady hand at the wheel with catastrophic things happen like that injury right before the season to Bridgewater instead of people panicking. This is also the same FO though that traded 4 picks to move up to get Cordelle Patterson though, so par for the course.
we need a back Nixon or cook would be great
Murray is not a scrub. He’s far from it. No, he’s not great or one of the top backs in the league, but he has proven that when healthy and getting the majority of carries that he can produce pretty well
So producing pretty well is 4 ypc behind that line which was one of the best in the league last year? All righty then. No wonder Packer fans make fun of you guys.
I agree that Mixon probably won’t be there in the third. I personally would take him late second if there was a way for Tricky Ricky to move back in and snag him. real football fan I can only assume you are a typical Packer troll. You talk about mismanagement with the backup QB position. What would the Packers do if Rodgers went down? Roll with Hundley or make a move. With everything that happened last season I was amazed they got to 8-8. As far as Patterson, everyone misses occasionally( Mandrich,every DB they took to stop Moss, Derrick Sherrod, Jamal Reynolds, Justin Harrel).
Hardly a Packer fan. I don’t have fandom for one team to cloud my judgement and am just calling it like I see it. They signed Murray to be a lead back by the contract they gave him. He’s not that. He also has this curious thing of being knocked out of games with concussions on top of running like a small back when he’s like 230.
You just made up a lot of things that real football fan said. All he was saying was that they shouldn’t have mortgaged their future for Bradford. He also clearly isn’t a Packer fan, he said he picked Minnesota for the SB. No Packer fan does that (or really anybody but Viking fans). So for your little brother reaction, it’s awesome. To bring up Moss even though he had to leave to win a super bowl(yes he was traded, but he still left and won). But I get it, it’s probably tiring having those packer fans always bringing up how the Packers are winners and the Vikings are losers, even though he didn’t say anything about the Packers .
Moss never won a ring so your wrong there. Also he mentioned Patterson’s drafting and what it cost versus return and I rebutted with a list of Packer busts that’s how Moss came up.
I stand corrected, obviously, on Moss. My point is that you are saying he’s a packer fan based on his comments, then to make yourself feel better listing packers busts (seriously, Mandrich? still?). The truth is, every team misses on first round picks, or all picks for that matter, that doesn’t mean that picks have no value, which Minnesota management seems to devalue picks.
Btw, I’m sure you were amazed they got to 8-8 after starting 5-0. Riiiight. you were the one Viking fan not talking crazy about they were going to the Super Bowl. As far as Rodgers goign down, we’ve actually seen that a few times the last few years, and they rolled with scrubs like Matt Flynn and Scott Tolzien for long stretches and didn’t panic by trying to get somebody’s borderline starter for a first rounder because he was scared they would miss the playoffs. Ted Thompson is an idiot too with how he doesn’t spend on any FAs, but Spielman is in a class all his own with the stupidity.
Ted Thompson is one of the best GMs in all of pro sports! Voted executive of the year a couple of years ago by the way! If you clowns think FA is the answer to fixing issues then I have a bridge for sale in the desert!
Not only do FAs most often not pan out teams typically overpay as well! Difference between TT and you know it alls is that he’s done the research!
Teds FA grabs have been Woodson, White, Howard. All of which panned out as great adds! There’s a reason he doesn’t pick them up and that’s other people’s trash isn’t good enough for the Packers!
I don’t understand why it doesn’t concern you that one of the most recent examples you can find for the Packers signing free agents is Charles Woodson… that was awhile ago.
You keep telling yourself that. I agree that you build the bulk of a team through the draft, but as Belichick does, when it’s prudent, you should spend on some big ticket items, especially on the offensive line, which is one of the easiest places to find FA value that usually works out. LB and CB too as he hasn’t exactly been hitting aces at those positions in recent years. When you miss in the draft, you fix it in FA, and those are easy places to fix, but he refuses to do so. He’s prevented his team from winning multiple Super Bowls because of his stubbornness.
Avg running back. Last 2 season had one of the best lines in football and was avg. What a downgrade from AP to him.
The article says $8.5MM guaranteed cash
Brilliant argument, lol. TT had absolutely nothing to do with White & Howard. Love the idiots who try to make an argument and base it on pure ignorance! Typical Queens fan…
Man a lot of haters in here, it’s almost like they have nothing better to do than blast the Vikes for what? Signing the best available RB? I’m not a Murray fan but he’s better than Lacy at nearly 270 pounds and he’s certainly better than AP at this point. He’s a mostly healthy 27 year old above average back which is just one piece of the puzzle the Vikes needed and is a HUGE improvement over trotting out Asiata with McKinnon. I’m really unsure what people expected the Vikes to this offseason but yikes it doesn’t seem they could do anything right according to you dudes.