Are the Vikings an Injury Away from a Crisis?
Are the Vikings in a difficult spot if one of the corners goes down?
More specifically, what happens if Byron Murphy Jr. needs to step away to get back to full health? The top corner has been brought back and is being paid like a top corner. Bringing him back meant handing over a three-year deal worth a total of $54 million. The Vikings, very reasonably, gave Murphy a strong raise in March. The concern rests in whether he’ll be available for every game.
Are the Vikings Too Thin in at Corner?
Earlier in the offseason, Kwesi Adofo-Mensah made a quip about building his team in a manner that resembles “Noah’s Ark.”
The basic gist of the thought, as long as I’m following the GM’s metaphor correctly, is that he wants to be two-deep across the roster. He says that he likes to “joke that I want our team building to be like a Noah’s ark philosophy” before unpacking the thought a bit more: “I believe in building a team built for the seventeen-game attrition of the NFL season. And so that if somebody gets hurt, I wish you would see what’s behind them.”
Very wisely, Adofo-Mensah sees that football is a physical sport and therefore wants a team with formidable depth. Has that goal been achieved at corner, indisputably one of the sport’s most important positions?
Last season was a contract year for Byron Murphy. He played like it.
The defender started all seventeen games. Along the way, Murphy picked up 81 tackles, 6 tackles for loss, 6 interceptions, 14 passes defended, and 1 forced fumble. He got sent to the Pro Bowl for the first time in his career. All of this occurred while Brian Flores was tasking him with moving all over the secondary, the kind of weekly assignment that would sink a lot of corners.
Genuinely, Mr. Murphy is very good at his craft. Not a true lockdown player like Darrelle Revis, but a strong football player.
The issue occurs when we look to see who’s beyond Murphy. There’s promise but little in terms of certainty. Consider the collection of corners who appear to be next in line alongside their deals:
- CB2: Isaiah Rodgers (Two-Years, $11,045,000)
- CB3: Mekhi Blackmon (Four-Years, $5,304,082)
- CB4: Jeff Okudah (One-Year, $2,350,000)
- CB5: Dwight McGlothern (Three-Years, $2,840,000)
The money offers a clue, right? Byron Murphy is the best-paid corner. Afterwards, Rodgers is slotting into middle class territory while the next three are working on bargain deals (either due to being on entry-level deals or on a prove-it deal). Clearly, the next four corner options still have something to prove.
If everything goes to plan, the Vikings should be in an alright spot. Byron Murphy is a low-end CB1 who offers the desired versatility and intelligence to thrive as Flores’ top option. The NFL, though, is sometimes a league where things don’t go to plan.
Minnesota understands the reality well. In 2023, Murphy played in just fourteen games. The year before saw him down at nine games. These injury issues don’t doom him to a life in the infirmary, but they’re nevertheless a reminder that things can (and do) happen in a sport as physical as football.
The hope all around is that Byron Murphy stays healthy (which is to say nothing of the corners lower in the hierarchy proving capable of playing huge snaps). Guarding against the uncertainty by making another addition, though, could be a prudent decision.
Editor’s Note: Information from Pro Football Reference and Over the Cap helped with this piece.
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 and Bluesky (@VikingsGazette). If you feel so inclined, subscribe to his Substack, The Vikings Gazette, for more great Vikings content.
