Acme Packing Company
Byron Murphy Jr. might actually hit free agency
At 4 p.m. Eastern, NFL teams will be allowed to finally place the franchise tag on players with expiring contracts going into the 2025 offseason. Notably, this includes the Cincinnati Bengals’ Tee Higgins and the Minnesota Vikings’ Byron Murphy Jr.
Higgins will reportedly be hit with the non-exclusive franchise tag, as he was last year. Per NFL rules, Higgins’ tag will make him $26.18 million in 2025 — should the two sides not come to an agreement on a long-term contract. Because it’s a non-exclusive tag, though, this means that a team could give Higgins an offer sheet, which the Bengals could then choose to match. If Cincinnati chose not to match an offered extension, Higgins would go to a new team and the Bengals would receive two first-round picks.
Because of the high cost it would take to ink Higgins to a long-term deal on top of the two first-round picks to acquire him, it’s highly unlikely that Higgins will receive an offer sheet from another team, even to drive up the price for the Bengals.
Meanwhile, Murphy is the top young cornerback in the free agent class. Murphy’s case is interesting, as it’s still uncertain whether the Vikings would actually tag the defensive back. At the moment, Minnesota has $58.6 million in cap space, which ranks 7th in the league, but the Vikings also are set to lose the most snaps out of any team in free agency.
Beyond Murphy, Minnesota has a huge decision to make about quarterback Sam Darnold's future, as his contract is expiring. In addition, the Vikings are trying to work out an extension with running back Aaron Jones, who delayed his void year deadline for a few more days as the two sides try to reach an agreement.
Do you know who didn’t defer his void years? That’s right: Murphy. The Vikings will not save the $4.5 million in dead cap that the cornerback has now placed on their salary cap, even with an extension. If that’s any sort of hint about where he and Minnesota are at on the negotiating table, then it looks like the Pro Bowler is going to test the market. The Green Bay Packers need a corner, so keep a close eye on this situation.
The final player worth mentioning here is Packers kicker Brandon McManus, who is going to be either the best or second-best kicker available in the free agency market. The tags for specialists are pretty cheap. Even the non-exclusive franchise tag is $6.5 million. The transition tag, which would simply give Green Bay the right of first refusal when McManus goes to market, is worth $5.8 million. That’s probably a little higher than his market, but would you rather test that or have the certainty of the right of first refusal? It’s worth asking at this point.
