Kyler Murray has landed a new home shortly after being released by the Arizona Cardinals earlier this month.
The quarterback has agreed a a one-year deal with the Minnesota Vikings, according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter.
Murray was officially released by the Cardinals on Wednesday after the franchise reportedly failed to find a trade for him and informed him of the decision to part ways earlier in the offseason.
The signal caller, 28, joins a quarterback room in Minnesota that features former No. 10 overall pick J.J. McCarthy.
The deal is said to be worth $1.3 million – the veteran minimum for players with more than seven years of NFL experience.
Murray is reportedly still owed $36.8 million in guarantees for the 2026 season by the Cardinals following his release. The Vikings will contribute $1.3 m towards the sum.
NFL quarterback Kyler Murray has signed a one-year deal with the Minnesota Vikings
Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell has looked to bring in qaurterback reinforcements
By waiving Murray before March 15, the Cardinals avoided paying the quarterback another $19.5 million.
After flirting with a career in baseball, Murray, a two-sport standout at Oklahoma, was drafted by Arizona with the No. 1 overall pick in the 2019 NFL Draft
He won Offensive Rookie of the Year honors for the 2019 season and was later given a five-year, $230.5 million contract extension.
However, he struggled under head coach Jonathan Gannon while battling injuries in 2023 and 2025.
With Gannon fired and incoming head coach Mike LaFleur rebuilding the roster, the five-foot-10 signal caller was among the first out the door in Arizona.
The Vikings had hosted Murray on a free agent visit on Thursday, honing their latest quarterback search in on the former No 1 pick.
The Vikings don’t have many options this year to challenge or replace McCarthy, their 2024 first-round draft pick whose injuries and inconsistency has raised the question of how long they can afford to wait for him to develop, but Murray appears to be a viable one for coach Kevin O’Connell.
This offseason, O’Connell has not outright said that he intends to replace McCarthy, but he has also not outright named the young quarterback as his starter for the 2026 season.
After missing his entire rookie season while recovering from knee surgery, McCarthy had an ankle sprain, a concussion and a broken hand in 2025 that limited him to 10 starts and only eight games finished.
Murray joins a quarterback room in Minnesota that features J.J. McCarthy (pictured)
McCarthy had an ankle sprain, a concussion and a broken hand in 2025 that limited him
Even when he was healthy, the struggles with accuracy were pronounced enough to force the Vikings to consider alternatives despite the significant potential on display.
After winging it with Carson Wentz and Max Brosmer as the backups last year, O’Connell and the Vikings realized they at least needed better depth if they’re going to run McCarthy back in 2026. McCarthy, for his part, sounded aware that his hold on the starting job is tenuous, too.
The Cardinals signed Murray to $230.5 million, five-year contract in 2022 with $160 million guaranteed, but the honeymoon after that hefty commitment was short.
A few weeks after the deal was done, the Cardinals removed a strange clause in the contract, which mandated four hours of ‘independent study’ during game weeks. The kerfuffle called into question Murray’s work ethic, and his relationship with the franchise was never quite the same.
Murray tore the ACL in his right knee late in the 2022 season, causing him to miss a big chunk of the 2023 schedule as Gannon replaced Kliff Kingsbury as coach.
The Gannon-Murray relationship held some promise in 2024 when the Cardinals improved to 8-9 and were in the playoff hunt until the final few weeks of the season, but the 2025 season fell apart quickly.
Murray played only five games because of an injury to his right foot that was initially believed to only need a few weeks for recovery. Veteran backup Jacoby Brissett performed well in his absence, Murray was eventually placed on injured reserve, and the Cardinals fired Gannon after tying for the league’s worst record at 3-14.
Murray, in a farewell post on social media last week after he was informed the Cardinals would cut him, expressed regret he only led the team to the playoffs once in seven seasons, a wild-card round loss in 2021 to the eventual Super Bowl champion Los Angeles Rams.
‘I truly believe my best ball is in front of me and I look forward to proving it,’ Murray wrote.
