Reaching a verbal agreement during Day 3 of the draft last year, Latavius Murray joined the Bills last offseason in lieu of the team selecting a depth running back. That deal provided the veteran with a rotational role for the 2023 campaign, but he remains unsigned deep into free agency.
Murray recently revealed he traveled to Colombia to undergo stem cell treatments as he aims to take part in a 12th season in the NFL. The 34-year-old managed to suit up for 16 regular-season contests and both of the team’s playoff games during his Bills stint, but the treatment could help him prepare for another campaign with Buffalo or another new team.
“You do the IV stem cells and then you get the injections within the joints or wherever you want to have the injections,” Murray said, via Donna Ditota of Syracuse.com. “Essentially the IV is supposed to still penetrate into the parts of your body that are sore; the IV does overall health. But then the localized injections are for the areas that you want to specifically treat.”
Murray – who has played between 13 and 16 games each year in his career so far – was used sparingly during his time in Buffalo. The Central Florida product received 70 carries and he recorded 300 rushing yards and four touchdowns. Murray chipped in with 119 scoreless receiving yards in the regular season before making another five catches during the playoffs. If he were to re-sign with the Bills, a similar role would likely await him.
Buffalo’s shift in focus to the ground game after Joe Brady took over as offensive coordinator led to a heavy workload for James Cook. The latter is positioned to remain Buffalo’s lead back for the foreseeable future, and the team also re-signed Ty Johnson this offseason. Murray would thus compete for playing time with Johnson and any rookies Buffalo were to add in next week’s draft if the team were to reciprocate his interest in a new deal.
The former sixth-rounder is no stranger to finding new teams, though, having spent time with the Raiders, Vikings, Saints, Ravens and Broncos in his career before his Bills tenure. The post-draft portion of free agency will no doubt be the time at which Murray could start to generate interest from teams and it will be worth watching to see if his efforts to prepare himself for the 2024 campaign results in a contract.
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