MINNEAPOLIS -- The Minnesota Vikings brought running back Latavius Murray into town for the start of his free agent visit on Tuesday evening. They spent Wednesday extolling the virtues of their program to the player they'd targeted this offseason as a fit for their offense. But it wasn't until 12:47 a.m. on Thursday that they had a deal done with Murray.

Which raises two questions: First, what took so long? And second, if the Vikings were working with Murray's agent, Ryan Tollner, on a deal, what was the running back doing all that time?

Murray's three-year, $15 million contract with the Vikings certainly has plenty of items that likely required some back-and-forth in negotiations. The deal can be thought of in some ways as three separate one-year contracts, with the Vikings easily able to get out of the deal after each season.

The 27-year old, who played three seasons for the Oakland Raiders after sitting out his rookie year with an ankle injury, got a $1.8 million signing bonus as well as a guaranteed $900,000 base salary and $700,000 roster bonus this season. He can make another $750,000 this season in per-game roster bonuses, earning $46,875 each time he's on the Vikings' 46-man active roster for game day. He's got a $5.15 million base salary in 2018, but $1.1 million of that money is guaranteed against injury only. The full $5.15 million becomes guaranteed on the third day of the league year, and none of Murray's $4.4 million base in 2018 is guaranteed. The contract also includes up to $2.3 million in incentives for rushing yards, as well as salary escalators based on rush yards in 2018 and 2019. So, as you can see, there was plenty in the deal to discuss.

Now, for how Murray spent his time: While the Vikings talked with Tollner, the running back had coursework to complete in his MBA program. The upstate New York native is pursuing a graduate degree from Syracuse University, so while the Vikings and Tollner hammered out Murray's immediate financial future, the running back did some online work toward the degree that could help facilitate his post-football career.

"I had a few Mr. Goodbars to keep me awake with the sugar, a nice little chopped salad and some salmon," Murray said. "It was pretty good. They took care of me."