Dead Last in Cap Space? Not a Problem for the Vikings
K. Joudry
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The salary cap has the capacity to be a sore spot for the Vikings and their fans.
For a little while, the budget has been pretty snug in Minnesota, leading to some hand-wringing for those who support this heartbreaking team. After all, being able to improve largely depends on adding outside talent.
Nevertheless, there isn’t much of a problem for the Vikings. On the contrary, GM Kwesi Adofo-Mensah finds himself in a reasonably healthy spot financially.
The Snug Cap: Not a Problem for the Vikings
Last week, Ari Meirov of The 33rd Team tweeted out a chart that has Minnesota in an unflattering position: dead last in cap space. Meirov’s tweet corroborates earlier updates that the Vikings don’t have a ton of cap room right now.
The two leading salary cap websites – Over the Cap and Spotrac – similarly insist that things look grim (at least upon first glance). OTC puts Minnesota in dead last with less than $1.5 million in room. Spotrac presents an even more dire situation, similarly placing the Vikings in 32nd but with just a touch above $1.1 million in cap space.
Clearly, we aren’t looking at a budget that’s rife with potential. There are limitations on what Minnesota can do in 2023. Nonetheless, we’re still looking at a team with more than enough financial potential.
Generally speaking, Kwesi Adofo-Mensah prefers a step-at-a-time approach to his team’s finances. Lots of teams go on a cut, extension, and restructure spree to create a small mountain of cap space. Not Adofo-Mensah. Instead, he spaces his decisions out, pulling off the necessary moves for that particular moment.
In other words, we’re staring down a ticking time bomb (or at least a ticking time firecracker). The Vikings don’t have enough cap space to even sign their draft class, let alone any of the free agents who could still help complete the roster. Something needs to happen. The GM has several things he can do.
Consider, for instance, the potential trades. Dalvin Cook and Za’Darius Smith are top trade candidates heading into the NFL Draft. The former seems like an odd fit in a crowded RB room and the latter has publicly requested to head elsewhere. Moving both would create roughly $20 million in cap space.
Minnesota would thus find itself somewhere between $20-$25 million in room. That’d be a top-10 mark league wide, maybe even top 5.
Still not enough Vikings cap space for your liking? No problem, there are still options aplenty.
Brian O’Neill’s potential restructure could toss another $10 million onto the pile. Extending T.J. Hockenson could then kick in another $6.6 million. Cutting D.J. Wonnum (something they’ve given no indication they’re looking to do) could add on another $2.7 million. The point is simply that these 3 manoeuvres could kick in another (roughly) $20 million in cap space.
Hovering about all these hypothetical scenarios is the reality that 2024 is looking pretty wide open. As Josh Frey recently detailed, the Vikings are well-positioned to hit free agency pretty hard next year. Things are even more wild in 2025 where Minnesota is projected to have $180 million in room (per OTC). Borrowing from the future to pay for the present is a common tactic for NFL GMs.
In the end, Kwesi Adofo-Mensah may opt against all of the cost-cutting measures we’ve explored. The point, though, is simply that he has options. The current charts like to suggest that money is in short supply in Minnesota, but a quick look under the hood reveals a very different scenario.
