The Vikings’ Cap Space Just Took a Major Leap
K. Joudry
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Well, the Vikings’ cap space is looking quite a bit more robust.
The NFL has announced that the salary cap in 2024 is leaping up to $255.4 million. The word: “The league announced on Friday that the salary cap will be $255.4 million per club in 2024. The figure marks an unprecedented $30-plus million rise over last season’s cap, which totaled $224.8 million.”
The Vikings’ Cap Space Just Took a Major Leap
For a little while, it has looked like Minnesota’s budget was sitting somewhere between $24-$25 million. Far from disastrous but also an amount that suggested there would need to be some restraint in free agency.
The recent word, though, changes the water on the beans. Per Over the Cap, the Vikings’ cap space is sitting at a considerably more rotund number: a bit below $36 million. Not bad.
Maybe the first thing fans (and management) will think about is the impact on the team’s ability to extend Justin Jefferson. Expanding the salary cap means it’s far more realistic to exceed $30 million per season for the NFL’s WR1.
And then one thinks of Kirk Cousins and Danielle Hunter, as well. The QB has never been shy about demanding considerable cash in his contracts. If there’s no extension, Cousins will leave behind a $28.5 million dead money charge. Meanwhile, Hunter seems likely to get roughly $25 million per season, a number that has become more realistic.
Not too long ago, Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk prophesied about the cap getting a major boost.
“For now, multiple sources have indicated that the teams expect the 2024 cap to be in the neighborhood of $242 million and $243 million,” Florio wrote on February 19th. “Another source, in response to that number, had this reaction: ‘More.'”
Leaping beyond $250 million exceeds what was suggested on PFT, but Florio deserves a lot of credit with this one.
Now, there’s a key point that can’t be missed: the entire NFL is seeing this budgetary increase. So, when it comes to adding free agents, every team will be working with the new money. The real benefit simply rests in having some more breathing room when it comes to retaining the internal talent. Jefferson is the top priority and there’s now more money to get the job done.
The concerns about dead money seem a lot less urgent. Minnesota’s budget has grown considerably beefier, so free agency is going to be fun. The legal tampering period of free agency begins on March 11th.
Editor’s Note: Information from Over the Cap helped with this piece.
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K. Joudry is the Senior Editor for Vikings Territory and PurplePTSD. He has been covering the Vikings full time since the summer of 2021. He can be found on Twitter and as a co-host for Notes from the North, a humble Vikings podcast.