Minnesota’s Built-In Escape Hatch Reduces the Risk Within Major Contract
Minnesota’s built-in escape hatch for the Jonathan Allen deal certainly helps to mitigate the risk.
The initial details were that the Vikings brought the former Commander to town for a deal that’s tipping the scales at $60 million across three years. The fine folks at Over the Cap have since gotten their hands on the details of the deal, passing along the all-important precision that resides under the eye-popping numbers.
Minnesota’s Escape Hatch for the Jonathan Allen Deal
The NFL Network’s Mike Garafolo passed along the precise details of Allen’s deal.
Consider the word from the NFL insider: “Base value on Jonathan Allen’s deal with the #Vikings: $51 million over three years. Cash flow of $16.205m, $16.95m and $17.85m over the next three years. Sack incentives and escalators to get to the max value of $60m.”
For whatever it’s worth, not everyone is a fan of the deal, as Dustin Baker discusses on Vikings Territory.
Decode the jumble of text and numbers to offer bit more clarity (shout out to OTC).
In 2025, Mr. Allen is going to carry a $6,421,666 cap charge. The two seasons following are going to see a dramatic rise, jumping up to $21,616,666 in 2026 and then $22,511,668 in 2027. So, some beefy numbers that happen to coincide with the final two years on J.J. McCarthy’s rookie contract (at least if the 5th-year option isn’t picked up).
The crucial detail to keep in mind, however, is that the final season — 2027 — could involve a cut with relatively modest cap pain. Letting go of the veteran defensive tackle would mean gaining back $17,845,000 in cap space while forfeiting just $4,666,668 in room to dead money.
In other words, the Vikings have basically made a two-year commitment to the pass rusher at defensive tackle.
Minnesota’s defensive line finds itself in a fascinating spot right now. On the one side of the spectrum are well-paid veterans in Harrison Phillips, Allen, and Javon Hargrave (read more on that deal). On the other side are cheap youngsters with promise in Jalen Redmond, Taki Taimani, and Levi Drake Rodriguez.
In a perfect world, the two sides of the d-line room complement each other well as the Vikings’ defensive front becomes a terror to matchup with on Sunday.
Most prominently, Jonathan Allen has been a 3-technique, picking up 2,965 career snaps in that area of the field. But then he has also put in work across the defensive line, notably snagging 1,764 snaps across from the tackle and 352 as a nose tackle.
Allen’s elite days arrived in 2021 and 2022 when he snagged a pair of Pro Bowl trips to stand alongside his gaudy sack totals: 9.0 and then 7.5. Can Brian Flores find a way of allowing the veteran to drink from the fountain of youth, thereby re-igniting the sack production?
The No. 17 selection from the 2017 NFL Draft stands at 6’3″ and weighs 300 pounds.
Editor’s Note: Information from Pro Football Reference, PFF, and 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 social media (Bluesky & Twitter). If you feel so inclined, subscribe to his Substack, The Vikings Gazette, for more great Vikings content.