Pain Appears on the Vikings’ Horizon
The Vikings’ 2025 offseason is not without its downsides. Most notably, one wonders about the pain that will arrive in the 2026 offseason.
GM Kwesi Adofo-Mensah went on a spending spree in March, doing so coming off a 14-3 regular season that finished with a disappointing playoff exit in the opening round of the playoffs. Adofo-Mensah and Kevin O’Connell are now 0-2 in the playoffs despite very promising results in the regular season. Part of the remedy involved welcoming high-end veteran talent to the Twin Cities, but that’s a remedy that was accompanied by a painful side effect.
The Vikings’ Horizon Shows Some Salary Cap Pain
Recently, Dustin Baker considered the issue for Vikings Territory, doing so while drawing on the work from Matt Fries and Sean Borman (both of whom have a strong understanding of the salary cap).
Baker writes, “Folks teased a ginormous Vikings spending bonanza — and then that happened. Adofo-Mensah loaded up his roster for the J.J. McCarthy era, leaving nothing to chance and fortifying his offensive and defensive trenches to the utmost.”
Further: “That plan was not free, and ended up siphoning most of next year’s salary cap, too. Minnesota will obviously find ways around the -$32.4 million mark next offseason, but do not expect 2026 free agency to resemble 2025. The budget will be thinner — by a mile.”
For a little while, the issue has been a focus for PurplePTSD.
Back in the middle of March, there was discussion about Minnesota’s cap space falling off a cliff in 2026. So, too, was there some discussion about how there will be great financial incentive for moving on from Brian O’Neill in 2026. Oh, and recent addition Ryan Kelly could be shown the door for a savings that exceed $12 million in cap space.
Understandably, the Vikings’ snug budget could give fans a little heartburn. The current estimate has Minnesota still sitting at more than $16 million in open room; next year’s estimate, however, has the team at more than $30 million in debt.
One way to get ahead of the sticks — in a financial sense — is to consider the roster and its potential trade candidates. Any sense at all that Minnesota could opt to move on from do-it-all lineman Blake Brandel? Last season’s LG1 is now the underdog to reclaim that job due to the addition of Donovan Jackson at No. 24 in the 2025 NFL Draft. A post-June 1 trade could free up $3.25 million, cap space that can get rolled over into 2026.
Indeed, that’s one great factor to remember in all of this doom-and-gloom: the unused cap room in 2025. Whatever doesn’t get chewed up in 2025 can get shuffled into the future, helping to finance next year’s spending in the process.
Of course, many will also think of the restructure and extension possibilities. These are cap-clearing moves that go in the opposite direction of carryover money, pushing cap hits into the future rather than gaining cap space from the past.
Consider, for instance, Minnesota’s most prominent talent: WR1 Justin Jefferson.
Next year, the receiver will see his cap hit get into quarterback territory, sitting at a touch under $39 million in 2026. Restructuring the deal could involve seeing $18 million tossed back into the mix. An extension could involve gaining more than $19.2 million. So, options.
For the Vikings’ GM, that’s often what it comes down to: having options. Kwesi Adofo-Mensah doesn’t get backed into a corner, instead allowing for multiple paths so he can adjust to what the future holds. Cuts, trades, extensions, restructures, void years, turning over couch cushions in search of spare change, and any other cap strategies will be in the conversation for the GM.
The Vikings’ offseason has climbed over one climactic moment — the talent acquisition that dominates March and April — with another still to follow: ramping up the work at TCO Performance Center in preparation for the 2025 season. Training camp and then the preseason will arrive in July and August.
What takes place in the offseason’s second climactic moment will help Kwesi Adofo-Mensah to determine whether he should dip into his present-day cap room to make another addition or two.
Editor’s Note: Information from Over the Cap helped with this piece.
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 Bluesky (@VikingsGazette). If you feel so inclined, subscribe to his Substack, The Vikings Gazette, for more great Vikings content.
