The Vikings are Gnawing on a $363.3 Million Problem
The Titanic — at least the one that had a young Leonardo DiCaprio alongside Kate Winslet — couldn’t avoid getting sunk by the iceberg. The Vikings’ ship isn’t going to be able to hit the towering chunk of ice. Rather, there needs to be a pivot before financial disaster strikes.
The Vikings are going to need to swerve, something that’s been discussed on Vikings Territory and PurplePTSD. With roughly $363.3 million in cap commitments for 2026, Kwesi Adofo-Mensah is staring down a slow-moving crisis. The fine folks at Over the Cap insist the Minnesota is in debt by roughly $60.8 million, so we’re dealing with an issue that’s going to be in the back of the front office’s mind until next March.
The Vikings are Trying to Overcome Huge Debt
The upside of extending Josh Oliver is that the team’s terrific tight end twosome is sticking around for several more years. The issue is that Oliver is making the debt worse.
Next year, Oliver is going to show up on the cap with a $9,964,000 hit. A decent chunk of change, especially since T.J. Hockenson is offering up a $21,355,000 cap charge. Add the pair together and we’re talking about a number beyond $30 million for the TE1 and TE2, no small commitment for the position.
The Vikings are happy to have their blocking bully back and yet there’s a cost for doing so. In this instance, we’re talking about things in a very literal sense: there’s a real cost for keeping the high-end player in town.
J.J. McCarthy is doing a lot of heavy lifting when it comes to helping to balance the books. The sophomore QB1 has just a $4,966,999 cap charge currently and a $5,960,399 charge for next season. Provided he lives up to expectations, McCarthy is offering the team tremendous savings. Adofo-Mensah is leaning into those savings by beefing up the roster with all kinds of talent.
The problem is simply that players who are sitting at $10 million cap charges and/or higher start to add up.
Consider that Justin Jefferson is sitting at $38,987,600 for next season. Brian O’Neill is sitting at $23,203,892. Christian Darrisaw comes in at $23,141,929, Jonathan Greenard at $22,300,000, Jonathan Allen at $21,616,666, Javon Hargrave at $21,497,500, and Andrew Van Ginkel at $19,400,000. Don’t forget the previously discussed tight ends alongside Byron Murphy Jr. ($19,570,000), Will Fries ($17,220,000), Aaron Jones ($14,000,000), and Ryan Kelly ($12,117,500).
Circle back around to those numbers. Yes, McCarthy is cheap, but seeing all of those major cap charges on the books for 2026 adds up pretty quick.
Solutions do exist — painful ones, such as cutting O’Neill, Kelly, as well as moving on from others, which is to say nothing of the possible extensions, restructures, etc. — but those things are a work in progress. Plus, extending Josh Metellus still needs to happen (his final Vikings season is currently in 2025) and the team will need to make at least some additions, moves that involve having open cap room.
The Vikings are fortunate to have Kwesi Adofo-Mensah steering the ship, someone who has proven to be adept at moving around a budget. He knows about the difficulty that’s ahead and is surely working on solutions even if the external outlook is dire. In fact, some of the solutions are already hiding in plain sight, such as the carryover money (north of $23.5 million) that’s present alongside the extension/cut/restructure/trade candidates.
Do note, though, that this is going to be an ongoing story until the issue gets sorted out. Hopefully, no boats (or icebergs) get hurt in the pursuit of balancing the budget.
Editor’s Note: Information from Over the Cap helped with this piece.
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