Vikings Cap Space Moves in the Wrong Direction as Dead Money Starts Piling Up
For a while, the dead money was a slow-moving crisis. Seemingly all of the sudden, it’s adding up and impacting the Vikings cap space.
Shift to Over the Cap — a foremost authority on the NFL salary cap — and Minnesota now sits at close to $15 million in dead money for 2025. The reason is because of quarterback Sam Darnold, corner Byron Murphy, and corner Stephon Gilmore seeing the void dollars in their deals hit the books, officially becoming immovable for the current year.
Vikings Cap Space Moves in Wrong Direction
The simplest way of phrasing things is that Sam Darnold agreed to a one-year, $10 million deal during the 2024 offseason. Look under the hood, though, and you’ll see some cap tomfoolery.
Yes, Darnold received $10 million in compensation for his services, but Kwesi Adofo-Mensah shuffled money around to lessen the cap hit in 2024. Essentially, the GM placed just $5 million into the 2024 budget while pushing $5 million into the 2025 budget. Short-term gain, long-term pain.
Keep in mind that there are several players who will leave behind dead money due to the voids in their contracts.
Already, Murphy ($4,200,000) and Gilmore ($2,333,334) find themselves in this group. If there are no new deals for safety Harrison Smith and running back Aaron Jones, then the dead money pile will only worsen. The number is currently sitting at $14,927,822, which is roughly in the middle of the NFL.
Last year, the Vikings had to digest a huge dead money charge due to high-end players like quarterback Kirk Cousins and edge rusher Danielle Hunter departing. Minnesota still found a way to be quite active in free agency while also keeping their financial flexibility for future seasons. Minnesota will have the capacity to once again be active when luring free agents to the Twin Cities if there’s a desire to add veteran talent.
Move ahead into the future and void years continue to be a part of Minnesota’s salary cap outlook.
In 2026, for instance, outside linebacker Andrew Van Ginkel, tight end Josh Oliver, and center Garrett Bradbury are scheduled to leave behind dead money hits due to void years. Avoiding that outcome could arrive if these players are extended, so it’s a situation to monitor.
Remember, as well, that void years aren’t the sole culprit when it comes to dead money. Simply cutting a player often means accepting a certain amount of immobilized money. Ed Ingram is a popular cut candidate. Moving on from the right guard would mean gaining back $3,325,000 in cap space but seeing $385,541 tossed onto the dead money pile.
The current projection has the Vikings at roughly $55.5 million in open cap space. That’s a number that’s going to jump around a lot in the coming weeks, so don’t get too comfortable with that total.
The legal tampering portion of free agency gets started on Monday, March 10th.
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, as a co-host for Notes from the North, and as the proprietor at The Vikings Gazette, a humble Vikings Substack.