When the Vikings’ Cap Space Falls Off a Cliff
Slowly, the Vikings’ cap space has been becoming clearer.
Go to Over the Cap and you’ll see that Minnesota is sitting at close to $40 million in open room (with some lingering uncertainty about certain contracts, such as the one for Javon Hargrave, which just got clarified by Ben Goessling but hasn’t yet been factored in on OTC). Not bad, especially considering that there have been several high-end deals. The issue is simply that the budget in 2026 is already looking pretty snug.
The Vikings’ Cap Space Going Forward
Ben Goessling tends to be excellent when it comes to getting the finer details of a deal.
Recently, the writer for The Star Tribune dropped down the precise information for center Ryan Kelly and right guard Will Fries. The jumble of numbers can be difficult to make sense of for an untrained eye, which is what makes OTC such a valuable resource.
The simplest takeaway, as is often the case, is that the cap charges in 2025 are cheap before getting expensive in a hurry.
Kelly’s cap charge comes in at $5,619,559 for the current season; in 2026, the number is going to jump up to $12,067,500. Fries’ cap charge in 2025 is $5,640,000; in 2026, the number is going to jump up to $17,220,000. And when it comes to the right guard, the number keeps going since it’s a five-year deal, surpassing $20,000,000 per season from 2027-29.
Other deals follow a similar pattern. Aaron Jones is accounting for a $4,800,000 cap hit in ’25 before seeing things bump up to $12,800,000 in ’26. Byron Murphy is accounting for a $6,940,000 cap hit in ’25 before seeing things bump up to $20,970,000 in ’26.
Right now, OTC estimates that the Vikings will have roughly $12.4 million in open room for 2026. But, without question, that’s a number that’s going to be moving around a ton. Indeed, the projected cap charge for Hargrave alone will wipe out that open room, putting Minnesota into the negative.
The Vikings’ cap space in 2026 will be snug due to excellent players operating on large deals at very important positions. Justin Jefferson, T.J. Hockenson, Christian Darrisaw, Brian O’Neill, Jonathan Greenard, Jonathan Allen, and Harrison Phillips are just some of the other veterans who will be taking large bites out of the pie.
The important caveat, of course, is simply that we’re dealing with a slow-moving crisis. Kwesi Adofo-Mensah has a lot of time to work through creative solutions for a future cap crunch. Even better, the money that doesn’t get used in 2025 gets rolled over into 2026, so there’s some potential to bring the present-day abundance into the future.
As more days pass, we’ll continue gaining clarity on Minnesota’s cap situation. Keep an eye on how things are developing for both the present moment as well as the not-too-distant future.
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 social media (Bluesky & Twitter). If you feel so inclined, subscribe to his Substack, The Vikings Gazette, for more great Vikings content.
