The Vikings’ Dead Money Potential
Under Kwesi Adofo-Mensah, the Vikings’ dead money situation has been something to monitor.
Much of the issue was that the regime change – the 2022 switch from the Rick Spielman days to the Kwesi Adofo-Mensah days – meant that the roster got quite a bit of work done. And then from there, go ahead and toss in Adofo-Mensah’s willingness to bake void years into contracts. The end result has been Minnesota digesting some beefy dead money charges over the years. Where are things at in the present moment?
The Vikings’ Dead Money in 2025 and Looking Ahead
The 2025 budget was a decent bit more nimble than past budgets Mr. Adofo-Mensah was working with since taking over in Minnesota.
At present, the team is sitting on roughly $16.1 million in dead money. No amount of shenanigans from the GM can move that cap charge. The dead money hit is on the books and cannot be moved. It simply needs to be burned off in a given year before moving onto whatever is in store for 2026 and beyond.
The main culprit for the dead money is Sam Darnold, someone who left behind $5 million on the cap. Ironically, Byron Murphy Jr. is next up at $4.2 million in dead money (even though he returned) and then there’s Stephon Gilmore leaving behind more than $2.3 million.
Oh, and the fourth-largest dead money charge belongs to Lewis Cine, the failed pick from the 2022 NFL Draft. Insult to injury on that one, folks.
The good news is simply that the Vikings are in a much different position than last offseason. In 2024, the largest cap charge on the Vikings’ books belonged to Kirk Cousins even though he was a Falcon down in Georgia. The former QB1 was leaving behind $28.5 million in dead cap funds, a hit for a single player that nearly doubles the current year’s total for all of the dead money contributors.
Making matters even worse were the hits leftover from Danielle Hunter, Marcus Davenport, and several others. Per Spotrac, the Vikings were seeing north of $70 million chewed up as dead money, a staggering total.
Moving into the future, Kwesi Adofo-Mensah is again going to need to do the salary cap dance. He’ll be forced to make some tough calls, decisions that lead to dead money.
Already, Garrett Bradbury is showing up on the 2026 budget with $1.628 million gone. Seeing Harrison Smith retire would lead to even more and so, too, would a decision such as cutting Brian O’Neill.
Adofo-Mensah has proven to be quite adept at managing an NFL budget. Part of that has involved not just accepting but overcoming dead money. The challenge will again present itself as early as the 2026 season.
Editor’s Note: Information from Over the Cap helped with this piece.
