How the Vikings Can Put an Extra $25 Million into the 2025 Cap Space
The Vikings don’t lack for spending power. Quite the opposite is true. At roughly $63.3 million in cap space, the Vikings find themselves at 7th in the NFL for open room.
Something that’s true of the NFL, though, is that money can disappear in a hurry. So, Minnesota could realistically look to boost their open cap space by a bit to facilitate some more spending. If that’s the desired route, what kind of options are available for ratcheting up the cap space?
The Vikings & Another $25M in Cap Space
Start off with the most obvious way of recouping room in the budget: cutting a player or two.
Most prominently, there is right guard Ed Ingram. The No. 59 pick from the 2022 NFL Draft kept getting chances to prove that he belonged as a starter but he never fully lived up to his draft slot. Moving on from him would mean gaining back $3,325,000.
Let’s then assume that one of left guard Blake Brandel ($2,583,332 in savings), center Garrett Bradbury ($3,622,000), or C.J. Ham ($2,650,000) get cut. If even one of those players is shown the door, the Vikings will have gained back more than $5 million in cap space.
More attractive than cutting players is the potential that exists with extending players. Consider three.
Safety Josh Metellus, tight end Josh Oliver, and edge rusher Andrew Van Ginkel all make sense to keep around for a little while longer. If so, the Vikings could free up $4,124,000 by extending the safety, $5,464,000 by extending the tight end, and $7,728,000 by extending the edge rusher.
Pushing the short-term savings to the max would mean putting more than $17 million back into the budget. For the sake of simplicity, let’s instead shrink things down to somewhere around $15 million. Combined with the cut savings, the Vikings could have $20 million back into the 2025 budget.
Finally, consider a restructure candidate.
Someone who really stands out is right tackle Brian O’Neill since he’s playing at a high level and carrying a cap charge of $26 million. Restructuring the deal — such as converting some of his compensation into a signing bonus — could free up north of $8 million in cap space, more than enough to clear the $25 million threshold promised in the title.
The all-important detail? None of the possibilities considered are particularly hard to fathom. The cut candidates (Ingram, Brandel, Bradbury, Ham), extension candidates (Metellus, Oliver, Van Ginkel), and restructure candidate (O’Neill) all could see their deals adjusted in the way discussed in this piece. No one would spit out their Caribou Coffee due to shock.
Kwesi Adofo-Mensah tends to keep his cards close to his chest. Expect the GM to get his finances in order over time, layering in his cap-saving moves as he progresses through the offseason rather than doing everything at once.
Legal tampering gets going on Monday, March 10th with players being able to put pen to paper on Wednesday, March 12th.
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.