Without Excruciating Decisions, Vikings Cannot Explore Big-Name Free Agents.
Dustin Baker
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This week (and maybe early next week), the Minnesota Vikings must make roster decisions to become salary-cap compliant. Plain and simple — it has to happen. There is no if about it.
Currently, the Vikings are about $15 million over the cap, living in the bottom section of the NFL for cap space. It isn’t friendly. Minnesota’s ownership insists the team will be competitive in 2022 — this is not a rebuild, despite new general management and a new coaching staff — so the roster must improve.
And that means signing new players while weeding out the stale ones.
The trick to remember is change. It’s tempting to surmise the Vikings will “do what they always do” by kicking the can down the road on several veteran contracts. Perhaps that will happen, but the general manager is new and doesn’t necessarily subscribe to that strategy.
Therefore, to explore any big-name free agents next week, Kwesi Adofo-Mensah has to conduct some excruciating roster decisions. Otherwise, he’d keep the same core group of veterans with backloaded deals. Everything Adofo-Mensah and head coach Kevin O’Connell have said to date is the antithesis of Rick Spielman and Mike Zimmer’s doings. Salary-cap gymnastics will likely be different, too.
That could mean a trade of Eric Kendricks, a beloved middle linebacker drafted by Minnesota in 2015. A Kirk Cousins trade to Denver could occur, particularly after Aaron Rodgers decided to stay in Green Bay, wiping away the possibility he’d head westward. After all, the Broncos still need a quarterback.
Anthony Barr probably won’t be back. He all but said goodbye when the regular season ended. Traditionally, Rams-style offenses, like O’Connell directed in Los Angeles, don’t use fullbacks. C.J. Ham could be on the chopping block.
Harrison Smith is emphatically a fan-favorite, but, in theory, he could be jettisoned.
These are all Vikings items to ponder. Something’s gotta give for the Vikings to rapidly become cap-compliant. The good news is you won’t have to wait very long. The guaranteed crunchtime is now — and the next seven days.
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When Minnesota does clear cap space — or the team trades Kirk Cousins — Adofo-Mensah can explore splashy free agents like Brandon Scherff (G), J.C. Jackson (CB), Chandler Jones (EDGE), or Ryan Jensen (C), for example. Or, if Minnesota bargain shops, mid-tier, affordable free agents like Bryce Callahan and Kyle Fuller are also available.
But the moral of the story is that heartwrenching moves must come first. And those will happen at any minute.
Hell, they even sent the longtime trainer packing out of nowhere on Monday.
Dustin Baker is a political scientist who graduated from the University of Minnesota in 2007. His YouTube Channel, VikesNow, debuts in March 2022. He hosts a podcast with Bryant McKinnie, which airs every Wednesday with Raun Sawh and Sally from Minneapolis. His Viking fandom dates back to 1996. Listed guilty pleasures: Peanut Butter Ice Cream, ‘The Sopranos,’ and The Doors (the band).
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