How Does Xavier Rhodes Fit Into The Vikings Future?
There isn’t really a way I can see Xavier Rhodes getting out of MN at this point. Rhodes has been extremely complimentary of Zimmer’s coaching and ability to improve him as a player. There isn’t a reason to leave that type of environment if the team willing to pay competitive money. I’d imagine the Vikings FO would like to take a similar approach to extending players on their 5th year options and work a prorated portion of a signing bonus onto their 2017 cap.
If you want to start looking at what Rhodes is likely to get, roughly $13.5M over 5 year makes sense. That equates to a $67.5M deal with $27M in total guarantees. There will need to be an option date on the guarantees since the initial $8M from the 5th year option is originally guaranteed, but the Rhodes base salaries through year 3 would become guaranteed as the beginning of each league year. Hopefully that makes sense.
To play with the cap numbers assume the Vikings use a $10M signing bonus on the deal to prorate through. The terms layout as following:
Option Yr: Salary – $8,026,000 / Signing Bonus – $2,000,000 / Cap Hit – $10,026,000 / Dead Money – $27,000,0000
Contract Yr1: Salary – $8,500,000 / Signing Bonus – $2,000,000 / Cap Hit – $10,500,000 / Dead Money – $16,974,000 *base guaranteed 03/18
Contract Yr2: Salary – $9,000,000 / Signing Bonus – $2,000,000 / Cap Hit – $11,000,000 / Dead Money – $6,474,000 *base guaranteed 03/19
Contract Yr3: Salary – $10,000,000 / Signing Bonus – $2,000,000 / Cap Hit – $12,000,000 / Dead Money – $4,000,000 *base guaranteed 03/20
Contract Yr4: Salary – $13,500,000 / Signing Bonus – $2,000,000 / Cap Hit – $15,500,000 / Dead Money – $2,000,000
Contract Yr5: Salary – $16,500,000 / Signing Bonus – $0 / Cap Hit – $16,500,000 / Dead Money – $0
When you rationally put the pieces together of the above deal, it ends up being more like a 4 year deal for Rhodes worth $46M. But what is represented is a contract the Vikings can fit on their books going forward.