Quote: @Purple Haze said:
Does Kendricks restructuring mean there is enough cap room to now keep Rudolph
Yes, for now. They will need to make additional room since they won't be cap compliant when the 53 man rosters go into effect and they eat some dead money to cut down the roster. Being conservative they still need to carve out another $5M or so in cap space prior to the season. Some of that could come from contract extensions (Waynes/Harrison Smith). But even with those moves they can't keep Rudolph at this current number.
From a cap perspective 2019 was always going to be the year they are tight due to Cousins. Once you get to 2020 you have a lot more options since they'll make a decision to extend Cousins (lowering his cap hit in 2020) or decide to move on after the 2020 season which would put a number of cap saving techniques on the table.
5-22-19, no deal yet for Rudy, looks like ol charlie was wrong once again....
Quote: @JimmyinSD said:
5-22-19, no deal yet for Rudy, looks like ol charlie was wrong once again....
Quote: @Ralphie said:
@ JimmyinSD said:
5-22-19, no deal yet for Rudy, looks like ol charlie was wrong once again....
so far, from another quote from Kyle i have my doubts that anything is imminent.
Rudolph said Wednesday there is “validity” to last week’s Pro Football Talk report the Vikings have offered him a five-year contract extension that would make him one of the league’s highest-paid tight ends while providing relief to a cap-strapped team. He has been the subject of trade rumors in recent weeks, and said his agent, Brian Murphy, has told him of interest from several teams.
On Wednesday, though, Rudolph cited Murphy’s long history of business with the Vikings’ front office as a reason for his hope a deal would get done this spring.
“He’s got four Pro Bowlers and a first-round pick [on the Vikings’ roster], so they’ve worked together plenty of times,“ Rudolph said. “I can just come out here every day and worry about practice, because I trust Brian and I trust [VP of football operations] Rob [Brzezinski]. I know they’re working extremely hard to try to make something happen.”
The Vikings, as part of a new deal, could easily lower Rudolph’s 2019 cap number by taking a similar approach to the one they used with Eric Kendricks last week, converting part of the linebacker’s 2019 base salary to a signing bonus so they had the cap space to sign first-round pick Garrett Bradbury. Because signing bonuses are amortized for up to five years over the life of a contract, the Vikings could keep Rudolph’s $7.625 million salary the same for 2019, but create more than $5 million in cap space just by giving him a league-minimum $930,000 base salary and converting the remainder of his base salary to a signing bonus.
With Rudolph set to turn 30 in November, though, the presence or structure of guaranteed cash beyond 2019 could be a sticking point in negotiations. Absent the kind of guaranteed money that would make it difficult for the Vikings to release him in the future, a designation as one of the league’s highest-paid tight ends wouldn’t provide much security for Rudolph.
In the meantime, though, the eight-year veteran is at the Vikings’ practice facility, working with Smith as part of an offense the Vikings hope can have more versatility than it did last year.
“It forces defenses to play with three linebackers, and that allows us to control the game,” Rudolph said. “When we go out there in three-wide [receiver] sets, people talk about creating mismatches; now they have five [defensive backs] on the field. Yeah, there’s still mismatches, but now [with two tight ends] we can kind of control and do things how we want to do them.”
Even with Smith’s presence contributing to Rudolph’s uncertain status, the rookie said Rudolph has been readily available with advice on everything from route-running details to film study habits.
“Kyle’s done such a great job not making [his contract] a distraction, and not for the tight end room,” Smith said. “He’s here, he’s part of this team, and I’m just trying to pick his brain and learn from him.”
http://www.startribune.com/kyle-rudolph-...510283522/
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