Quote: @"Geoff Nichols" said:
This will end up being an incredibly team friendly extension based on what we know at this point. Adam will benefit by getting cash in his pocket now and will be protected in case of injury. Its a trade-off but what you need to take when you're on arguably the most team friendly deal in the NFL.
On his old deal assuming the Vikings have a year of additional control via the franchise tag he was scheduled to make $31.3M with only the franchise tag in 2021 being guaranteed.
On the new deal they'll give a substantial signing bonus to spread out the money. That will reduce his 2019 cap hit a nice amount and should bump up the 2020 salary by what he was potentially going to earn in incentives. The 2021 number should then come in the neighborhood of $13M. With inflation that should still be substantially less than the tag at that point.
2022-23 will then be team options with limited dead money attached to the deal. So everything will be paid up front. That a huge value for the Vikings.
This is somewhat speculative but there is a lot of precedence to lead you to these conclusions. Simply said the Vikings effectively assumed Adam would hit his 2020 incentives and they would consider tagging him in 2021 and guaranteed it now. For doing the "right thing" the Vikings control Thielen at a slight discount by the time you get to 2022 and if he begins to decline he will be a prime re-structure candidate or the Vikings can move on.
What is your guess as to the signing bonus and number of years added. If they added 4 then he is signed through 2024 right? With a 15 mil signing bonus and about 1.35 mil in first year salary they create 3 mil in cap space this year.
Are you suggesting they are going to pay him 10 mil in 2020? That would only be 26 mil over 2 years or 13 mil per year.
Then, in 2021 you suggest 13 mil that year.
That would be about 39 mil over 3 years and really a great bargain.
The last 3 years would have to be less than 10 mil.
It will be a good deal and it does show that the Vikings have a way to convince some players to take less when they are well in their 30s in order to stick with the team.
