Cap space

[MaroonBells]

Field Yates

@FieldYates

The Vikings were able to fit DE Marcus Davenport and his $6.2M cap hit under the cap yesterday by officially processing S Harrison Smith’s restructured contract. Smith’s new deal shaved $7.3M off of his prior cap number, with Minnesota hovering around $2M in cap space now.

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It's interesting that this regime doesn't free up cap space until they need it. Seems the previous group would do all their cuts and restructures on the eve of free agency, then sign a bunch of guys. This group waits until it's needed. Maybe a wiser approach?

For example, so far the Vikings have only executed about a third of the moves that would free up cap space. For example, they could still trim about $10M off their cap by restructuring O'Neill. About $6M with a Hock extension. And there's another between $12M and $21M in Cook and Z, depending on whether they're released or traded, pre or post June 1.

[Guest]

If they're given a total figure that they can enter the season with.  To me it would be better to get every nickle out of each year's cap.  I'm not a cap expert but I haven't like the can kicking they've done in void years so far.

[Guest]

@AGRforever said:
If they're given a total figure that they can enter the season with.  To me it would be better to get every nickle out of each year's cap.  I'm not a cap expert but I haven't like the can kicking they've done in void years so far.

Agreed about the void years. It's not the end of the world and maybe KAM seems to think doing it gives us an advantage? I know void years weren't really a thing prior to COVID so maybe using this tool gives us an edge over other teams using it less? Not sure what that'd be though.
Regardless of my feelings on the void years and also about how excited I'd be about a mega Lamar Jackson move, it really does seem like moving money into the future would indicate they plan on having a rookie-deal QB on the roster.

[Guest]

@pattersaur said:

@AGRforever said:
If they're given a total figure that they can enter the season with.  To me it would be better to get every nickle out of each year's cap.  I'm not a cap expert but I haven't like the can kicking they've done in void years so far.

Agreed about the void years. It's not the end of the world and maybe KAM seems to think doing it gives us an advantage? I know void years weren't really a thing prior to COVID so maybe using this tool gives us an edge over other teams using it less? Not sure what that'd be though.
Regardless of my feelings on the void years and also about how excited I'd be about a mega Lamar Jackson move, it really does seem like moving money into the future would indicate they plan on having a rookie-deal QB on the roster.

Agree. We’re either drafting Levis or Hooker. Guess it depends on cost but I’d expect us to move up to get either. Hopefully, we can do it without sacrificing our #1 next year.  

[Guest]

I think there is some overreaction to void years.  Most NFL teams simply had to utilize them in 2021 when the cap was lowered to 182.5M.

You don't recover from that lowered salary cap unless you want to go the same route as the Bears and bit the bullet in one season.

But that would have likely resulted in a sucky season no?

Current players with void years are Cousins, Oliver (2026) Hunter, Davenport, Lowry (2025), and Murphy (2025).

Not that big of a deal besides Cousins 28.5M dead money cap hit in 2024.  Yuck!