But Wait, There's More!

The Vikings have about $221 million in cap costs on their books for the 2022 league year, putting them more than $11 million over their adjusted cap figure of $209.952 million.
That figure includes nearly $18 million of dead money, counting about $6.9 million in cap costs for players the Vikings already released (Rudolph, Jeff Gladney and Britton Colquitt among them), as well as $11.1 million in costs for two void years in Anthony Barr's and Sheldon Richardson's deals.
Only three teams (the Saints, Packers and Cowboys) have more costs to clear in order to get under the cap when the 2022 league year begins in March.

if you compare the Vikings to the Packers cap issues, the situations couldn't be more different. The Vikings are in much better shape. The $44.8M number is being thrown around for the Packers but once you assume they tag Davante Adams for $20M the number balloons to about $70M they'd need to clear... and that is just to get back to net neutral with their draft class.

Long-term that doesn't even start to consider the long-term deals they'll need to do for Jaire Alexander, Darnell Savage, and Rashan Gary. 

If Rodgers stays they'll be able to move his money around quite a bit. But really they're at the point of yearly pushing money into the future awaiting the inevitable teardown. The issue is if they do it one more year (2022) they may jeopardize keeping some of their key young pieces. 

@"Geoff Nichols" said: if you compare the Vikings to the Packers cap issues, the situations couldn't be more different. The Vikings are in much better shape. The $44.8M number is being thrown around for the Packers but once you assume they tag Davante Adams for $20M the number balloons to about $70M they'd need to clear... and that is just to get back to net neutral with their draft class.

Long-term that doesn't even start to consider the long-term deals they'll need to do for Jaire Alexander, Darnell Savage, and Rashan Gary. 

If Rodgers stays they'll be able to move his money around quite a bit. But really they're at the point of yearly pushing money into the future awaiting the inevitable teardown. The issue is if they do it one more year (2022) they may jeopardize keeping some of their key young pieces. 

@"Geoff Nichols" said: if you compare the Vikings to the Packers cap issues, the situations couldn't be more different. The Vikings are in much better shape. The $44.8M number is being thrown around for the Packers but once you assume they tag Davante Adams for $20M the number balloons to about $70M they'd need to clear... and that is just to get back to net neutral with their draft class.

Long-term that doesn't even start to consider the long-term deals they'll need to do for Jaire Alexander, Darnell Savage, and Rashan Gary. 

If Rodgers stays they'll be able to move his money around quite a bit. But really they're at the point of yearly pushing money into the future awaiting the inevitable teardown. The issue is if they do it one more year (2022) they may jeopardize keeping some of their key young pieces. 

The packers are in some real trouble…

If the Packers:

Sign 16 PS to futures
Tender 8 ERFAs
2nd round tender Lazard
Extend & save cap on Jaire & Preston
Cut 4 veterans
Max restructure *every single* eligible contract besides Rodgers
Don't sign any other players

They would still be over $1.2M short to franchise Adams pic.twitter.com/apZYrbf524

— Ken - Packers Cap (@KenIngalls) January 5, 2022

The Vikings aren’t actually in bad cap shape depending on which way they want to go. Probably the easiest move they could make is to commit to Cousins for a few more years. That would immediately bring them close.

If they trade Cousins, they’ll likely still carry a chunk of his $45m cap hit this year. They’ll need to figure out the new QB and not have a ton to spend on that player if they’re an FA. If they went draft or Mond they’ll be fine as well. 
So a few moves overall and the Vikings are back on track. Green Bay and the Saints on the other hand are totally different stories. 

 No wonder Payton is “stepping away”