Griff has been served
Vikings have submitted restructure offer to Everson Griffen
Everson Griffen
is seeing his name being brought up as a possible cap casualty as the
Minnesota Vikings look for ways to free up salary cap space for the 2019
offseason. Those rumors are not unfounded, as it appears the front
office is drawing a bit of a line in the sand about the future of the
veteran defensive end.
Multiple media reports on Tuesday have stated that the Vikings have
submitted an offer to restructure his deal in the aftermath of the Anthony Barr contract, which is set to pay the linebacker $13.5 million per season. ESPN's Courtney Cronin gives a detailed explanation below.
"It's been quiet on the Everson Griffen
front (on Tuesday), but that doesn't mean there isn't work going on
behind the scenes. I'm told that Griffen and his representation have
been approached with the terms of a restructure from the Vikings and
that the defensive end has expressed a desire to remain in Minnesota,
but doing so will probably have to come via different terms than the way
his contract is currently structured with $10.9 million of his base
salary set to become fully guaranteed on Friday. As of right now, the
ball is in Griffen's court as to whether he wants to accept the new
terms the Vikings laid forth or aim to continue his career elsewhere.
It's possible that these talks could continue on past the 3 p.m. start
of the new league year on Wednesday. Theoretically, the Vikings could
structure Anthony Barr's new deal to fit under the cap in 2019 to buy
them time to work through talks with Griffen, but in the end, whether
the DE takes a restructure is likely going to determine his future in
Minnesota."
Griffen, a fourth-round pick in the 2010 NFL Draft, is entering
his 10th season in the NFL, all with the Vikings. During that time, he
has racked up 66.5 career sacks in 73 career starts (132 games played).
However, last season was a bit of a struggle for the veteran pass
rusher, as he missed five games to tend to a mental health issue and
posted his lowest sack total since the 2013 season with 5.5 sacks on the
year.
He signed a contract extension with the team during training
camp in 2017 that came in at four-years, $58 million through the 2022
season. Should the Vikings decide to release or trade him, it would free
up $10.5 million in cap room with a dead cap hit of $1.2 million.
The NFL is a business, and sometimes a harsh one despite
the good faith in which contracts are signed. The Vikings would likely
love to have Griffen back on some sort of renegotiated deal, but given
his production, point in his career and the price tag, not everything
currently matches up and it does appear that he at least has lost a
little bit of a step. They have a tough decision to make in terms of
what his worth to the franchise is and it would not be a shock to see
them start to tune down his role as they did with Brian Robison, but it would be really hard to justify keeping him around at almost $11 million.
@"JimmyinSD" said I would maybe do this if they guaranteed it and my spot on the roster... i know its past and I should get over this... but after how they did BRob with his restructuring.... I would have it all in writing and guaranteed or I am going to hit FA. honestly I would like not trust Speilman to give me a fair shake and would be hitting the door already if my agent thinks he could get me as good or better elsewheree.
I am just not buying it. If Spielman was the anti-christ he is portrayed to be on the board, Barr wouldn't have stayed, Rudolph would be saying its a hard no to restructuring...Two sides to every story
@"wiviking" said:@"JimmyinSD" said I would maybe do this if they guaranteed it and my spot on the roster... i know its past and I should get over this... but after how they did BRob with his restructuring.... I would have it all in writing and guaranteed or I am going to hit FA. honestly I would like not trust Speilman to give me a fair shake and would be hitting the door already if my agent thinks he could get me as good or better elsewheree.I am just not buying it. If Spielman was the anti-christ he is portrayed to be on the board, Barr wouldn't have stayed, Rudolph would be saying its a hard no to restructuring...Two sides to every story
nobody is selling you anything.... I know what I know, I have heard what I have heard, and I am saying that this is what I would be doing if I were Griff. Nobody is saying Rick is evil... just that he shouldnt be trusted and maybe isnt as nice of a boss as the smiles make you want to believe. but you are free to believe what you want.
Just saying you heard one side of the story. Players talk to each other. And I don't see a mass exodus of defensive players clamoring for the exit. A week ago a report that turned out to be 100 percent false, said that Rudolph refused to restructure. On this board, many people said it was because Spielman screwed BRob. A few days later, the statement is made that Rudolph would gladly restructure if the Vikings asked.
As a fan, I hope they can find a way to keep Griff around for a "prove it" deal. He has serious mental health issues, and if he has that under control, he has to understand he needs to "prove it" to the team.
If Griff feels insulted by being asked to cut a new deal, then I think he's done as a Viking.
Personally, I don't blame the Viking's FO at all. You can't be one of the highest paid players on the team, and can't trust if you're able to showup for work or not on any given day. It's unfortunate for everyone; even fans.
Jimmy already admitted a day or so ago that he should let the BRob thing go but he can't. Might as well get used to seeing it in every contract thread from here on out.
@"AGRforever" said:@"dadevike" said: So what is taking so long? I assume Griff's agent is shopping the Vikings' offer to every other team in the league and if he can find a better deal out there, he's gone. Which means that if he ultimately agrees to the Vikings' offer it is because it better than or equal to what any other team would pay. Do we really want that? Seems to me that offers to restructure should come with a time limit: here is your offer; it is good for 2 hours. After that, we will make you another offer, but it will not be as good as the first.
dang?? entitled much?? this is his career and he can take all the way till the last minute for all we should care. its not our money. we’ll hear soon enough on whats going to happennEntitled? This is a multi-billion dollar league. Griffen has made many millions of dollars playing for the Vikings and I assume the Vikings have made many millions of dollars in part thanks to Griffs' play. This is about money and cap space (also money). I wish Griffen well, but if a playoff run turns on whether the Vikings pay Griffen $6M this year vs. $11M, I hope he gets $6M. How is that entitled?
Roster numbers have to play into this, too, and that doesn't seem to be getting much discussion.
We have 2 players at DE who are pretty solid locks: Hunter and Weatherly.We have 3 young talented DEs hoping to prove themselves: Bower, Aruna, and Odenigbo.Or...do we have 4? There has been speculation Jalyn Holmes may play DE, not exclusively DT.Then there's the draft, which is loaded with DEs. Odds are pretty high we will pick at least one. If we take someone in the first 4 rounds, that player will make the team (barring injury).
You could say Bower, Aruna, Odenigbo, Holmes, and a draftee are only prospects. True, but how many DE spots are available? If it's only 4, keeping Griffen means we have 3-5 promising young players fighting for only 1 spot. Maybe we keep 5 DEs, but it's only a bit better. And do you keep 5 DEs if Barr was promised more snaps as a pass rusher?
A year ago, it was still possible to argue Griffen was our top DE, and Weatherly was just another of those prospects. Now Hunter is unquestionably our top defensive lineman (maybe defensive player overall), and Weatherly showed he could handle starting at DE and get decent production.
The coaching staff may now view Griffen as a guy who, if brought back, will be fighting for a roster spot. That's not going to draw a deal with any guaranteed money.
This is a question for Geoff Nichols regarding Waynes 5th year contract. Could the Vikings Organization restructure his contract, applying something like a 2 year extension reducing this year's 9 mil. salary and spreading the money over a longer period of time? This could free up some addition cap for this season. I'm not sure how these things work, just asking.
@"ArizonaViking" said: This is a question for Geoff Nichols regarding Waynes 5th year contract. Could the Vikings Organization restructure his contract, applying something like a 2 year extension reducing this year's 9 mil. salary and spreading the money over a longer period of time? This could free up some addition cap for this season. I'm not sure how these things work, just asking.yes they can and its done all the time. there was talk last year of doing that with Barr to lower his 12 million cap hit with an extension.
@"Geoff Nichols" said:@"JimmyinSD" said:@"AGRforever" said:@"dadevike" said: So what is taking so long? I assume Griff's agent is shopping the Vikings' offer to every other team in the league and if he can find a better deal out there, he's gone. Which means that if he ultimately agrees to the Vikings' offer it is because it better than or equal to what any other team would pay. Do we really want that? Seems to me that offers to restructure should come with a time limit: here is your offer; it is good for 2 hours. After that, we will make you another offer, but it will not be as good as the first.
dang?? entitled much?? this is his career and he can take all the way till the last minute for all we should care. its not our money. we’ll hear soon enough on whats going to happenn
I am actually thinking of this the other way.... why did the team wait so fucking long to approach him? they should have had this in front of his camp at least a week ago if not longer. They had to have known all offseason they were going to rework his deal.
The offer isn't new. They talked about it all the way back at the combine. Unless he and his camp want to agree to push his roster guarantees back there will be a decision by 11:59PM when his entire base salary would be guaranteed. As for shopping it to other teams.... not allowed.... but nobody follows that rule at all.
EDIT - Deadline is actually 3PM CT on Friday.
@"JimmyinSD" said:You're talking about two additional things. Conceivably they could slap up to 4 additional years onto Wayne's contract and push the salary out. Issue is that you'd eat the dead cap next year. Its something the Vikings avoided and it doesn't make much sense. In the case of Trae, they could extend him to lower his 2019 cap hit but more likely if they did an extension they would raise his 2019 cap hit to get ahead of the guaranteed money in the deal.@"ArizonaViking" said: This is a question for Geoff Nichols regarding Waynes 5th year contract. Could the Vikings Organization restructure his contract, applying something like a 2 year extension reducing this year's 9 mil. salary and spreading the money over a longer period of time? This could free up some addition cap for this season. I'm not sure how these things work, just asking. yes they can and its done all the time. there was talk last year of doing that with Barr to lower his 12 million cap hit with an extension.
@"FSUVike" said: Jimmy already admitted a day or so ago that he should let the BRob thing go but he can't. Might as well get used to seeing it in every contract thread from here on out.I'll admit I'm holding that grudge myself. Sat terrible with me. What can you do though? It's still my team.
I believe he will be cut. We should hear the news later today. The team around the expensive QB needs to get younger,aka cheaper. His production has declined the past year and a half and the Vikings are cap strapped.
I guess I’m selfish and impatient but I’d like this issue solved before 3:00 p.m. tomorrow. It’s not surprising to me that it’s in the eleventh hour, however...seems like something an agent would do to extract what leverage he has left for his client. Meanwhile, if the team did have any aspirations of grabbing a bandaid guard the best of those retreads are being signed away one by one....while we wait for this dealio to resolve...
and he has agreed to the deal. I dont know the terms but the reports are he is staying with the team.
he didnt take a huge cut though.... frees up about 3 million. from 10.8 down to 8 million. far cry from some of the speculation I was hearing but there may be more to come i guess.
Turns out Barr & Griffen have the same agent, which may have delayed/complicated matters...
@"Kentis" said: Turns out Barr & Griffen have the same agent, which may have delayed/complicated matters...Interesting... Yeah, that could be a bit awkward.
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