The Minnesota Vikings currently have some work to do to get under the salary cap. Per our friends at Over The Cap, the Vikings are currently $24,424,174 over the salary cap. They will need to make multiple moves in order to get there.
What moves should they make? There are a myriad of moves they could make, but there is a smart way to get there. I highlighted the six moves that the Vikings need to make to get under the salary cap.
Restructure Brian O'Neill
Cap hit: $19,659,669
Base salary: $14,400,000
Cap savings: $9 million
One of the smartest restructures you can do is with a player you expect to be with the team for the entirety of their contract. O’Neill is under contract through 2026 and you can clear up to $9.6 million in cap space. In this exercise, we converted $12 million of O’Neill’s base salary to a signing bonus and that spreads it out over the next four seasons. If the Vikings want to get out of his deal in 2026, it would only cost them $3.37 million in dead cap.
Release Eric Kendricks
Cap hit: $11.43 million
Cap saved: $9.5 million
Dead cap: $1.93 million
Kendricks is now on the wrong side of 30 and struggled this past season, especially in coverage. Pro Football Focus graded him out at 60.1 this past season with an abysmal 45.0 grade in coverage. He just isn’t quick enough to keep up with receivers anymore and that’s a big reason why the Vikings need to move on.
Release Jordan Hicks
Cap hit: $6.5 million
Cap savings: $5 million
Dead cap: $1.5 million
In a similar vein to Kendricks, Hicks did not have a good season in first year with the Vikings. His PFF grades were slightly better than Kendricks’ were with a grade of 66.7 overall and 52.5 in coverage. He just wasn’t fast enough to keep up in coverage. The Vikings having two middle linebackers over the age of 30 was one of the main reasons why the defense was gashed as much as they were.
Re-sign Dalvin Tomlinson
Dead cap hit: $7.5 million
Extension cap hit for 2023: $10 million
Extending Tomlinson is an interesting conundrum. Extending him with a salary cap hit of $2.5 million more than what his dead cap number is. It looks like a net loss on paper, but follow me here.
If you don’t bring back Tomlinson at all, you have a $7.5 million cap hit on the books and still have to find a defensive tackle. If you sign him before March 15th, you push $5 million out to 2024 and 2025 which were initially void years. Essentially, Tomlinson only costs you $2.5 million this year over not having him and that’s a net positive.
Extend T.J. Hockenson
Extension: 4 years, $56 million
Cap saving in 2023: $4.33 million
This season, Hockenson is set to make a base salary of $9.33 million. You can maneuver that number by converting $8 million of that into a signing bonus and adding another $7 million of the new contract into that and get the cap hit down to $5 million for this season. With the extensive commitment to Hockenson, you can live with pushing a few extra million down the pipeline.
Release Adam Thielen
Cap hit: $19,967,647
Dead cap: $13.550,000
Cap savings: $6,417,647
Base salary: $11,817,647
There are other things that you can do if you are the Vikings, including a trade. His salary sits a shade under $12 million and the wide receiver free agent class is not great. There is a chance to trade Thielen for some sort of compensation, likely a day-three pick. If you want to move on from Thielen, a trade and cutting cost you the same amount of money.
You could also go to him and see if he is willing to take a paycut to stay. Because he is a hometown guy, that could end up paying off and allowing both Thielen to stay and the Vikings save money on the salary cap. They can also do something like they did with Anthony Barr where he takes a pay cut, but his contract voids after the season.
Release C.J. Ham
Cap hit: $3.8 million
Cap savings: 3.05 million
Dead cap: $750,000
A fan favorite, Ham has played well over the years. Unfortunately, it doesn’t make sense to keep a fullback on the roster. The Vikings ran 11 personnel 825 times out of their 1,072 snaps this past season and having a fullback that carries a near $4 million cap hit is a waste of resources. There is a possibility that, like Thielen, he would take a pay cut to stay with the hometown team, but it’s not something you can count on.
Overview
Cap savings: $31.75 million
Cap space before moves: $24.42 million
Cap space after moves: $7.33 million
The Vikings can find even more ways to maneuver with the salary cap. We didn’t touch on Dalvin Cook and if you move on from him, you can save almost $6 million. Players like Cameron Dantzler and D.J. Wonnum are also potential cuts due to making nearly $3 million each but being at replacement level.
If the Vikings want to be players in free agency, they will need to do more than this, but at minimum, they need to clear nearly $25 million in cap space and this is a great start in doing so.
