Vikings' Offseason Plan, Part 1: How to Create $49 Million in Cap Space
The Vikings are projected to be $50 million underwater against the cap. Is it as bad as it seems? What can the Vikings do to get out and is it that disastrous?
All the Minnesota Vikings and their staff can do while the NFL playoffs proceed is sit at home and watch while planning to try to get back there next year. The NFL league year ends on March 11th, which means free agency is fast approaching.
We know teams make a ton of deals right as free agency begins, and even in the “legal tampering” window leading up to free agency. Therefore, Vikings’ GM Kwesi Adofo-Mensah and his staff will need to complete their internal and external evaluations and have a full-fledged plan with multiple contingencies leading up to free agency. That planning is ongoing. For the Vikings, the first step in that plan has to start with salary cap compliance.
A Sticky Situation
The Vikings have over $351 million in cap liabilities in 2026, per OverTheCap.com. OTC has a league-wide projected salary cap of $295 million (author’s note: different sources have different projections. Spotrac.com projects the 2026 cap at $304.3 million; we won’t know the true cap until about the end of February, it was released on February 27th last year), and the Vikings get a couple of benefits that provide a little extra space, including the rollover of leftover cap from 2025.
That puts the Vikings $49 million in the hole for the 2026 season. On top of that, they also need to consider the salary slots for their rookie class, which these calculations do not incorporate. Accounting for that, the Vikings’ effective cap space is -$54.2 million.
There are even further factors to account for, however. The effective cap space we see on these tables considers the offseason cap rules, counting the top 51 cap hits for the team. Obviously, an in-season roster requires 53 players, so we have to account for two additional minimum player salaries, which is roughly $1.75 million.
In addition, you need to account for the fact that the team will roster 16 practice squad players throughout the season, totalling about $4 million. Beyond that, teams like to enter the season with about $10 million in space. If you add all of that together, the Vikings need to create roughly $70 million in space to enter the season with a healthy cap next year.
The bad news is that’s a lot of cap space to create. The Vikings have the second least space in the NFL, with only the Kansas City Chiefs in a deeper hole. The good news is twofold: first, the Vikings only have to free up the $49 million before the league year gets here. That means that they can wait to pull some of the levers that will be discussed in the article until critical offseason points, like signing draft picks or before the season. That will give them extra clarity before they need to make a decision.
Second, they have a lot of flexibility to create cap space without cutting players by making salary cap conversions. They can create $105 million in cap space just by executing what OTC calls simple restructures— that’s the 5th-largest possible cap expansion via simple restructure in the NFL. What’s more, they can create up to $158 million if they use more advanced methods to restructure, second to only the Chiefs in the amount of space they can create via these more complex restructures.
A (Not So) Quick Salary Cap Primer
When an NFL player signs a contract, it’s reported as a number of years and total value. However, the money the player is paid is not evenly spread throughout the length of the deal.
Instead, there are a number of different methods by which a player gets paid. So, while Justin Jefferson’s extension with the Vikings was reported at 4 years, $140 million, or $35 million per year, he doesn’t actually get paid $35 million in each year of the deal.
Here’s the OTC page for Jefferson’s contract:
Let’s define some of the terms:
Base Salary — This is what is paid to the player in game checks throughout the course of the season. A player’s salary counts against the cap in the same year it is owed.
Incentives — These are contract terms where the player gets paid for achieving certain goals. Workout and per-game roster bonuses — defined in more detail below — are examples, but yardage, touchdowns, sacks, team success, and individual accolades can also be contract incentives.
LTBE or NLTBE — Likely-to-be-earned incentives are ones that the player achieved the season prior. These count against the salary cap in the year the incentive applies to. If a player fails to meet an LTBE incentive, the team gets a cap credit the following season. Naturally, not-likely-to-be-earned incentives are ones the player did not achieve the prior season, and do not count against the cap, but the team will receive a cap penalty the following season if the player earns the incentive.
Workout Bonus — This is an incentive to get the player to attend offseason workouts, like minicamp and OTAs.
Per-Game Roster Bonus — This is a bonus the player receives for each game he is active in during the season. The number shown is the total for the 17-game season, so 1/17th is paid for each game they are active. For salary cap purposes, the rules for likely-to-be-earned (LTBE) and not-likely-to-be-earned (NLTBE) incentive rules apply. This can be used to manipulate the salary cap. A great example was Za’Darius Smith’s contract with the Vikings in 2022, which featured a massive per-game roster bonus, keeping his salary cap low because he played only one game in 2021.
Guaranteed Salary — This is the total amount of cash that the team is required to pay a player in the given season, even if the player is cut. In Jefferson’s case, his 2026 guarantees include his base salary, per-game roster bonuses, and workout bonus.
Signing Bonus — When a player signs a contract, they often get a lump sum of money upon signing. This gives the player security because NFL contracts aren’t fully guaranteed. To prevent these large lump payments from creating cap issues, the NFL prorates the signing bonus over the first five years of the player’s deal or the life of the deal — whichever is shorter.
Example: If a player signs a six-year contract with a $5 million signing bonus, it will count $1 million against the cap for the first 5 years of the deal. If it’s a five-year deal with the same $5 million signing bonus, it’s also $1 million per year for the five years of the deal. With a four-year deal and $5 million signing bonus, it would count as $1.25 million per year over four years, and so on.
Option Bonus — Option bonuses are essentially delayed signing bonuses. They spread out the total cap hit over up to five years, just like with signing bonuses, but starting in future years rather than when the contract is signed. The bonus is paid out on a specific date, so the team can avoid a cap hit if they trade the player before it’s due, and they carry a much smaller cap number in the interim than they would with the same amount of money in base salary before the trade. The Philadelphia Eagles are known for putting option bonuses instead of base salaries in all years of their large contracts.
Void Years — These are dummy years in a contract. A void contract will have language, including even a listed salary, for a year, but then also have language that says the contract automatically voids before that year occurs. Because of NFL accounting rules, this allows teams to use bonus proration to put salary cap hits where the player will not be under contract. As you can see above, Jefferson’s 2025 option bonus put a $6 million cap hit in the 2029 season, where he is currently slated to be a free agent.
Dead Money — This is how big of a cap hit the team takes if they cut or trade the player. This will count against the salary cap in the year the move was made (and, in some circumstances, the next year, as explained later), but the player will not be on the roster.
In addition to the components of a contract, there are a number of tricks teams use to manipulate the salary cap. Here are some common moves and terms to be aware of.
Signing Bonus Conversion — The CBA allows teams to automatically convert a portion of a player’s salary into a signing bonus without consulting the player. The player gets the benefit of being paid immediately rather than having to wait for game checks, and the team gets the benefit of the salary cap hit being spread out over multiple years instead of in that single year. When you do a signing bonus conversion, you have to leave a salary of at least the minimum salary for a season for that player.
Example: With Jefferson’s six accrued seasons, his minimum salary for 2026 is $1.215 million. If the Vikings wanted to do a maximum salary restructure with his contract, you could combine his base salary, roster bonus and workout bonus to get $25.75 million. Take out the $1.215 million from that, and you get $24.535 million. Because he has four years remaining on his deal, you divide that number by four, and the cap hit would be $6,133,750 in each of the four years, saving $18,401,250 against the 2026 cap (note: you could also add an additional void year to the deal, saving even more money, but adding a void year DOES require negotiation).
Cap Hit Acceleration and Dead Money — What happens to the cap hits from bonuses if the team moves on from a player before the player’s contract is up? Rather than still being paid out over the course of the contract, the cap hit “accelerates” into the year the move was made. So, in the example of the $5 million signing bonus above, if you cut the player the day after he signed, he would incur a $5 million cap hit for you that season. That acceleration is added to whatever guaranteed salary the player had and counts as dead money. There are, however, a few factors that impact how much of a player’s cap hit counts as dead money
Cut vs. Trade vs. Retirement — How much dead money a team incurs depends on the type of transaction. If a player is cut, they owe the player all of their salary guarantees, including bonuses accrued by the time the player is cut. If a player is traded, however, the player’s new team takes on his contract, so any money that hasn’t been paid—including salary guaranteed to be paid out at a future date—is now owed by the new team. Therefore, only any existing bonus money prorated into the future but already paid counts against the cap as dead money. Finally, if a player retires, he forfeits his salary, and potentially roster bonuses and signing bonuses that he may have been owed. It’s unlikely, however, that teams will try to take money back from a retiring player unless there was an acrimonious divorce.
Offset Guarantees — Most contracts have what is known as “offset language.” You may hear this in the context of the deals rookies sign, as it’s one of the few things that the CBA allows teams and players to truly negotiate. Offset language essentially says that if a player with guaranteed money is cut, and then signs with another team, any money he’s paid by his new team reduces the amount of money the old team owes him. The most famous recent example is Russell Wilson, whose guaranteed salary with the Broncos was offset, so he signed a league minimum deal with the Steelers.
Pre/Post-June 1st Move — The timing of a roster move affects how the prorated money in a contract accelerates against the cap. If a move is made before June 1st, all of the money accelerates into that cap year. However, this could become problematic in-season if a team wants to make a trade or is forced to make some other roster move. So, the team implemented June 1st as a cutoff, and any move made after June 1st has the remaining prorated salary owed accelerate and count against the cap in the next season. So, in our $5 million signing bonus example, if a player was cut after June 1st, the bonus would count $1 million against the cap in the current year, as it always did, and then $4 million against the cap in the next season. Prior to the June 1st deadline, teams are allowed to designate two players each year as post-June 1st cuts to gain the salary cap benefit. Teams have to wait until June 1st to gain additional cap space, so honestly most of the time I don’t really see the point in making moves post-June 1st moves.
Let’s Create Cap Space
As mentioned above, the Vikings have a ton of flexibility to create space. Let’s review their current contracts and evaluate the changes they should make to create space. I have a few overarching philosophies when it comes to managing the cap.
First, I don’t mind using void years or living with some dead money at all. Because the salary cap consistently rises, pushing cap hits into future years is like borrowing at a negative interest rate.
If I gave you $500 and told you that, in a year, I wanted $445 back, you would take the money in an instant. The NFL salary cap has risen by about 11% on average each of the last four years, so that’s exactly what has happened. $100 against the cap in 2025 was roughly the same impact as $65 in 2021.
Second, however, I don’t want to put all my eggs in one basket. I think that when teams mismanage void years, it’s because they're forced to restructure undesirable contracts. The Browns and Saints are good examples of this over the past few years.
The Browns are stuck with the terrible DeShaun Watson contract and have had no option but to keep pushing his cap hits into the future. The Saints had a similar situation with the Derek Carr contract and, realistically, were only bailed out when Carr decided to retire. I think this is basically exclusive to QB contracts, but some large contracts for other positions may create similar problems.
In my view, the Eagles have done a good job of avoiding this issue by quickly moving on from contracts they don’t think are working — Bryce Huff is a good example — rather than doubling down. To avoid this, I don’t want to put so much money into the future that I can’t roughly break even on a post-June 1st cut in a future year. If I have the option, I’d rather spread cap savings over two contracts than make it all up in one move.
Third, I don’t want to push money into the future for players on subprime contracts. If a player is declining or not performing up to the level of his contract, I’d consider eating a larger cap hit in the current year and increasing my flexibility for future years if I can’t easily move on from him.
For maximum restructuring savings, I’m looking at the savings if the player’s full salary is converted into a bonus and spread over five years. This would mean adding void years if necessary. For the cap savings if cut, I’m looking at a pre-June 1st cut since you need to carry the cap hit until then anyway.
All numbers are from OTC.
WR Justin Jefferson – 2026 Salary Cap Hit: $38,987,600
Maximum Restructure Savings: $19,628,000; Cap Savings if Cut: ($33,225,200)
Justin Jefferson’s contract was made to restructure. He is an elite player in his prime, and weathered the Vikings’ rocky season with grace. It’s worth noting, however, that Jefferson is paid at a level that it may not be wise to put all of your eggs in one basket by performing a maximum restructure. It’s also worth monitoring that Jefferson had a down year in 2025, and not just because of the QB play. By his (admittedly very high) standards, Jefferson had moments where he did not win on routes in critical situations, and way more issues catching the football than we’re used to.
As such, I would probably use Jefferson’s contract to create about $15 million in space, rather than the maximum of almost $20 million.
Verdict – Restructure
Cap Savings Thus Far: ~$15,000,000
DT Jonathan Allen – 2026 Salary Cap Hit: $23,866,666
Maximum Restructure Savings: $13,120,000; Cap Savings if Cut: $6,533,332
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