In this series, we are going to hit on each team and give you a brief rundown of how they look going into free agency, what moves are at their disposal, and what you might expect from the team. NFL free agency begins during the legal tampering period on Monday, March 14, 2022, and then players can officially sign on March 16th. All salary numbers within the article are courtesy of OverTheCap.com.


With this article, we are going to explore all potential options - some of which will obviously be more realistic than others. 

 


Projected Cap Space: ($16,040,779)


OVERVIEW

The Minnesota Vikings have felt like the same team for a few years now - a perennially middle-of-the-pack squad who could win it all but is never really one of the favorites. A big part of that is obviously playing in the same division as the back-to-back MVP in Aaron Rodgers. Questions regarding the team’s own quarterback have loomed and they recently cleaned house in the front office, firing former head coach Mike Zimmer and former general manager Rick Spielman in favor of new head coach Kevin O’Connell and general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah.  The most interesting hire however might be defensive coordinator Ed Donatell. Donatell coached under Vic Fangio which likely means the Vikings plan to convert from their current 4-3 base to a version of Fangio’s 3-4. It’s a copycat league, after all.

With stars like Adam Thielen, Dalvin Cook, and Harrison Smith teetering on the edge of their elite production window, the Vikings are in a position to continue going all in now. The Lions are in the early stages of a rebuild, the Bears just fired their own front office and may be in line for a bridge year, and the Packers are on the verge of blowing things up if they can’t retain Aaron Rodgers and Davante Adams. Even if they can, the Packers' cap situation is going to force their hand on major decisions. So this actually might be a sneaky window for the Vikings to take the division and make a huge push if they can keep it together. Here are some moves that could help with that.

 


CAP MANEUVER OPTIONS

Restructure

The most common way to generate money via restructuring is to convert base salary to signing bonus which can then be spread out over the remaining years of the contract. You can also potentially incorporate an extension to spread that money out further. How favorable that is for both the team and player comes down to the long-term outlook for the player. In certain circumstances, you may even have the leverage to ask a player to take less money.

 


Obviously, a trade is on the table but they would need someone to be willing to take on $35 million of his $45 million cap hit. If they don’t trade him, they really need to work out some kind of extension to ease the pain as you can’t restructure a one-year deal to move money around and that cap hit is over a fifth of their total cap space. By adding years and spreading out the current numbers, they could ease up as much as $27 million dollars which would bring the team completely out of the red. If Kirk Cousins were willing to go the Tom Brady route and do a completely reworked contract that was a little more team-friendly in pursuit of a championship, that would be even better. Any deal they work out with him would essentially lock him in for multiple years instead of just this one so the new regime would need to be sold on him as the signal-caller for more than just this season. 

 


Danielle Hunter has arguably the most flexible contract of any player in the league, as Luke Braun lays out in a full article on just his contract alone. And the short and sweet is that it was negotiated that way on purpose. It’s essentially set up as a front-loaded two-year deal with two “void” years at the end for a total of four years. The idea is to provide Danielle Hunter with the money he deserves if healthy but give them an “out” in case he’s not. They essentially have three options. 

  • If he’s healthy and good to go, they can restructure the contract to change the base salary to a signing bonus which pays him the same money but spreads it out over the four years to alleviate as much as $13.785 million in cap.
     
  • If he’s healthy but they have cap issues, they can trade him with a post-June 1st designation and save $20 million with only $6 million dead money. 
     
  • If he’s not healthy or a trade is off the table for whatever reason, they can cut him with the post-June 1 designation to get the same $20 million cap relief. 

So in the end it all really depends on where Hunter is health-wise and how he fits within the new regime. The ideal situation is that he comes back ready to play at an elite level and they work out the restructure to build the defense around him.
 

 


Last year, they worked out a restructure that moved base salary into signing bonus which was spread through 2022. Adam Thielen is under contract for 2023 and 2024 as well but with very little dead cap so they could release him after this season if they don’t think he’s worth the money. On the flip side, if they are confident he has one or two years left, they could once again restructure his deal to free up money in 2022. They could free up as much as $7 million with this but that would lock Thielen in for at least the 2023 season. If Thielen wants to exchange money for guaranteed years, he may even be willing to take a bit of a pay cut to ensure he’s with the team again in 2023.
 

 


The Vikings signed the Harrison Smith to a new deal just last off-season but they could realistically get out of it with very little dead cap as soon as next season. If they are confident he’ll be back playing at a high level in 2023 however, the extra years in his deal could allow them to restructure and spread just under $7.5 million out in the future, freeing up that space for 2022. 
 

 


Dalvin Cook is in a similar spot to Thielen in that he’s locked in for this year but his contract does allow them to get out with a reasonable dead cap following this season. He’s missed at least one game every single season he’s been in the league so maybe the new regime doesn’t want to make that commitment but simply spreading his base out over the next couple of years could generate as much as $5.5 million for 2022.
 

Trade

 


With any conversion from a 3-4 to a 4-3, there are often cap casualties among the interior guys if they don’t fit the bill in terms of nose tackle or moving to 3-4 defensive end. If the new defensive coordinator doesn’t believe Michael Pierce can play a new role, he becomes expendable. If that’s the case for Pierce, the ideal situation is obviously to trade him as a cut or a trade has the same cap implications ($8.25 mil in savings with $4 mil in dead cap) so you might as well get something back for him if you can. That said, perhaps Pierce can play that 3-technique role so you don’t need to move on from him at all.
 

 


Similar situation to Pierce, except on the offensive side of the ball. Kevin O’Connell comes from the Rams and they don’t use a fullback at all. When Bruce Arians took over as the Cardinals head coach in 2013, he inherited an offense that used fullback Anthony Sherman. He promptly traded Sherman to the Kansas City Chiefs.  Sherman then played an additional eight years for the Chiefs making multiple Pro Bowls. I know he’s a fan favorite, but a team like New England would probably make a happy home for C.J. Ham and could save the Vikings $2.7 million in cap space for a guy they might not even use.
 

 


Cut

 


C.J. Ham/Michael Pierce - Unfortunately we just discussed above why these two could be casualties of the new regime and, if there is no trade out there, they might need to be cut. Despite the cap issues, the Vikings don’t really have many glaring veteran cuts that would generate more than a million in cap space.


IMPORTANT FREE AGENTS

 


If they can figure out the money with Kirk Cousins, Danielle Hunter, and gang, this is the first guy they should bring back. There have been some arguments made that Anthony Barr is actually built more as an edge-rushing outside linebacker in a 3-4 defense than the way he’s been used in the 4-3 defense the Vikings have run for years. One of the few players that might actually be better suited for the new defense. It’s really all about money but, if they could manage to bring him back, it would be exciting to see what he can do in that role off the edge. But they might have to let him go and settle for someone less expensive if the numbers don’t jive. If possible, maybe they can franchise tag Barr to give him a one-year trial in that pass-rushing role.
 

 


Patrick Peterson is another one that boils down to cap and he’s another potential franchise tag option though that would be paying him top cornerback money when he’s not necessarily that caliber of player at this stage. If they don’t bring him back, they will only have one starting-caliber corner signed in Cameron Dantzler.
 

 


Tyler Conklin was realistically supposed to fill the Kyle Rudolph role as the block-heavy tight end with Irv Smith Jr. in the pass-catching role but, when Irv got hurt, Conklin had to be the all-purpose, every-down tight end. For that reason, I believe they are better off letting Conklin walk to a team that will pay him and replaces that role with a more affordable option.
 

 


The 35-year-old Everson Griffen has been away from the team dealing with his mental health but has expressed his desire to play in 2022. That said, the pass rusher is not exactly a great fit for the 3-4 base the Vikings are moving to, so it’s highly likely he plays elsewhere if he does return.
 

 


Again, with the cap situation and the defensive philosophy change, Sheldon Richardson is just not likely a guy they bring back. There is always a lot of turnover switching your base defense and the general manager and coach are likely to pursue someone new that fits their philosophy than try to retain old pieces and change them. There are other teams running a 4-3 that will be interested in Richardson’s services.

Honorable Mention Free Agents: Xavier Woods, Mason Cole, Jordan Berry, Mackenzie Alexander, Dede Westbrook, Chad Beebe, Chris Herndon

 

 

 

POSITIONS OF NEED (FREE AGENCY / DRAFT)

Cornerback - This one is obvious - even if they can convince Patrick Peterson to return, they cut Bashaud Breeland and are set to lose Mackensie Alexander who played a combined 1,365 snaps for them last season. So they need depth at the position whether that ends up being nickel/dime corners or whether they need someone to line up across from Cameron Dantzler as a full outside guy. How they handle the free agents will determine how high they might need to go in the draft or free agency. 

Wide Receiver - Let’s take a second to think about the scheme change here.  The Rams just won the Super Bowl with arguably the most consolidated snap share of any team on offense. They ran 11 personnel with one running back, one tight end, and three wide receivers for the vast majority of their snaps. In fact, in Week 12, ten of eleven starters played over 95% of the snaps or more with the only guys rotating being the two running backs. That’s a far cry from what the Vikings have done in recent years, using multiple tight ends and a fullback for a huge chunk of snaps. You don’t really need three high-end wide receivers when you are doing that.

So forget the fact that Adam Thielen is getting up there in age and it’s likely a good time to invest in young wide receivers - if they want to run this offense the way it’s supposed to be run, they need a third versatile wide receiver right away. When Robert Woods got hurt, the Rams pretty much immediately acquired Odell Beckham Jr. I would not be surprised to see the Vikings use high draft capital on that third wideout. If not, they might have to look for more affordable guys who can play all three wide receiver positions in free agency. Michael Gallup is a medium-range candidate or Josh Reynolds should be cheap and knows the Rams system.

Edge Rusher - If Anthony Barr doesn’t return to play outside linebacker in this newly revamped 3-4 defense, they are going to need to acquire guys who can do that. Losing Everson Griffen and possibly also Danielle Hunter just compounds that issue. Obviously, you’d want to find guys that fill all of those up-front roles in the new format but, if the Vikings are going to compete now, it’s been shown time and time again how important it is to get to the quarterback so that needs to be the priority. Free-agent edge rushers are expensive so the early rounds of the draft might be the only way they can reasonably fill that hole. A recent mock draft by Sports Illustrated suggested they could draft a guy like Cameron Thomas out of San Diego State. 

 

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