Vikings Salary Cap Space: Restructuring Danielle Hunter's Contract Frees Up $6 Million
Over the years, the Vikings' front office has become known for finding different ways to create salary cap space, even when it seems like they're in a financial jam. Cap expert Rob Brzezinski (official title: Executive VP of Football Operations) is a well-known figure among Vikings fans for his wizardry in keeping almost all of the team's core players together while remaining under the cap in recent seasons.
This offseason, much of that core has been broken up. But Brzezinski and the rest of the front office are still making things happen. With the Vikings possessing just enough cap space to sign their incoming rookie class, they restructured the contract of star defensive end Danielle Hunter, creating $6 million in space that could be used to pursue an impact free agent.
Hunter's cap hit for 2020 was set to be $14.5 million as part of the five-year, $72 million extension he signed prior to the 2018 season. By taking $8 million of his $10.9 million base salary and converting it into a signing bonus spread across the next four years, the Vikings have reduced his cap hit to $8.5 million this year. In doing so, Hunter's cap hit increases by $2 million in each of the next three years. He'll have cap hits of $17 million in 2021 and 2022 and $14 million in 2023, which are very reasonable numbers for a player who has 29 sacks over the past two seasons and is still just 25 years old.
It's similar to what the Vikings did in the Kirk Cousins extension; they reduced Cousins' 2020 cap hit by $10 million and increased his 2022 cap hit to $45 million. By "kicking the can down the road," they gain needed space to make moves now and will figure out the future ramifications later.
With the additional $6 million, the Vikings are up to $12.1 million in cap space, per OverTheCap.com. Roughly half of that will be used on the incoming rookies, but there's enough remaining to sign a solid player or a couple of depth pieces.
The Vikings have a number of positional needs. Addressing one of them by adding a free agent wide receiver, defensive back, or offensive lineman would give Rick Spielman some additional flexibility in April's draft.
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