What the NFL's June 1 Deadline Means For The Vikings and Dalvin Cook
June 1st is an important date on the NFL calendar.
Starting on Friday (the day after June 1), trading or releasing a player will result in less dead money hitting a team's salary cap for the upcoming season. When a team cuts a player prior to June 1, all of their future guarantees and prorated signing bonus money accelerates and hits the team's cap that year. Waiting until after June 1 — or designating a move as post-June 1 earlier in the year — means that player's future bonus prorations are pushed to the following year's books. It's a similar idea with trades.
That's relevant this year with the Vikings and running back Dalvin Cook, who is still on the roster but remains a clear trade or release candidate due to his large cap number and the Vikings' offseason moves at RB, among several other reasons.
If Cook had been released prior to June 1, the Vikings would've created $5.9 million in cap space but would've taken on $8.2 million in dead money. A pre-June trade would've created $7.9 million in cap space with $6.2 million in dead money. That $2 million difference is caused by Cook having $2 million already guaranteed for injury on his contract, which would travel with him in a trade instead of becoming dead money if he's released.
Now that June 2nd is basically here, releasing Cook would create $9 million in cap space with $5.1 million in dead money. However, it seems more likely that the Vikings are still trying to trade the four-time Pro Bowl running back. If they wanted to, they could've released him with a post-June 1 designation back in the spring, creating cap space that could've been used during the main rush of free agency.
Waiting to make a trade was always the best move for the Vikings' salary cap. It would free up $11 million in cap space with just $3.1 million — Cook's prorated signing bonus this season — in dead money. It would also mean getting something in return for Cook instead of releasing him for nothing and allowing him to sign wherever he pleases.
The issue with trading Cook is that a potential partner in a deal has to take on that $11 million this season. Still, it's possible. The Vikings could eat some money in a deal, like they did with Za'Darius Smith, in order to slightly improve the return (which will undoubtedly be small regardless). The team trading for Cook would also presumably restructure his deal, which runs through 2025 but has no future guaranteed salary outside of his prorated bonuses.
The June 1 date also means that some teams might now have the cap space to trade for Cook, whether via a post-June 1 designation finally coming off the books or via any other moves they were waiting to make. For example, the Dolphins will suddenly have a bunch of cap space because they released CB Byron Jones with a post-June 1 designation. Cook is from Miami...
Put simply, June 1st is a notable date for the Vikings and Dalvin Cook, but because it seems they are still pursuing a trade, nothing is necessarily imminent this week.
And although it still seems highly unlikely, the possibility does exist of Cook agreeing to a pay cut to return to the Vikings for one more season.
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