Could the Vikings make a Joe Burrow trade work under the salary cap?

The idea of the Minnesota Vikings trading for superstar quarterback Joe Burrow has become quite the topic of discussion on social media this week after Burrow's eye-opening comments in a press conference on Wednesday. Yesterday, we examined the idea and took a stab at projecting what a Vikings trade offer could look like in the event Burrow decides he wants out of Cincinnati.

One frequent question that came up in response was this one: Could the Vikings even make such a trade work within their salary cap situation? The short answer to that question is yes, NFL teams can make almost anything work under the cap if they get creative enough. But let's dive further into the details to provide a sense for how it could be possible.

On the Bengals' side of things, trading Burrow next spring would result in a substantial dead cap hit. We're talking $56.5 million in dead money, and maybe even a bit more if it happens after the fifth day of the new league year in March. That's one reason why this all remains extremely unlikely, and would basically require Burrow demanding out.

But for the sake of the discussion, we're living in a hypothetical world where Burrow — who has a full no-trade clause — tells the Bengals he wants to be a Viking, and Minnesota prepares a godfather offer to land one of the best quarterbacks in the league. How could Vikings GM Kwesi Adofo-Mensah and longtime cap guru Rob Brzezinski go about creating the space to add Burrow's contract to their books?

Burrow's five-year, $275 million contract is heavy on signing and option bonuses, so his 2026 base salary is just $25.2 million. He has $35.2 million in total guaranteed salary next year, including a $10 million roster bonus. As far as I can tell (as a non-expert), that's what the Vikings would be responsible for next year if they acquired Burrow.

The Vikings are also currently projected to be $25-35 million over the 2026 cap after spending all kinds of money this past offseason to build around a rookie quarterback contract. So they'd need to create at least $60 million in cap space to acquire Burrow, and probably more.

The good news is that there's no shortage of levers the Vikings can pull to create cap space. Let's run through some of those (which are all via Over the Cap).

Restructure Justin Jefferson's contract: $18 million cleared
Extend Brian O'Neill's contract: $14 million cleared
Extend/restructure Jonathan Greenard's contract (or include him in a Burrow trade): $13 million cleared
Cut Ryan Kelly: $12 million cleared
Extend Andrew Van Ginkel's contract: $11 million cleared

Those five moves alone could free up $68 million in space. And there are countless other avenues for the Vikings to make room via restructures, extensions, cuts, or trades. Many of them involve kicking the proverbial can down the road, but that's how things go in the NFL.

The point is that if the Vikings have an opportunity to acquire Joe Burrow, their troublesome salary cap situation is an obstacle they could absolutely work around to make that happen. Brzezinski is one of the best in the business at doing that exact kind of thing.

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