Minnesota Vikings Salary Cap Update, April 2

We’re not far from the 2017 NFL Draft in Philadelphia, and with the Minnesota Vikings still making the occasional move in free agency, it’s time to take a check of exactly how much space they have remaining under the salary cap.

According to the folks from Over the Cap, prior to the signing of quarterback Case Keenum (which OTC still doesn’t have on Minnesota’s books), the Vikings had approximately $18.5 million in cap space remaining. I’m not sure how much of Keenum’s deal is guaranteed, but if you figure he gets the entire $2 million, that leaves the Vikings at about $16.5 million.

Based on the figures that OTC has for each of the selections in the draft, as of now it would take approximately $5.07 million to sign the Vikings’ rookies. . .that is, if the Vikings draft players at all the picks they have right now and don’t move around or add additional picks. (The likelihood of that happening is basically zero.) Taking the current figure into account, though, that would leave the Vikings with around $11 million in space.

It wouldn’t surprise me that, given what the Vikings have remaining under the cap, they’re just about done with free agency for this year. As we saw last season, if injuries start to pile up, the team needs to have some space under the cap to sign some replacements and not have to perform the sort of salary cap gymnastics that Rob Brzezinski and company had to perform in 2016. There’s no point in the Vikings putting themselves right up against the cap now and leaving themselves short-handed going forward.

That’s where the Vikings are, from a financial standpoint, just 25 days away from the 2017 NFL Draft.