Anthony Barr’s fifth-year option is now fully guaranteed

The new league year has officially started in the National Football League, and that means that the Minnesota Vikings have officially picked up a pretty big salary number.

The start of the new league year means that the fifth-year options for players that had their options picked up are now fully guaranteed. That means that linebacker Anthony Barr now has a fully guaranteed salary of $12,306,000 for the 2018 NFL season.

The Vikings had to make the decision on the options for both Barr and quarterback Teddy Bridgewater just after last year’s draft. They exercised Barr’s option while declining the option on Bridgewater.

Because Barr was a top ten selection in his draft class, his fifth-year option salary is the equivalent of the average of the top ten NFL salaries at his position, hence the reason why the figure is over $12 million. As it stands right now, he has the second-largest salary cap hit on the team for 2018, behind only cornerback Xavier Rhodes (who has a figure of $13.4 million).

And yes, I know that’s going to become the third-biggest cap hit at some point in the next day or two here.

The team is likely going to work out some sort of extension with Barr at some point. . .or, at the very least, I’d be surprised if they didn’t. . .and that could potentially (I think) lower his cap hit for this season. However, as things stand right now, Barr’s fifth-year option is now fully guaranteed.