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It’s June 1st, which means the Vikings just picked up a whole bunch of cap space

Because of Kyle Rudolph’s release

Tennessee Titans v Minnesota Vikings Photo by Stephen Maturen/Getty Images

Today is the day that everyone flipped their calendars over to the month of June, and with that comes a lot more salary cap space for the Minnesota Vikings because of how they handled the release of tight end Kyle Rudolph several months ago.

As the Vikings designated Rudolph as a “post-June 1st” cut, they got to lower the amount that he counts against the team’s salary cap to just $1.45 million, giving them an extra $7.9 million in cap space. Rudolph will count for approximately $2.9 million against the cap in 2022, but for now the Vikings have a significant amount of money to work with.

According to Over the Cap, with most of their draft picks already signed (and the ones that aren’t unlikely to affect the team’s cap situation that much), the team has a little over $13.9 million in cap room to work with.

How are the Vikings going to spend that money? Are there still free agents out there that might interest the team, specifically at wide receiver and the edge spots? Could they attempt to use some of the money to placate Danielle Hunter, who is reportedly not happy with his contract despite missing all of last season with a neck injury? Could it go to Brian O’Neill, another Viking that’s likely got an extension coming in the near future? Or will they just sit on the money and roll it over into next year when the cap is rumored to be increasing by almost $20 million?

There certainly are a lot of possibilities for Rick Spielman, Mike Zimmer, and company. What would you like to see the Vikings do with their newfound salary cap space?