An updated look at the Vikings’ salary cap situation

For the past couple of years, we fans of the Minnesota Vikings have gone into the offseason with legitimate concerns about the salary cap and how the purple were going to go about improving their roster for the upcoming season. Not only have the Vikings improved their team. . .dramatically, one might argue. . .but they have left themselves with plenty of salary cap space to work with.

According to Over the Cap, the Vikings are currently sitting on a little over $10.3 million in cap space, a number that won’t fluctuate that much when they sign their three remaining unsigned draft picks. That should give them plenty of flexibility to do what they want going forward, whether that is extending some contracts or holding on to the majority of the money until 2022.

How have they done it? Well, you just need to look at the cap figures for the players they’ve signed this offseason to figure that out. Sure, they brought in guys like Patrick Peterson and Dalvin Tomlinson for significant money, but a lot of their deals have been pretty low-cost.

As things stand now, fullback C.J. Ham has a salary cap figure of $3 million for the Vikings. That gives him a larger hit than four guys that all figure to be a significant part of the Minnesota defense this year:

• Bashaud Breeland ($2,727, 944)
• Sheldon Richardson ($2,281,372)
• Xavier Woods ($1,720,588)
• Mackensie Alexander ($987,500)

Again, all of those guys are going to be significant players for the Vikings this year and the team got them for next to nothing. Hell, as Ted has pointed out on Twitter since the signing happened, Sheldon Richardson would have been Minnesota’s best defensive lineman by some distance in 2020 and, as things stand right now, he says he’s not even slated to start in 2021.

I don’t know how Rick Spielman and Rob Brzezinski do it, but they do. As Warren said, the Vikings appear to be going all-in on the 2021 season, and they’ve done it by being patient (for the most part) and getting some very talented players at discount prices. One way or another this will pay off for the Vikings. It should pay off on the field in 2021, and if these players perform to their capabilities this season, at least a few of them will likely move on and allow the Vikings to collect compensatory picks for their departures as well.

After a relatively blah 2020 season, there’s a lot to be excited about going forward for this team. Can it just be August already?