An Updated Salary Cap Number
While Percy Harvin continues to, umm, dispel the notion that he gained the title “entitled” while playing under Urban Meyer at Florida by, umm, taking advantage of his opportunity to become a leader on a young and developing team, there is indeed an entire roster of other players to worry about.
I have been saying this ever since it became clear that the front office had no designs on making a big splash in free agency: Watch for the late-offseason signings.
Teams will begin to cut players, even some good ones, when training camp rolls around and even a few weeks into the regular season. The Vikings, armed with third priority on the waiver wire, are in good position to snatch some of them up.
But can they afford to?
Maybe.
According to ProFootballTalk, the Vikings have $10.59 million in cap space left this year. They do still have to sign fourth overall selection Matt Kalil and third rounder Josh Robinson, but even then they should still have some spending cash left over.
If a player ends up on the waiver wire that they covet (and that they can afford) the roster could surely get a last minute boost of talent if they pounce.
The money could also be spent to retain certain valuable players like Harvin should they choose to do so. Harvin, however, may want to wait until next offseason to go for gold as the team will get an extra $1.6 million in cap space next offseason from the Redskins and Cowboys debacle, the team is set to have about 18 player contracts expire after this season, and will generally be in even better financial standing.
Phil Loadholt could also someone that the team could consider extending now using some of their available cap space.