Day of the Hunter: Vikings Pass Rusher Re-Negotiates Contract
Eight months ago, in a tweet declaring that Minnesota Vikings EDGE rusher Danielle Hunter would formally miss all of the 2020 season due to injury, this started the chaos surrounding his contract:
#Vikings star Danielle Hunter is having surgery to clean up a herniated disc, knocking him out for 2020, per me & @TomPelissero. MIN has a decision this offseason: Make Hunter the highest-paid defender in football or trade him. Have we seen the last of him in a Vikings uniform👀
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) October 22, 2020
Today, the chaos settled. The same tweeter, Ian Rapoport, reported the resolution to the mini-standoff.
Danielle Hunter gets $5.6M of this year’s $$ due as a signing bonus, source said. More importantly, there is now an $18M roster bonus the 5th day of the league year in 2022 — creating a decision for MIN. He’ll either make $20M or so next year, be released or have a new deal. https://t.co/qLJQbfms9G
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) June 14, 2021
That’s 235 days of uncertainty — for the Vikings, Hunter, and onlookers of the franchise.
The agreement should be perceived as a textbook “win-win” for both sides of the negotiating table. Neck injuries are generally considered the spookiest for athletes — especially football players — so the Vikings brass likely was not enamored with shelling out droves of long-term cash before seeing what version of Hunter returns post-injury.
On Hunter’s side, a year of no real football is a long time to soul-search. Now more than ever, Hunter’s primary focus is securing his earnings, erasing any doubt that the 26-year-old would be “screwed” if he’s not the same caliber player that he was in 2019.
This balance between Hunter and the Vikings — giving him more money for one year only — satisfies both sides. Hunter knows if he’s the same on-the-field tyrant that terrorized from 2015 to 2019. The Vikings do not, at least not until September. Hunter will be compensated more on a “prove it” deal while general manager Rick Spielman assesses whether to break the bank for Hunter in a multiyear capacity when March of 2022 hits.
A healthy Hunter is required for head coach Mike Zimmer’s 2021 defense. The organization is already skimping at the other defensive end spot, so the possibility of no Hunter (via holdout or trade) was mystifying. New Vikings Michael Pierce and Davlin Tomlinson should be able to get after quarterbacks on the interior section of the line, but no other current Vikings players [outside of Hunter] have the track record of causing havoc on the edges.
Too, the team could still sign Everson Griffen, Justin Houston, or Melvin Ingram for those RDE duties. But a Hunter that plays Week 1 at Cincinnati ensures this 2021 Zimmer defense is distantly unfamiliar to the nauseating rendition that ravaged the 2020 season.
Had Hunter held out, the summer of 2021 would have been pickled with bad Hunter news. Now, that scenario is dead — and the Vikings can focus on normal summer activities.