Cap Expert Claims Vikings Made Huge Mistake
The Minnesota Vikings will likely have one compensatory draft pick in 2025, but it could have easily been more.
Cap Expert Claims Vikings Made Huge Mistake
That’s the word from Over The Cap this week, as the regular season is less than four months away.
According to Nick Korte, the Vikings blundered in handling the free-agent process by signing cornerback Shaquill Griffin. Without that acquisition, Minnesota would’ve been on deck for two compensatory picks next year. As it stands, general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah will have the very first compensatory pick of the cycle — so at least the team has that going for it — but nothing thereafter.
Korte explained, “Since the norm in recent years is to have more than 32 eligible regular compensatory picks, this means that teams were more willing than usual to cancel out comp picks in exchange for gaining talent now via unrestricted free agency. The starkest example of this comes from Minnesota. The Vikings were expected to possibly see two players, Kirk Cousins and Danielle Hunter, leave the team for top tier deals elsewhere, and that is what happened.”
Cousins left for the Atlanta Falcons in March while Hunter vamoosed for his hometown Houston Texans. In return, Adofo-Mensah drafted J.J. McCarthy as the quarterback of the future and Alabama outside linebacker Dallas Turner.
“The Vikings also lost several other CFAs, but were also aggressive in signing CFAs of their own to offset some of those departures. Nonetheless, they had at least balanced this to where the 3rd rounders for both Cousins and Hunter leaving were on the board…until they signed Shaquill Griffin to a one year, $4.55 million contract, leaving the Vikings with a net loss of only 1 CFA, giving the formula no choice but to cancel out Hunter’s contract with Griffin’s,” Korte continued.
If Griffin is the dealbreaker, well, the club must have grand plans for his role in the 2024 defense. Otherwise, if he’s a reservist contributor or outright roster cut later this summer, it will not have been worth it — at all.
Korte concluded, “Now, it’s fine for a team to conclude that signing a player now is better than getting a comp pick later, but adding to the intrigue are multiple reports that say the Vikings expect multiple comp picks to offset the trade-ups they made in the draft. Like all humans, I am fallible, and it’s possible that I missed an additional CFA that departed. (If you think I did, let me know!) Another possibility is that the Vikings, like many, expected Dalton Risner to sign a contract before the draft–but unbelievably, this is the second straight season he has failed to do so.”
The takeaway. If Korte is correct, Griffin better be worth it.
Dustin Baker is a political scientist who graduated from the University of Minnesota in 2007. Subscribe to his daily YouTube Channel, VikesNow. He hosts a podcast with Bryant McKinnie, which airs every Wednesday with Raun Sawh and Sal Spice. His Vikings obsession dates back to 1996. Listed guilty pleasures: Peanut Butter Ice Cream, ‘The Sopranos,’ Basset Hounds, and The Doors (the band).
All statistics provided by Pro Football Reference / Stathead; all contractual information provided by OverTheCap.com.
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