The Levers Kwesi Can Pull if There’s a Need for an Extra $25 Million in the 2025 Budget
If, for instance, Kwesi Adofo-Mensah needs another $25 million for the 2025 budget, then there’s several ways that the GM can create that added cap space.
Indeed, the Vikings’ top executive has options aplenty to increase the team’s financial flexibility (something he covets). Most obviously, there’s the ability to cut players, but that option isn’t alone. Minnesota can trade away talent, extend players, add on void years, and/or restructure contracts to create more room. What’s plausible? What can/will the Vikings actually do to create room?
Kwesi Adofo-Mensah & an Extra $25 Million
Start off with the Vikings’ most obvious cut candidate: backup right guard Ed Ingram.
The simple fact that he’s now a backup — he got benched in 2024 in favor of veteran Dalton Risner — is one of the main reasons why a cut seems likely. Even more compelling is that a cut has the capacity to free up $3.325 million. Not the only move needed to get to $25 million, but a start.
So, let’s assume, for the sake of argument, that Ingram does indeed get cut. Minnesota just snagged $3.325 million.
More attractive than cutting players is the potential that exists with extending players. Consider three.
Safety Josh Metellus, tight end Josh Oliver, and edge rusher Andrew Van Ginkel all make sense to keep around for a little while longer. If so, the Vikings could free up $4,124,000 by extending the safety, $5,464,000 by extending the tight end, and $7,728,000 by extending the edge rusher.
Pushing the short-term savings to the max would mean putting more than $17 million back into the budget. For the sake of simplicity, let’s instead shrink things down to somewhere around $15 million. Combined with the cut savings, the Vikings could have $18.325 million back into the 2025 budget.
Finally, consider a restructure candidate.
Someone who really stands out is right tackle Brian O’Neill since he’s playing at a high level and carrying a cap charge of $26 million. Restructuring the deal — such as converting some of his compensation into a signing bonus — could free up north of $8 million in cap space, more than enough to clear the $25 million threshold promised in the title.
The all-important detail? None of the possibilities considered are particularly hard to fathom. The cut candidate (Ingram), extension candidates (Metellus, Oliver, Van Ginkel), and restructure candidate (O’Neill) all could see their deals adjusted in the way discussed in this piece. No one would spit out their Caribou Coffee due to shock.
Kwesi Adofo-Mensah tends to keep his cards close to his chest. Expect the GM to get his finances in order over time, layering in his cap-saving moves as he progresses through the offseason rather than doing everything at once.
Free agency will get started on Monday, March 10th.
Editor’s Note: Information from Over the Cap helped with this piece.
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K. Joudry is the Senior Editor for Vikings Territory and PurplePTSD. He has been covering the Vikings full time since the summer of 2021. He can be found on Twitter, as a co-host for Notes from the North, and as the proprietor at The Vikings Gazette, a humble Vikings Substack.
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