The Vikings’ Cap Space is Sinking Faster Than a Boulder in Lake Minnetonka
Admittedly, I’m far from a nautical expert and nor am I a geological expert. What I do know, however, is that dropping a large boulder into Lake Minnetonka would lead to a quick splash before a quick sink.
The Vikings’ cap space, in like manner, is dropping in a hurry. The issue has been ongoing for a little while largely due the 2025 free agent splashes, receiving attention on this particular website a time or two. What’s notable, however, is simply that the issue continues to worsen. More and more, the future budget is dropping into debt, sinking deeper into the lake.
The Vikings’ Cap Space Continues Sinking in 2026
The good news is that we’re dealing with a slow-moving crisis.
Yes, the 2026 budget is dropping — per Over the Cap, the team has negative $38,572,533 already — but there’s no shortage of ways that Kwesi Adofo-Mensah can clear up the issue. Any and all options will be on the table. Cutting players, trading others, working out extensions, doing restructures, adding on void years, and any other strategy will be under consideration. Bringing unused cap space into the future will be another way of helping.
Alongside the help from cap wizard Rob Brzezinski, Adofo-Mensah will consider which lever to pull (and when) so that the finances get back into an okay spot for March of 2026.
Now, consider an illustrative — not a prescriptive — example for how Minnesota could pickup more room, courtesy of The Vikings Gazette.
The current offseason has been all about reinforcing the trenches. In an ironic twist, the next offseason could be about moving on from trench talent in the name of financial flexibility. Consider the cut candidates and cap savings:
| Player | Cap Savings | Dead Money | Total Savings |
| O’Neill, Brian (RT) | $19,500,000 | $3,703,892 | |
| Kelly, Ryan (C) | $12,117,500 | $0 | |
| Phillips, Harrison (DT) | $7,500,000 | $1,676,389 | |
| $39,117,500 |
How does wiping out the current debt in just three simple moves — all straightforward cuts — sound? Pretty good, right?
The issue, of course, is that Minnesota would be saying goodbye to tremendous talent. Top-level right tackles don’t just grow on trees (not in Minnesota, at least; maybe in Philadelphia). So, too, would Kelly and Phillips be tough to replace. Lots of leadership within those three players and an o-line/d-line that would be likely to get worse.
The other downside is that there would be a bit more dead money tossed onto the pile. The scenario we explored involves welcoming $5,380,281 in dead money, immobilized cap space that can do no work for the Vikings in 2026. Not backbreaking, but a factor.
Consider another bleak detail: the Over the Cap estimate only has 37 players under consideration when looking at next years’ budget.
In the offseason, a team’s top-51 players account within the accounting. The end result, then, is going to be a minimum of fourteen more players getting tossed onto the pile.
Keep things ultra simple: the fourteen added players all cost a cool $1 million. Yes, that’s unrealistic in the money-hungry NFL, but stick with it simply to get a sense of how things can get worse in a hurry even if we deal in modest money. Do the math: the current deficit of $38,572,533 sees $14,000,000 added on. The result?
$52,572,533. Financial experts have a term for a situation such as this: yikes.
Kwesi Adofo-Mensah has a decent bit of work to do when it comes to the Vikings’ cap space, or lack thereof. Quite possibly, the work will get going in the current offseason as the forward-looking executive seeks to contend in the immediate while also keeping the window open for several years more.
All hope is not lost. There are solutions, but there will be some pain along the way.
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 and Bluesky (@VikingsGazette). If you feel so inclined, subscribe to his Substack, The Vikings Gazette, for more great Vikings content.
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