Vikings Fans Embrace Huge NFL “Gift” ahead of Free Agency
NFL free agency is 19 days away, and each team now has more money to utilize on internal and external free agents.
Vikings Fans Embrace Huge NFL “Gift” ahead of Free Agency
The league raised the salary cap on Wednesday, a somewhat unexpected measure impacting every franchise.
ESPN’s Dan Graziano tweeted, “The NFL today informed teams that the 2025 per-team salary cap will fall in the range of $277.5 million to $281.5 million, way up from last year’s $255.4 million. Cap will have increased by more than $53 million over the last two years.”
Minnesota Vikings fans rejoiced as the new available cap for the purple team soared past $58 million, its standing before Wednesday, and is now situated at $63.3 million. While each team will indeed have more funds to spend on players, every organization received the same bump, meaning players’ pocketbooks stand to benefit.
The Vikings, as a standalone team, won’t necessarily gain an advantage over other teams. On the other hand, free agents can ask for more dough relative to the cap.
Graziano added about the reasoning behind the bump: “The reason the cap figure is not yet finalized, the league’s memo says, is because the NFLPA has yet to inform the league about how it wants to recoup that $9 million that was smoothed out of last year’s cap. Per the 2024 agreement, the union has the right to recover up to $4.5 million of that $9 million deferral this year and the remainder next year.”
“The league, therefore, is waiting to hear back from the NFLPA how much of that $4.5 million should be added to this year’s cap, hence the range.”
Minnesota has a handful of roster needs entering free agency, and $63 million should do the trick to address most of them. General manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah basically needs six crucial players to satiate long-term roster needs: two interior offensive linemen, two starting cornerbacks, and two interior defensive linemen, though some might disagree on the needs’ urgency. The Vikings could also use a running back or two.
“The salary cap is calculated annually based on a collectively bargained formula tied to league revenues, which have increased in recent years because of new media rights deals. But the reason the number is not yet finalized is that the league and the NFLPA, as they do every year, are still working on adjustments to the number that formula determined,” Graziano concluded.
Free agency begins on March 10th with legal tampering.
The New England Patriots possess the league’s most cap space as of February 19th — $126 million. The Vikings check in at No. 7.
Minnesota has more money than usual because dead cap funds from Kirk Cousins and Danielle Hunter’s contracts have fallen off the books.
Dustin Baker is a political scientist who graduated from the University of Minnesota in 2007. Subscribe to his daily YouTube Channel, VikesNow. The show features guests, analysis, and opinion on all things related to the purple team, with 4-7 episodes per week. His Vikings obsession dates back to 1996. Listed guilty pleasures: Peanut Butter Ice Cream, ‘The Sopranos,’ Basset Hounds, and The Doors (the band). He follows the NBA as closely as the NFL.
All statistics provided by Pro Football Reference / Stathead; all contractual information provided by OverTheCap.com.
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