Good News Hits the Vikings’ Airwaves
Folks who follow the Vikings are sometimes prone to gloom-and-doom thinking (possibly for good reason). When good news hits the Vikings’ airwaves, people perk up.
Recently, the decision was to move on from veteran DTs Jonathan Allen and Javon Hargrave. The pair of trench defenders are still good ball players but didn’t fulfill the expectations that came alongside their contracts, leading Rob Brzezinski to move on via cut. Doing so carves out some cap space. What arrives as a breath of fresh air for the team is that the incoming cap influx could be more ample than originally believed.
Good News for the Vikings’ Skimpy Budget
Start off with a tip of the cap to Sean Borman, someone who focuses much of his attention on the salary cap and who writes for VT.
He writes, “Confirmed: The #Vikings are set to be completely off the hook for Jonathan Allen’s $8M guarantee in 2026. With the #Bengals giving Allen more than $8M cash, the full offset kicks in. Minnesota avoids the $8M cash payout and banks an $8M cap credit for 2027.”
Shortly thereafter, Borman adds, “Not only is the Allen offset confirmed, but the #Vikings are also fully cleared on Javon Hargrave’s $4M guarantee now that he’s getting $13M in 2026 cash from Green Bay. That’s $12M total in future cap credits banked between the two of them.”
If I’m not mistaken, Thor Nystrom was among the first — if not the first — to note the potential offset language. He has seen the news surrounding the well-paid, veteran DTs before commenting, “Officially official.”
Finally, note that Spotrac (a salary cap website) corroborates what is circulating. The thought gets passed along on social media: “Allen has an $8M guarantee with the #Vikings that is now set to be fully offset by this Bengals deal.”
Okay, step back to better understand where things stand.
At present, Minnesota is sitting on roughly $9.5 million in cap space. That’s a rough estimate that arrives due to the (roughly) $6 million in cap space on Over the Cap alongside the $3.5 million that still needs to be added for the Aaron Jones pay cut.
Even better for the Vikings is that there’s still more cap space to come. In particular, there’s the financial windfall (of sorts) that’s going to arrive due to pursuing a post-June 1 cut for Allen alongside Harrison Smith. Designating things as a post-June 1 cut means that the cap space is going to arrive in June. Combined, Allen and Smith are going to give back $12.5 million.
Furthermore, there’s good news in the updates being passed along by Borman, Nystrom, and Spotrac.
Cincinnati has scooped up Mr. Allen and Green Bay has opted for Mr. Hargrave. What makes those two realities good news for Minnesota’s front office is that those two new places of employment are taking on some of the cap charges for the veteran talents.
In 2027, Minnesota’s cap is going to get some added credits tacked onto the pile due to the contracts that the Bengals gave to Allen and the Packers to Hargrave.
In an NFL where money is malleable and cap charges are commonly kicked into the future, Minnesota can stand a touch taller when negotiating with external talent right now since there’s future abundance that was somewhat mysterious until recently. Alternatively, the Vikings can continue with the cautious spending approach, slow-playing things while looking ahead to a more prosperous future.
The top roster needs are at corner, running back, center, punter, linebacker, and defensive tackle.
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