Love the signing, but don't let the Vikings tell you they needed to trade Greenard to be able to sign Jennings. They absolutely did not. The two transactions had basically no influence on each other from a cap perspective. $8 million is nothing.

Great signing

At Wide Left, @arif.bsky.social and I co-wrote a comprehensive piece on Caleb Banks, breaking down everything from the draft position, the injury, the athleticism, the production, and the tape. Everything you need to know about the player, all in one place: www.wideleft.football/p/caleb-bank...

At Wide Left, @arif.bsky.social and I co-wrote a comprehensive piece on Caleb Banks, breaking down everything from the draft position, the injury, the athleticism, the production, and the tape. Everything you need to know about the player, all in one place: www.wideleft.football/p/caleb-bank...

Breaking down the Caleb Banks pick @friesfootball.bsky.social and I cowrote an exhaustive article breaking down the player, diving into analyst reactions, his medical history, production profile, athleticism and a lengthy film breakdown www.wideleft.football/p/caleb-bank...

Average Caleb Banks run defense rep

Caleb Tiernan has the craziest athletic profile I've ever seen. It's all or nothing. (Not pictured: his 8.08s 3-cone, 17th percentile). I know he was the consensus next tackle after the first round guys, but I really don't know anything else about him.

Jon Ledyard and Ollie Connelly said that Jakobe Thomas was a perfect scheme fit with the Vikings and I trust the implicitly so let's go

Realized I forgot to put my opinion on this here. I feel like, with the Greenard trade, the Vikings envision Turner in Greenard's role full time and want Golday to be the Van Ginkel understudy. I think he does make sense in that role, but I also hate the thesis of trading Greenard so...

Cut two DTs, draft two DTs. (I like adding Orange. Banks is not a nose and this is so much better value than what McDonald would have been)

Embarrassing decision. Disgusting.

My selection bias is this: I would like the Vikings to SELECT Caleb Banks with the 18th overall pick

Caleb Banks, let's go! Obviously the foot is a major concern but absolutely love the player!

Draft Day Vikings thoughts for 18: Would love: Delane Trade back for 2027 picks Blue chips that fell - Reese, Love, Downs, Tate, Styles, Bain, Ioane Would love (injury): McCoy Banks I'm good with: Trade back for 2026 picks Thieneman Not for me: Sadiq McNeil-Warren Fire everyone: Faulk Woods

Check this out on draft day! I talk with Luke about what I think of the Vikings offseason moves, and who I want and who I don't early in the draft.

Complete no-brainer. Even in the downside case (Addison continues to have off the field issues) this doesn't hurt the Vikings because suspensions mean you don't have to pay him. This also sets an additional year of cost control at $18 million, making an extension easier. Franchise tag is $27 mil.

Oh I'm going to hate this tape, aren't I?

I hate this design, why is he pivoting twice? Maybe Kyler could have gotten the ball out here.

By my estimation, here are the current Vikings needs. You could fill some of these with internal promotions, of course, but I'm not necessarily ready to. Starters: C S P IDLx2 WR3 It's probably Kyler: QB Backups: Swing OT LB TE CB

With more information on some of the contracts/restructures and recent moves, here's a Vikings cap update. 2026 Cap Current Space - $7,024,431 Operating Space - $8,532,022 2027 Cap Current Space - $70,721,624 Operating Space - $43,894,424 Post-June 1 cuts affect current space but not operating

RB market was very thin based on remaining FAs and the draft. I think this was probably the best value for both sides, I really like this.

This price feels like the range the Vikings should be shopping in with the current safety market. There are actually enough good players available at the position that I don't see why the team would wait for the draft.

At this point Aaron Jones' contract kind of feels like a steal, not gonna lie.

Paying this much for a WR3 just didn't make sense for the Vikings. Happy for Nailor that he cashed in.

Always feel good seeing Tonga succeed, he was very fun for us.

The list of available centers is now impossibly thin. Lloyd Cushenberry and Luke Fortner are just about the only options.

Vikings cap update after tendering Ivan Pace, re-signing Eric Wilson, and signing James Pierre: $20,147,088 in projected space. Details are not 100% confirmed, but I'm projecting based off of typical contract structures.

I projected a 3-year deal for Wright at this APY if he re-signed with the Vikings. I think they should have done it. I don't really see why they would want to break the battery up.

Very reasonable deal, and I trust this front office on their CB signings. Interesting note about size, because both Murphy and Rodgers are smaller corners. Pierre is listed at 6'2" 182, but his Combine height is listed at 6000. He's going to turn 30 at the start of the season.

Additional reporting (from Pelissero) confirmed that the Vikings wiped out the last year of Hockenson's deal to do this. Pretty stupid to give up a year of control on Hockenson's contract to save just $5 million in my opinion.

Elite poster (For the record, Brz is just reheating Kwesi's leftovers right now lol)

OTC reported the Murphy, Darrisaw, and Jefferson salary conversion as the maximum amount. With that info and the Kelly retirement, I project the Vikings at $22,461,255 in salary cap space after cutting Jones, Hargrave, and Allen.

Veteran center Ryan Kelly, who spent the 2025 season with the Vikings, just announced his retirement over on X:

another thing on this that was just pointed out to me: Jefferson, Darrisaw and Murphy's contracts already had a bunch of guaranteed money, which means the restructures don't represent much of a change in cashflow for ownership

Luke is making a good point here. I'll be putting out cap updates but it should be understood that I'm assuming the maximum for the restructures the team is making. The more players they restructure, the less likely it is they're taking the maximum amount possible.

Important addition to this - the Vikings would also be finally positive in terms of what I'm calling "operating cap room" which accounts for draft picks and practice squad players

Adding the reported Byron Murphy restructure to the previous moves, I have the Vikings with a maximum of $14.1 million in cap space. Obviously they could have less than that if they chose to restructure less than the maximum for any of the players they modified.

My original math was wrong on this; I screwed up the baseline cap number. It's actually $5,452,608 in space. They're still roughly $6.5 million over the cap once you confirm all of the things they will need to account for (draft picks, practice squad), but they could go into the league year as is.

Accounting for the three releases (Allen, Hargrave, Jones) that have been reported, and assuming these were maximum restructures but did not touch the per game roster bonus/workout bonuses in each of the contracts, the Vikings will have $517,799 in cap space per my calculations.

My mock free agency for the Vikings has them adding a former Cardinal as the centerpiece of their class. No, not *that* former Cardinal. Find out who and read an incredibly detailed projection at Wide Left: www.wideleft.football/p/a-comprehe...

The three reported moves would put the Vikings at -$25,296,148 cap space for 2026. Barring another move, the team would need at least two restructures (Jefferson + another player) to get cap compliant. Obviously, they'd need more space to sign players. Cutting Allen does save $22 mil in 2027.

With free agency urgently approaching, the Vikings have a ton of decisions to make. I tried to make the team as competitive as possible while keeping a close eye on the cap in my Mock Free Agency for the team, my latest for Wide Left: www.wideleft.football/p/a-comprehe...

For the record, I wrote this before we learned that the Vikings were scared to compete today. Anyway, if you want to know what the team SHOULD do in Free Agency, check it out:

The latest from @friesfootball.bsky.social - A Comprehensive Minnesota Vikings Mock Free Agency 11,000 words on how he would handle a Vikings free agency www.wideleft.football/p/a-comprehe...

"We desperately have to add a QB to start instead of McCarthy because 9-8 wasn't good enough and the team should be winning playoff games. But we're also not willing to do the bare minimum to retain talent." Which one is it, Vikings? You can't have both.

I need someone to show Rob Brzezinski this table before he makes a huge mistake

Rob Brzezinski I promise it is not that hard to figure out the Vikings' salary cap issues. Here, I even wrote a step-by-step plan for you. www.wideleft.football/p/vikings-of...

Every day I seem to lose more and more faith in this team's leadership. Ridiculous suggestion.

😢

In his latest on the Vikings Offseason Plan series, @friesfootball.bsky.social defines and tiers the Vikings needs to better capture the totality of their challenges this offseason www.wideleft.football/p/vikings-of...