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...

Accounting for cap casualties and impending free agents, the Vikings have a ton of needs heading into the 2026 offseason. I sorted each position of need, and talked about how the team might go about filling them in part three of my series for Wide Left: www.wideleft.football/p/vikings-of...

Biggest thing this indicates to me is that Brzezinski has a legit shot at the long term GM job.

The details surrounding Kwesi Adofo-Mensah's firing was puzzling. I break down what I've read, what I've heard, what his track record is and why I think there's more at play than him simply being bad at drafting www.wideleft.football/p/the-kwesi-...

I also share Luke's feeling here. To be clear, my opinion is that Kwesi shouldn't have been fired, but I think the firing is an easy sell, like Luke said just point to the drafting. As you go through it, the timing and articles explaining it make the case for firing Kwesi LESS convincing, not more.

Maybe I should have made Arif let me contribute to his article about firing Kwesi instead, but I threaded about my feelings around the reporting about his firing. I find it interesting that throughout the articles there are many things painted in a negative light that feel like positives to me.

I dug through three articles (Alec Lewis/Dianna Russini at the Athletic, Kevin Siefert at ESPN, and Matthew Coller at Purple Insider) to compare their notes on the Kwesi Adofo-Mensah firing and try to get to the bottom of it. Here are my thoughts. (links to articles at the bottom of the thread)

Masterful gambit to commit multiple paragraphs to something that Kwesi apparently did NOT get fired for in your article giving reasons why Kwesi got fired. Very logical, just top tier work.

Last thought on Kwesi - whatever the "tension" in the Vikings' building was, I really, REALLY hope the idiots that wanted Aaron Rodgers to be QB of the Vikings didn't just win a power struggle.

More thoughts on Kwesi. The draft results were obviously bad. But we also KNOW the draft is very random. It's difficult to consistently outperform there. There's a lot more GMs that started off hot and then got worse than started off bad and got better but that could easily be survivorship bias.

The timing of this move is baffling to me. Why wait three weeks? Why even do it this season? Last offseason, you basically committed to a two year plan with the roster. I get that QB didn't go as you hoped but why not ride it out? Is there some sort of power struggle behind the scenes?

Had @friesfootball.bsky.social write the second installment in this trilogy - Vikings’ Offseason Plan, Part 2: Should They Stay Or Should They Go? www.wideleft.football/p/vikings-of...

The Vikings have 21 players scheduled to become Free Agents in March. Who should they keep, and who should they let walk? How much will it cost to keep the players that are on expiring contracts? I examined every player in my latest for Wide Left: www.wideleft.football/p/vikings-of...

How can the Vikings dig out of a $49 million dollar cap hole for 2026? It's easier than you probably think. I explain how the salary cap works, and develop a plan to get the Vikings under the cap. My latest for Wide Left: www.wideleft.football/p/vikings-of...

At Wide Left, @friesfootball.bsky.social wrote about the Vikings cap space — Vikings' Offseason Plan, Part 1: How to Create $49 Million in Cap Space www.wideleft.football/p/vikings-of...

It's been awesome to watch CJ Ham play for the Minnesota Vikings. To honor his potential retirement, I dove deep into what he actually *did* as an FB and special teamer Check out what made him a crucial part of the team in my latest for Wide Left: www.wideleft.football/p/cj-ham-is-...