The Minnesota Vikings already made one tough move, cutting long-time tight end Kyle Rudolph. More tough decisions are on the way.
With the salary cap expected to drop significantly this season, the Vikings sit along with a plethora of other clubs over the projected figure -- even after releasing Rudolph. Minnesota general manager Rick Spielman said Wednesday his team will need to be more imaginative than ever.
"We're going to have to be very creative this year," he said, via the Star Tribune. "We're going to have to make a lot of tough business decisions. That process is getting started this week and next week."
With the salary cap not officially set, clubs are playing with estimates. We know the cap won't be lower than $180 million, but after years of it rising by tens of millions, any fall was bound to wreak havoc on the budgeting plans.
In the coming weeks, expect a number of veterans to get cut to save money. There will likely be even more contract restructures -- without pay reductions -- that push money into future years when the cap is expected to rise again.
Spielman said the process of getting under the cap has just begun.
"We're going through that process now. I know we've kind of laid out a preliminary plan ... there's a lot of decisions that have not been made yet," Spielman said, via the team's official website. "I know we've got kind of a general ballpark on what we're going to have to do, but a lot of those decisions are yet to be determined."
With big money sunk into quarterback Kirk Cousins and the need to reshape a defense that struggled in 2020, Spielman has some tough choices to make in the coming weeks.
The GM already added a lower-priced piece to help his defense, bringing back Stephen Weatherly. The former seventh-round pick announced Thursday he was returning to Minnesota, writing "back to the Twin City for round 2!" on Instagram. Weatherly was cut by the Panthers earlier this year after one season. He compiled six sacks in four seasons in Minnesota from 2016-2019. It's the type of signing Spielman will be looking for with the cap restrictions this season.
While rebuilding his club will be more difficult given the cap constraints, Spielman, however, doesn't see the issues as crippling.
"I don't want to call it devastating. There's a lot more things in the world that are devastating than the salary cap dropping," Spielman said. "I think it's that you have to be more creative. Whether you want to push some money into the future or whether you want to release guys. There are teams that have a lot of salary cap room, and it may not affect them whatsoever. It's going to be up to each individual club how they interpret what devastating is."
One thing is for certain: Buckle up because the next few weeks before the new league year opens on March 17 are going to be wild.
