{"id":764002,"date":"2026-02-20T06:58:26","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T06:58:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/764002\/"},"modified":"2026-02-20T06:58:26","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T06:58:26","slug":"5-moves-vikings-must-make-to-clear-salary-cap-space-in-2026-nfl-offseason","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/764002\/","title":{"rendered":"5 moves Vikings must make to clear salary cap space in 2026 NFL offseason"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Minnesota Vikings<\/a> took a big step back in 2025. They finished 9-8 and missed the playoffs just one year after going 14-3 and almost capturing the No. 1 seed in the playoffs<\/a>. Now the Vikings should feel a sense of urgency to make some moves to improve the roster this offseason.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, that could be difficult if the team is on a tight budget.<\/p>\n

The Vikings are currently in a tricky situation with their salary cap. Minnesota is $43.21 million\u00a0over the 2026 salary cap<\/a> heading into the offseason.<\/p>\n

That leaves the Vikings with a lot of work to do just to become compliant with the salary cap. They would need to go even further to create enough budget to add new players this offseason.<\/p>\n

But if Minnesota makes the right series of moves, they can free up plenty of cap space. In fact, there’s a path to Minnesota shedding almost $62 million in cap space pretty quickly to start the new league year.<\/p>\n

Which roster moves would the Vikings need to make to save that much money?<\/p>\n

Below we will explore five roster moves the Vikings need to make this offseason to clear up salary cap space.<\/p>\n

Vikings should trade Brian O’Neill for whatever they can get\"MinnesotaBrad Rempel-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

Let’s start with arguably the most controversial move on this list.<\/p>\n

I have the Vikings trading away right tackle Brian O’Neill. Obviously, the main objective here is to create salary cap space. This move would certainly do that.<\/p>\n

Trading O’Neill would save $19.41 million of salary cap space for the Vikings. He is on the final year of his current contract, so there are no implications for future seasons.<\/p>\n

This would be a tough move by Minnesota because O’Neill is a great right tackle. He is an excellent run blocker and holds up well in pass protection. In fact, PFF has the 2025 season as O’Neill’s best in his entire career.<\/p>\n

Personally, I think keeping O’Neill only makes sense if Minnesota thinks they can make a deep playoff run in 2026. No offense, but that seems incredibly unlikely after how the Vikings looked last season.<\/p>\n

It is interesting to consider what Minnesota could get back in a trade for O’Neill considering his mixture of age, contract, and elite play.<\/p>\n

The Vikings should be happy getting a draft pick or two, plus the salary cap savings, for O’Neill.<\/p>\n

Minnesota can free up cap space by restructure Justin Jefferson<\/a>, Christian Darrisaw contracts<\/p>\n

The Vikings should also explore restructuring a few contracts to free up salary cap space in 2026.<\/p>\n

How exactly does that work?<\/p>\n

NFL teams routinely save salary cap space by converting a portion of a player’s salary into a signing bonus. One reason why this tactic is popular is because, according to the CBA, teams can do this immediately without consulting a player.<\/p>\n

In the end, a player still receives the same amount of money either way. But restructuring allows a team to shuffle around when those dollars get paid out. And more importantly, how it is calculated for salary cap purposes.<\/p>\n

When an NFL player receives a signing bonus, it is spread out evenly over the remaining years of the contract. So if a player signs a four-year contract that includes a $20 million signing bonus, that bonus will only count $5 million against the salary cap in each season.<\/p>\n

Now, back to the Vikings.<\/p>\n

I picked Jefferson and Darrisaw because both players are on long-term contracts. Also because I just cannot see the Vikings parting with either player.<\/p>\n

Using the method described above, the Vikings could create almost $20 million in cap space<\/a> by doing a complete restructure of Jefferson’s deal. For our purposes, let’s make that have that restructure create $18.4 million in 2026.<\/p>\n

Darrisaw’s base salary is not too large in 2026, so restructuring is less effective with his contract. But the Vikings could still save an additional $8 million in cap space using the same method.<\/p>\n

Ryan Kelly, Aaron Jones<\/a> could end up being cap casualties\u00a0\"MinnesotaYannick Peterhans \/ USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images<\/p>\n

There’s also the most straightforward method of all, cutting players.<\/p>\n

Minnesota could get by without these two offensive veterans. They could also save a lot of cap space by cutting both of them.<\/p>\n

Both players are in the final year of their current contracts and nearing the end of their professional careers. In my eyes, that makes them the perfect cut candidates.<\/p>\n

The Vikings could survive without Jones because they already have Jordan Mason on the roster<\/a>. The 27-year-old back gave Minnesota some incredible consistency on offense in 2025. He earned the right to more touches next season.<\/p>\n

If the Vikings do not want Mason as a bell cow back, they can always add a youngster in the late rounds of the draft.<\/p>\n

Plus, Minnesota can save $7.75 million by cutting Jones.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Kelly played his first season in Minnesota in 2025 after spending his career in Indianapolis. Kelly only played in eight games but he played at an elite level.<\/p>\n

The elephant in the room with Kelly is his recent spat of concussions during the 2025 season. Kelly suffered a whopping three concussions<\/a> during the 2025 season, ending the season on injured reserve. That series of injuries would put any player’s career in doubt.<\/p>\n

Minnesota could save $8.38 million by releasing Kelly. Meanwhile, the Vikings could still get some cap relief if Kelly retires by not having to pay his $7.89 million base salary.<\/p>\n

Either way, I expect that Kelly has played his last snap with the Vikings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Minnesota Vikings took a big step back in 2025. They finished 9-8 and missed the playoffs just…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":764003,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2073],"tags":[6912,18731,7,2780,233,259,2529,6,18732,234],"class_list":{"0":"post-764002","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-minnesota-vikings","8":"tag-aaron-jones","9":"tag-editorials","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-justin-jefferson","12":"tag-minnesota","13":"tag-minnesota-vikings","14":"tag-minnesotavikings","15":"tag-nfl","16":"tag-nfl-editorials","17":"tag-vikings"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116101666535031143","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/764002","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=764002"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/764002\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/764003"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=764002"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=764002"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=764002"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}