Vikings fans who spent Monday refreshing their Twitter feed or tuned into their favorite sports channel eagerly watching the bottom-line scroll waiting for news to break, were likely disappointed.
On the first day in which NFL teams could agree to deals with free agents, the only news emanating from TCO Performance Center for much of the day was the reported signing of 25-year-old blocking tight end Josh Oliver to a three-year contract and the reworking of linebacker Jordan Hicks’ contract to lower his salary.
Things did pick up a bit in the evening with the report that the Vikings had agreed to a one-year, $13 million deal with defensive end Marcus Davenport. Davenport, who struggled with injury issues during his five years in New Orleans, is coming off a season in which he had only half-a-sack in 15 games. Two years ago, Davenport recorded a career high nine sacks.
On the excitement scale, the day rated about a 2 out of 10. But on the savvy scale, general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah and his crew hit a home run.
There is plenty of time for the Vikings to sign more free agents — deals can’t be officially signed and announced until 3 p.m. Wednesday — but Adofo-Mensah has spent the past few weeks doing something far more important than trying to bring in outside help. He has focused on cleaning up the Vikings’ salary-cap issues and getting his own house in order. (The Vikings were still $7.4 million over the cap on Monday, according to the Over The Cap website.)
It’s long overdue.
Veterans Adam Thielen and Eric Kendricks were jettisoned last week. Running back Dalvin Cook and safety Harrison Smith could be next and linebacker Za’Darius Smith is likely to be traded or released before Wednesday.
Adofo-Mensah’s every move this offseason has indicated that he and coach Kevin O’Connell want to hit the reset button on a team that won 13 games but had many aging players. Reset is the right word. The Vikings have too much talent to consider going with a rebuild, but general manager Rick Spielman and coach Mike Zimmer weren’t fired after the 2021 season so their successors could maintain the status quo in perpetuity.
A year ago, the Vikings’ new leadership embraced the veteran players. Now, they are turning the page on them and it’s pretty clear that if the veterans want to stick around it’s going to be on the Vikings’ terms and that means less money. That includes what appears to be the decision to allow Kirk Cousins to play out the final year of his contract.
Cousins is set to count $36.25 million against the cap next season. If the Vikings put a priority on pursuing a Super Bowl in 2023, they would be desperate to extend Cousins’ contract (again) and lower that cap hit. That’s what Cousins would like, but by taking on an immediate dead money hit of $13.55 million in cutting Thielen, the Vikings are making their priorities very clear.
Combine that part of the strategy with the fact that clearing cap space is more important than anything and you have a dull start to free agent agreements. But the Vikings also are putting themselves in a position to be flush with cash when free agency opens in 2024. Over The Cap projects that right now the Vikings will have effective cap space of $100.347 million next March.
That room will be necessary to retain key players, such as Justin Jefferson and Christian Darrisaw. It also will provide room to target and secure a few big-name free agents that can help O’Connell’s team pursue the first Super Bowl in franchise history. This will be especially huge if the Vikings are finally able to draft and develop a replacement for Cousins and have that quarterback on a rookie contract.
All of this might not help alleviate the disappointment for Vikings fans who were hoping the 2023 team could build on the success of O’Connell’s first season, but the brass at TCO Performance Center was smart enough to realize that that was success turned out to be largely fool’s gold.
There needed to be a plan in place to clean up and build up what had begun to deteriorate under Spielman and Zimmer. Trying to make a significant splash on Monday didn’t fit with that plan. Exciting? No. Smart? Yes.
Judd Zulgad is co-host of the Purple Daily Podcast and Mackey & Judd podcast at www.skornorth.com