Vikings TE Kyle Rudolph has been a mainstay of Minnesota’s offense for the past 10 years, but signs were pointing to him departing this offseason.
Rudolph had a high cap hit and he said that he was worth “every dime of his contract.” That likely meant that a restructure was out of the question in a cash-strapped 2021 offseason. Not only that, but TE Irv Smith Jr. and TE Tyler Conklin seem capable of stepping up.
So Minnesota released Rudolph, which saved money on the salary cap. The Vikings even had a clever way of spreading the money out. According to ESPN’s Field Yates, Minnesota opted to use a post-June 1 designation on Kyle Rudolph’s release, which allocates the dead money over 2021 and 2022.
Also, the Vikings will now garner $7.9 million after June 1, which can help the team sign draftees and undrafted free agents.
Ben Goessling of the Star Tribune reported that, once Rudolph is cut, he will have a cap charge of $1.45 million in 2021 and $2.9 million in 2022.
So the Vikings lessened his cap hit, spread the dead money around and will have some freed up space for signing rookies. Not a bad move.