The Minnesota Vikings restructured the contract of quarterback Kirk Cousins on Tuesday afternoon to save cap space. According to The Star Tribune’s Ben Goessling, the Vikings have saved $16 million on the salary cap for 2023.
Cousins had a base salary of $10 million and a roster bonus that was due this week at $20 million. With two void years to play with, the Vikings push out $16 million into those two years and reduce his cap hit from $36.25 million to $20.25 million. The dead money that the Vikings are looking at in 2023 sits at $28.25 million.
Why did they do this? It’s one of two ways. They needed the cap space and were in a very comfortable place adding to next year’s salary cap.
This could also have been done to help facilitate a trade. Lowering Cousins’ cap hit for a new team down to just $6 million makes his situation extremely lucrative.