The Vikings have done a good job of accumulating talent after losing veterans this offseason, but sometimes losing veterans comes with a price.
The Vikings got a good haul from the Stefon Diggs trade, but losing him cost Minnesota $9 million in dead money. The Vikings also cut Xavier Rhodes, which led to a dead money hit of $4.8 million.
Those moves and others added up to Minnesota having more dead money than cap space, according to Over The Cap founder Jason Fitzgerald.
Fitzgerald ranked the Vikings as one of the 11 teams to have that problem. The team has $12.3 million in cap space, but $20.4 million in dead money. Minnesota has the fifth-most dead money in the NFL.
Just processed the June 1 cuts. Teams with more dead money than cap space are
Panthers-$3.3M cap/$36.4M dead
Rams- $5.4M/$30.6M
Patriots- $1.3M/$26.1M
Jaguars- $20.4M/$37.1M
Vikings- $12.3M/$20.4M
Ravens- $9M/$16.7M(1 of 2)
— Jason_OTC (@Jason_OTC) June 1, 2020
Dead money counts towards the salary cap, but cannot be used to sign players . When a team cuts or trades a player, a certain amount of that player’s cap hit can be saved and used on other talent, but a certain amount of it is dead money, which cannot be used.
The Vikings having a lot of dead money means they had a lot of talent leave this offseason, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Minnesota added cheaper talent in return, which can add up to being a financially sound decision for the long term.