The salary cap for the Minnesota Vikings has been a major topic over the last few years. When Kwesi Adofo-Menah took over as general manager, the salary cap was in a rough spot. There were a lot of bad contracts that needed to be addressed, and it took a while to get back into a good spot
All of that work led to the Vikings having a surplus of over $60 million, which they used to bolster the roster this offseason. The trenches haven't been this good on the Vikings in years.
Vikings set to gain salary cap space
After spending so much money bolstering the trenches, the Vikings needed to make some space. One of the players they moved on from was center Garrett Bradbury, who they cut with a post-June 1st designation. Because of that designation, the Vikings are set to gain $5.25 million, according to Over The Cap.
I thought this was a surprising use of a post June 1 since the dead money deferred to 2026 is so low, but I guess every penny counts. Bradbury’s cap number drops from $6.064 million to $814,000 with the release. He will count for $1.628 million on the teams 2026 salary cap. Bradbury is on a two year contract with the Patriots that is worth $9.5 million.
The Vikings have around $19 million in cap room most of which will be carried over to help out with the teams 2026 cap situation, which is currently 3rd worst in the NFL.
As Jason Fitzgerald mentioned above, it was an odd move for the Vikings to make that designation for the limited amount of cap savings it would bring them this year at just $1.628 million. Why would the Vikings do that? It could be to maintain self control. Let me explain.
If you push off having over $5 million in cap space to the summer when there aren't a lot of free agents to be signed, the likelihood that you will spend that money lessens. Plus, anything left over from the 2025 season will carry over to next year, as the Vikings are set to be $53,706,694 over the salary cap.
The other end of the spectrum is what it gives the Vikings over the summer. If they find a player to target, like a Jalen Ramsey, now they have more flexibility to make a move like that happen.
Regardless of what they do, Adofo-Mensah has more wiggle room to make anything work.
