Salary cap hits from Danielle Hunter’s extension revealed

Thanks to a report by the Star Tribune, some new details of the defensive end’s contract extension with the Minnesota Vikings have been revealed.

Danielle Hunter has been a member of the Minnesota Vikings since 2015 and his recent contract extension could keep him around for at least another five seasons. Hunter’s new deal extends the life of his contract with the Vikings until 2024 and the extension could end up paying him over $70 million.

Initial contract numbers are normally misleading as they normally do not tell the full story of the deal. Like with the $50 million extension Minnesota gave linebacker Eric Kendricks in April, which turned out to include only $11.6 million of fully guaranteed money.

The exact amount of Hunter’s extension that is fully guaranteed is still unknown, but a recent report did reveal some new information about the deal.

According to a report from the Star Tribune’s Andrew Krammer on Wednesday, the Vikings will endure the following hits to their salary cap with the defensive end’s new extension.

• 2018: $5.063 million
• 2019: $13 million
• 2020: $14 million
• 2021: $15 million
• 2022: $15 million
• 2023: $12 million

Unsurprisingly, Hunter’s extension is backloaded. This is typically how Minnesota constructs their contracts and they kept the trend going with this deal.

With the extension, the Vikings now have $14,061,115 in cap space this year. Minnesota definitely still has enough to extend the contracts of linebacker Anthony Barr and wide receiver Stefon Diggs before the start of the 2018 season.

Minnesota Vikings

The report did not reveal the complete details of Hunter’s extension, as the amount that is fully guaranteed is still unknown.

When the Vikings extended the contract of defensive end Everson Griffen last year, $18.8 million of the deal was fully guaranteed. It would not be surprising if Minnesota gave Hunter a similar amount of fully guaranteed money and it’s possible that his number is closer to $20 million.

Based on some of the team’s past contracts, expect the young defensive end’s new extension to not feature much fully guaranteed money after the 2020 season too. The Vikings are usually pretty good at setting up ways to get out of deals sooner than later if needed.

Next: After Hunter, who will the Vikings extend next?

From the information that has been reported so far, it looks like Minnesota created another impressive contract that is fair for both the player and the team.