How are the Vikings impacted by the passing of the new NFL CBA?

After the NFL and its players agreed to a new collective bargaining agreement on Sunday, how will the deal affect the Minnesota Vikings moving forward?

Back in 2018, the Minnesota Vikings had an opportunity to earn a spot in the playoffs with a win over the Chicago Bears in the final game of the regular season. Unfortunately, the Vikings were unable to get a victory in the matchup and they were left on the outside looking in as the No. 7 seed in the NFC.

Moving forward though, if Minnesota were to finish the regular season as the No. 7 seed in the NFC playoff standings, they would now qualify for the postseason thanks to the new collective bargaining agreement between the NFL and its players.

The agreement was announced on Sunday and it is scheduled to last until 2030. With the new CBA, a bunch of changes will be taking place with the league and some of them are listed below.

• Seven teams in each conference will now qualify for the playoffs.
• The top seed in each conference will be the only team to get a first-round bye in the postseason.
• Owners have until 2023 to decide if they will expand the regular season to 17 games. An 18-game season will not be able to happen until 2031 when the new CBA expires.
• In 2021, players will begin to earn at least 48 percent of all NFL revenue.
• League minimum salary for players with less than one year of experience rises to $610,000 in 2020 and it will reach $1.065 million in 2030.
• League minimum salaries are also increasing for players in other experience brackets.
• Active rosters on game day are increasing from 46 players to 48, however, one of the two extra players must be an offensive lineman.
• Practice squads are increasing from 10 players to 12 and then another increase to 14 players will start in 2022.
• Fifth-year options are now fully guaranteed once they are exercised. They were previously only fully guaranteed for injury after being exercised.
• Positive marijuana tests will no longer result in suspensions.
• Being charged with a DUI will now result in a three-game suspension.
• Limit of padded practices in training camp is decreasing from 28 to 16 and these practices cannot be scheduled for more than three days in a row.
• Players in training camp are not allowed to practice for more than four hours per day and no practice session is allowed to be longer than 2.5 hours.

Whew, that’s a lot to take in. So in terms of how everything will impact the Vikings, there are a couple of takeaways.

For starters, Minnesota will now have a better chance at making the postseason each year with the playoffs expanding to seven teams per conference. Performance during the regular season will also be even more important now with only one team from each conference able to earn a first-round bye in the playoffs.

The new change to the fifth-year options will be something to watch. The Vikings will basically have to decide after three seasons if they want to keep a first-round pick around for another two years.

If Minnesota were to pick up a player’s fifth-year option, now they would still owe this player his fifth-year salary even if the team chose to release him after his fourth season.

But for 2020, the most noticeable change will be to the playoff format. There will still only be 16 games during the regular season in 2020 and this could remain the case for another two or three years.

In addition to the new CBA announcement on Sunday, the NFL also revealed that the 2020 salary cap has been set at $198.2 million. With this officially being set, the Vikings currently have around $18.9 million in cap space as they head into free agency this year.