It is being reported that pass rush specialist Danielle Hunter has restructured his contract to give the Minnesota Vikings some more salary cap space.
It’s no understatement to say the Minnesota Vikings are struggling with the salary cap. The team has been forced to let some talented players leave due to their inability to re-sign then with the money they have available.
The team has already given Kirk Cousins an extension and released several players to make room for some contracts, but one place fans may not have considered when thinking about salary cap savings is on the contract of defensive end Danielle Hunter.
Recently, Hunter’s name appeared on NFL.com’s list as “Signed, Renegotiated Contract” but there were no details associated with the transaction. However, ESPN’s Courtney Cronin filled fans in on Twitter about what the reported deal is.
And his cap hit is now lowered to $9 million for 2020. Vikings were operating with around $6ish million in cap space yesterday. This gives them a bit more relief as free agency wears on.
— Courtney Cronin (@CourtneyRCronin) March 21, 2020
If this information is accurate, lowering Hunter’s cap hit from $14.5M to $9M will give the Minnesota Vikings another $5.5M to work with. While that doesn’t sound significant, it should be enough to allow the team to continue to explore some options in free agency or bring back some role players who the team is looking to re-sign for the 2020 NFL season. They should have approximately $11.5M available after this move.
This would be a great move for both the Vikings and Hunter, who gets more of his deal guaranteed while allowing some flexibility to the team in terms of their financial situation. Considering Hunter is only 25 years old, he will likely be part of the organization for a long time and ensuring the purple and gold can be competitive while keeping as much talent as possible on the roster is in the best interest of both sides.
While this move hasn’t been officially announced by the team, this does sound like something that has some legs to it. Considering the official NFL website has confirmed something happened, it shouldn’t be long before the team follows up and lets fans in on the transaction.