How much cap space do the Vikings have after Riley Reiff’s restructure?

The Minnesota Vikings offensive lineman recently agreed to a pay cut.

On Monday, it didn’t seem very likely that Riley Reiff was going to be suiting up for the Minnesota Vikings during the upcoming season. Reiff was reportedly telling his teammates that he was expecting to be cut after the Vikings approached him to restructure his current contract.

However, Tuesday came along and so did a different outcome than what people were expecting. Reiff actually did end up agreeing to a restructure and he will remain Minnesota’s starting left tackle for at least one more year.

Of course, all of this needed to happen after the Vikings decided to trade for defensive end Yannick Ngakoue and give him basically all the money they had left to spend. With Reiff agreeing to a restructure, now Minnesota can have a little breathing room as they head into the 2020 season.

How much cap space do the Minnesota Vikings currently have?

Details of Reiff’s restructured deal were revealed on Thursday by NFL Media’s Ian Rapoport and he reported that the Vikings were able to create about $5 million in cap space.

Instead of the $11 million he was going to earn this year, Reiff will now earn closer to $6 million. That’s quite the pay decrease for a starting left tackle to take, but there’s a good chance that his new amount from Minnesota was going to be better than what any other team around the NFL was willing to offer.

Despite his significant pay cut, Reiff has the opportunity to earn even more money in 2020 based on how many snaps he plays for the Vikings.

He’ll get an extra $1 million if he appears in 86 percent of Minnesota’s offensive snaps this season and then another $1 million on top of that if he ends up being on the field for 93.75 percent of the team’s offensive snaps according to NFL Network’s Mike Garafolo.

Last year, Reiff appeared in 86 percent of the Vikings’ offensive snaps. However, he hasn’t been on the field for more than 90 percent of a team’s offensive snaps since 2015 when he was with the Detroit Lions.

Reiff’s current contract with Minnesota still doesn’t expire until 2022. But with another high cap hit scheduled in 2021 ($13.95 million), this season could potentially be his last in a purple and gold jersey.