Minnesota gets some more cap space
There was no way to anticipate what would happen with the salary cap for the 2021 season. The COVID-19 pandemic kept fans from packing stadiums last year, making the NFL miss out on ticket revenue, concessions, merchandise, and much more which, in turn, gave the league less money to distribute to teams.
Since the cap was lowered for the season, Minnesota was stuck between a rock and a hard place. They released kicker Dan Bailey, tight end Kyle Rudolph, and left tackle Riley Reiff while restructuring punter Britton Colquitt in an effort to create some relief, but they still needed more help financially.
The restructure for Barr saves the Vikings $2.9 million against the cap in 2021. It doesn’t sound like much, but a small amount like this can go a long way toward recruiting a player to fill a hole on offense or defense, or even just be able to sign their draft picks this year.
It also frees up money down the road since his total hits from 2022 and 2023 would have been tough to maneuver around. Even though the salary cap is mostly a myth, there are some limitations to how far it can be stretched, even by a team as good at squeezing money out of contracts like Minnesota.