The Minnesota Vikings re-working the contract of Anthony Barr is a thing of beauty.
2014 was a big year for the Minnesota Vikings. The team was making some major changes to their coaching staff by hiring former Cincinnati Bengals defensive coordinator Mike Zimmer to be their new head coach and he immediately started making some changes to how things were done for the purple and gold.
One of the first surprises of the Mike Zimmer era in Minnesota was the selection of UCLA linebacker Anthony Barr at No. 9 overall in the 2014 NFL Draft. It was extremely rare to find a mock draft that had the dynamic defender coming to the Vikings, but that pick made it clear that the franchise was now under new leadership.
Barr arrived in Minnesota and made an impact in his rookie year. 70 combined tackles, four sacks, three fumble recoveries, three defended passes, and one defensive touchdown was an impressive stat line for the linebacker. He continued to play at a high level going forward, earning four Pro Bowl nods and an All-Pro Second Team selection in 2015.
Heading into the 2021 NFL season, the feeling toward Barr is a little different. Minnesota recently restructured Barr’s current contract to clear some salary-cap space and the new terms of the deal also make him a free agent after the 2021 season.
This contract restructure isn’t something the Vikings are used to handing out. But the way the team handled the restructure of Barr should be beneficial for the future of both the team and the player, especially for the purple and gold. So what are some of the reasons why the contract restructure was brilliant?
Minnesota overpaid with the last contract
How much is familiarity worth? For the Vikings, it was worth $67.5 million, with $33 million guaranteed over the course of five seasons. $13.5 million per year is a lot of money for a linebacker who has never had five or more sacks in a season or played a full 16-game schedule since 2017.
Minnesota being able to retain the services of Barr was a bit of surprise since reports were swirling that the New York Jets were willing to pay him more money to play on the east coast. Still, Barr made the decision to come back to the Vikings.
The contract Barr previously held wasn’t a horrendous one. It was mostly front-loaded and made it easy for Minnesota to move on from him if they needed to. The odds are that his previous contract wouldn’t be completed when the guaranteed money got smaller at the end of the deal.
With his new deal, Barr will make $10 million in 2021, which should help the Vikings make some more moves in free agency or retain some of their own players. The restructured contract saves money, saves frustration down the line, and allows Barr to bet on himself going forward if he excels in 2021.
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.
Barr may have reached his ceiling
Barr will enter the 2021 NFL season at 29-years-old. He will still be in his prime during what could be his final season with the Vikings, but there has to be the question regarding whether or not fans have seen the best the linebacker has to offer.
When looking at statistics, there are some things that are quickly identifiable. Barr has never recorded more than four sacks in a season and he only has 1.5 quarterback takedowns over the 16 games he played in over the course of the last two seasons.
Barr also has been dropping back into coverage more often, but the numbers aren’t there to support that either. The linebacker defended passes at a similar rate earlier in his career when he was guarding receivers less often.
The one area where Barr has been holding steady is his tackling. Of course, linebackers need to be good tacklers in the NFL, and 2019 had the defender set a career-high with 70 tackles. However, when looking at the production as a whole, his play hasn’t been anything to throw $13.5 million per year toward.
Allows time to find a replacement
The NFL is a fickle business. Even beloved players have to move on sometimes because of financial situations or other issues. Anthony Barr has been a very good player for the Vikings for quite a while, but the writing might be on the wall about his future with the franchise.
Keeping Barr on the roster for the 2021 season ensures the transition to a new player will be smoother than if he was cut or traded this year. Now, Minnesota can look at potentially drafting or signing a linebacker this offseason if one is available for the right price.
More importantly, this gives the Vikings the chance to land a talented linebacker in the draft to potentially take over as the team’s starter. While there are other, more pressing needs for the franchise at the moment, taking the best player available is typically the right move, and if that happens to be a linebacker when Minnesota makes their top pick, it would make sense.
6 players the Vikings could pick to replace Riley Reiff at left tackle
After the release of Riley Reiff, the Minnesota Vikings will need to find someone new to fill the gap created at left tackle.
Thankfully, Eric Kendricks will still (hopefully) remain with the Vikings past 2021 since his contract has him signed through the 2023 season. Troy Dye also displayed some flashes of ability during his rookie campaign last season, so it won’t be like the team has a lack of talent in their linebacker group.