Vikings Restructuring Danielle Hunter's Salary is a Smart Move in a Sea of Recent Mistakes
By Jerry Trotta
The Minnesota Vikings have made a flood of puzzling moves thus far in NFL free agency.
Just recently, the organization signed Kirk Cousins to a contract extension, franchise-tagged safety Anthony Harris, and won't be bringing back Everson Griffen. Those transactions came after the Vikings previously released defensive veterans Xavier Rhodes and Linval Joseph.
Finally, however, Minnesota has made a move that will come to the relief of fans. Per ESPN insider Field Yates, the Vikings have restructured the 2020 base salary of star defensive end Danielle Hunter, which will salvage $6 million in cap space.
The Vikings converted $8M of DE Danielle Hunter’s base salary into a signing bonus, creating $6M of 2020 salary cap, per source. Some flexibility for Minnesota to accommodate their free agent signings.
— Field Yates (@FieldYates) March 21, 2020
This was a much-needed move for Minnesota.
Heck, the Vikings are so desperate to preserve cap space that they stunningly released offensive lineman Josh Kline. The moved saved them less than $2 million.
Moving forward, finding a trade partner for Harris would go a long way in the Vikings righting their wrongs, but that, according to the latest buzz, is becoming less and less likely.
So the #Vikings cleared money with a Cousins deal, used it to tag Anthony Harris, haven't been able to move him and now Everson Griffen is breaking off talks. Can't imagine it's gone exactly as planned so far.
— Andrew Krammer (@Andrew_Krammer) March 20, 2020
Expect more news out of Minnesota in the days to come as the team continues to make amends for its disaster of an offseason. Tailoring Hunter's salary was a good start for general manager Rick Spielman.