The ownership of the Vikings is one of patience. They gave Rick Spielman a lot of leeway and time to build a contender, 15 years of time. During his tenure, at least towards the end, he had a salary cap strategy of pushing money into future years. Now, with Kwesi at the helm, a new salary cap strategy reveals itself.
Kwesi inherited a team deep in the muck of salary cap hell. The Vikings were over the cap by more than $15 million when he was hired. The reason they were over the cap by so much was because of the monstrosity of veteran player salaries.
However, the reason these contracts were so bloated was because of the way Spielman wanted to manipulate the salary cap. The bloated veteran contracts were not as puffy as they seemed on the surface. Spielman and salary-cap guru Rob Brzezinski built these contracts to convert roster bonuses and salary into signing bonuses.
Converting money to a signing bonus pushes cash down the road and keeps veterans on the roster. All Kwesi had to do when he came in was press the button, and the Vikings could have saved $40+ million against the cap this year. However, he has been hesitant to push the button unless absolutely necessary.
Why is Kwesi Being Hesistant With Salary Conversions?
It’s peculiar that Kwesi has only pressed the button when absolutely necessary. The Vikings, at least to fans and the media, appear to have a depleted roster. The roster has several veterans at key positions but lacks depth throughout the defense. Even worse, the Vikings have one adequate cornerback and edge rusher.
One would think that any general manager and coach coming in would recognize these obvious issues. And once they recognized the issue, they would do whatever was needed to create cap space to address the problems. This is especially true because ownership, GM, and head coach have repeatedly said they want to be contenders in 2022.
All of this leads us to a few different conclusions. Possible scenarios:
- They believe the roster has plenty of talent but was poorly coached or;
- They don’t want to tie themselves to the veterans or;
- KAM’s salary cap strategy is one of balance and doesn’t want bloated years like this year.
If I were a betting man, I would bet on number 3.
It’s difficult to look at Scenario One and honestly believe that this roster has plenty of talent. Sure, they had several close games, but the offense kept them in striking distance.
Number 2 is a real possibility, but you have to really be reading into things for that to be true. None of the press conferences by KAM, O’Connell, or ownership appear to indicate anything of the sort.
This leaves us with number 3. It seems that KAM just has a different strategy, which is great. This is what fans wanted after calling for Spielman to be ousted.
Kwesi is Looking to the Future
So far, Kwesi has been working to restructure veteran contracts. He gave Cousins a one-year extension and restructured Thielen’s contract. He also pushed the button to convert Harrison Smith’s roster bonus into a signing bonus and saved $6 million this year. However, he refused to do the same with Danielle Hunter.
Kwesi could have easily, and still can, converted Hunter’s contract, but it seems he wants to work out a long-term deal or trade him. By not converting the roster bonus, Kwesi is looking to the future.
He knows he will be extending Justin Jefferson in 2023 and will probably need $25-30 million per year to do so. He is also considering what the team will look like in 2023 if and when he releases veterans like Kendricks or Cook. Therefore, he is trying to make cap space in 2022 without impacting 2023.
With the way it stands right now, 2023 has more than $41 million in salary-cap space.
A balanced book is what Vikings fans should expect moving forward. Hopefully, this puts the franchise in a position to build a contender.
"strategy" - Google News
March 19, 2022 at 02:00PM
https://ift.tt/c74uP2J
Vikings New GM’s Salary Cap Strategy Begins to Unfold - VikingsTerritory.com
"strategy" - Google News
https://ift.tt/f6I2bzP
https://ift.tt/GsIQkAl
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "Vikings New GM’s Salary Cap Strategy Begins to Unfold - VikingsTerritory.com"
Post a Comment