Today marks the halfway point of our six-part series looking at the teams that have racked up the biggest spending debt ahead of the 2026 offseason and how they’ll get back under the salary cap. Per Over The Cap, these six teams are currently tens of millions in the red in expected cap space (accounting for draft pick signings and filling out a full roster) for the 2026 season. “Cap hell” might be too strong a term, but these six teams are in a tough spot financially.  

• Chiefs (-$61.7M)
• Cowboys (-$59.9M)
• Vikings (-$51M)
• Dolphins ($-29.7M)
• Browns (-$27M)
• Saints (-$26.3M)

Salary cap space is fungible, but teams do have to be in the black by the time the league year starts in March. That means each of the six squads highlighted will have some decisions to make, and we’ll be diving into what those might be. 

Next up, the Minnesota Vikings — one of 2025’s most perplexing teams. 

Minnesota Vikings: -$51,070,950

Teams prize the rookie quarterback window and the ability to load up the rest of the roster around that cheap contract. Minnesota has maxed out that flexibility with a veteran-laden team, which is what made QB J.J. McCarthy’s inconsistencies so painful this year. The rest of the team was built to contend for the division, they just didn’t get what they needed from the quarterback room. 

Going forward, the short-term goals probably don’t change. The Vikings will push to be as competitive as possible, maintaining the strengths of the roster, shoring up the weaknesses and hoping for a big step forward from McCarthy (or veteran insurance) to make it all come together. The good news for them is that the roster doesn’t need overhauling, just maintenance, and even with a $50 million hole that’s a reasonable undertaking. 

Right now the biggest cap hit on the roster next year is WR Justin Jefferson at $38 million. Minnesota can restructure that and bring it down to $20 million, which is a virtual certainty considering his $25 million salary is already guaranteed. Vikings LT Christian Darrisaw also has a guaranteed salary in 2026, with a restructure saving $9.2 million on his 2026 number. While he’s missed a few games and had to do maintenance on his knee all year after tearing his ACL in 2024, Darrisaw is still just 26 years old and a building block piece for Minnesota on offense. 

Several other players stand out as restructure candidates. Not only do CB Byron Murphy, OL Will Fries and TE Josh Oliver have 2026 base salaries that are already guaranteed, but their deals also have empty void years tacked onto the end to maximize savings from any restructure. It’s not a guarantee that the team will use that flexibility but it does show they were thinking about it when they put together the contract. It’s also noteworthy that restructuring Murphy ($11.4 million in savings), Fries ($9.2 million) and Oliver ($4.2 million), along with Jefferson and Darrisaw, would give Minnesota enough cap space to get back in the black in effective cap space. 

That’s step one for the offseason. Step two is figuring out how much budget is needed for other moves and what the acceptable trade-offs to get it are. 

Decision Time

The Vikings have a long, long list of older veteran starters with hefty salaries who they need to make decisions regarding their status in 2026. Complicating matters is that several of these players already have guaranteed salary next year, meaning Minnesota can’t move on with no strings attached. This list includes: 

• 31-year-old RT Brian O’Neill ($19.5 million compensation in 2026, zero guaranteed)
• 29-year-old OLB Jonathan Greenard ($19 million, zero guaranteed)
• 31-year-old DT Jonathan Allen ($17 million, $8 million guaranteed)
• 29-year-old TE T.J. Hockenson ($16 million, zero guaranteed)
• 31-year-old OLB Andrew Van Ginkel ($16 million, $5 million guaranteed)
• 33-year-old DT Javon Hargrave ($15 million, $4 million guaranteed)
• 33-year-old C Ryan Kelly ($12.1 million, zero guaranteed)
• 32-year-old RB Aaron Jones ($10 million, $2 million guaranteed)

The overarching goal the Vikings should have for this cohort of players is assessing what kind of production they can expect going forward to try and stay ahead of any age and injury cliffs. Even if McCarthy takes a step forward in 2026, the Vikings could find themselves let down again if they end up relying on too many of these players to maintain or exceed their production. All eight are starters, so moving on would result in a hole that would then need to be plugged. The question for the Vikings is whether that can be accomplished for less than they’re currently spending. 

Starting at the top, next year is going to be the final year of O’Neill’s contract, making him a prime candidate for an extension that could lower his scheduled salary cap hit. He’s been a constant for Minnesota, starting 118 games and counting over the past eight years with two Pro Bowl appearances. Pro Football Focus grades him as the No. 12 tackle right now. 

Tackles tend to be able to play well into their 30s and the scarcity of the position makes teams willing to invest. There’s recent precedent for players over 30 signing new extensions, including Panthers RT Taylor Moton, Broncos LT Garett Bolles and Falcons LT Jake Matthews. The Vikings will have to push O’Neill’s average annual salary into the $22-$25 million per year range, but they should be able to lock him up and lower his cap number. 

Extending O’Neill has the added benefit of keeping the offensive ecosystem around McCarthy or whoever is under center as strong as possible, and that should also incentivize the Vikings to figure something out with Hockenson. After looking like a rising star, a severe knee injury left him playing catch-up all of 2024. This year, he has 50 catches for 436 yards and three touchdowns in 14 games. While $16 million would be a premium for that production, the Vikings may believe it’s rooted more in their overall inconsistencies on offense, not Hockenson having lost a step post-injury. 

Stability on offense notwithstanding, Kelly is a cut candidate to watch given his age, salary and extensive injury history, including multiple concussions this year. He could even end up making the decision for Minnesota and choosing retirement. Kelly has $3.3 million of his $12 million compensation tied up in a roster bonus. The date of that bonus is probably a deadline for the two sides to make a decision, especially if it’s around March. 

Flipping over to the defense, there’s a lot for the Vikings to sort through up front. There’s a potential logjam shaping up at edge rusher, with second-year OLB Dallas Turner, a former first-rounder, taking a tangible step forward. He’s tied for the team lead with 5.5 sacks and has played the most snaps of the trio, with Van Ginkel and now Greenard each missing a handful of games. The Vikings don’t have to make a true decision for at least one more year and probably two, as that’s when Turner will become eligible for a new deal, but they might not be able to extend Van Ginkel again.

Instead, both Van Ginkel and Greenard are restructure candidates, even though Van Ginkel is in a contract year. In the one-year extension he signed this past offseason, the Vikings put in a bunch of void years, enough to do a max restructure of his deal this offseason. Greenard’s salary isn’t guaranteed and he had just three sacks while playing through a shoulder injury that eventually shut him down for the year. But he’s a strong restructure candidate as well. Those two moves would each save Minnesota about $11-$12 million in cap space. 

Hargrave and Allen were two of Minnesota’s high-profile additions this past offseason, and Allen leads all of them in snaps at north of 75 percent. Just behind him, though, has been the Vikings’ best defensive tackle, breakout second-year starter Jalen Redmond. He’s at 74 percent of the snaps ahead of Hargrave at 51 percent. Youngsters Levi Drake Rodriguez (40 percent) and fifth-rounder Tyrion Ingram-Dawkins (22 percent) round out the rotation. As far as how they’re doing, Minnesota’s internal grades would be the best way to assess that, but without access to those we’ll lean on PFF, which ranks them Redmond (16th), Hargrave (33rd), Rodriguez (45th), Ingram-Dawkins (61st) and Allen (97th, out of 129 qualifiers). 

The Vikings probably think Allen is doing better than that if they’re willing to play him on so many snaps, and with half his salary for next year guaranteed already, he probably isn’t going anywhere. There is an out for Hargrave’s contract, which ends after the upcoming season, if the Vikings want to save $11 million and bank on the younger players continuing to excel. But that will probably depend on what they foresee from Hargrave in 2026. There’s a strong case to be made for keeping a strength strong and preserving the front seven intact. 

Jones is entering a contract year as well, and while he still has some juice, it’s hard to say it’s $10 million worth of juice. He’s at the age where the precipice can hit at any moment, especially for running backs, and he had a stint on injured reserve this year. With $2 million guaranteed on his contract, he’s a prime candidate for a pay cut with that representing a solid value floor. 

Balancing Act

How many of these deals the Vikings need to evaluate depends on what sort of activity they’re planning to have this offseason. They don’t have a long pending list of free agents. The group includes WR Jalen Nailor, LB Eric Wilson and LB Ivan Pace, who’s a restricted free agent. Pace and Wilson should be quite reasonable to bring back given the market for their position, while another team might be willing to give Nailor a bag that the Vikings don’t want to match, not with WR Jordan Addison approaching time for a new extension. 

So most of the spending will probably be directed outside the building. Quarterback is a need, with how McCarthy performs in the final three games dictating the level of urgency. Perhaps a reliable backup ends up being all that is needed; perhaps Minnesota ends up needing to pursue someone with a little more gravitas. Wide receiver will be an emphasis if Nailor walks, and so will safety with the presumed retirement of veteran S Harrison Smith. Center and linebacker could require attention as well, depending on what happens with Kelly, Wilson and Pace, and the Vikings could also look to make a splash at running back. 

Even though HC Kevin O’Connell is held in high regard around the league, the Vikings don’t have a playoff victory in two appearances in the four years since he and GM Kwesi Adofo-Mensah took over. Adofo-Mensah, at minimum, should be feeling some pressure, and O’Connell made a big bet on McCarthy that he undoubtedly is feeling some urgency about. There will be a pull to double down on the current course with the roster. But with so many aging veterans, the Vikings run the risk of hitting the age cliff in a hurry and spinning their wheels for another season. How they balance that over the next year is going to be fascinating to track.