According to ESPN’s Courtney Cronin, the Vikings fielded trade interest for TE Kyle Rudolph before and during the draft.
Because Minnesota is hard up against the cap and just drafted TE Irv Smith Jr, Rudolph makes sense as a potential trade candidate.
Trading Rudolph would free up $7.625 million according to Over The Cap.
However, Vikings GM Rick Spielman has said they’re fine keeping both Smith and Rudolph, seeing as they’re two different types of tight ends.
The Vikings could still try to restructure or extend Rudolph’s contract to create more cap room. Rudolph said earlier this offseason he’s open to something like that, but Cronin says such a move has yet to pan out.
Rudolph will be an unrestricted free agent in 2020.
Rudolph, 29, is a former second-round pick of the Vikings back in 2011. He’s currently in the final year of his five-year, $36,500,000 contract and stands to make a base salary $7,275,000 for the 2019 season.
In 2018, Rudolph appeared in all 16 games for the Vikings and caught 64 passes for 634 yards receiving and four touchdowns.
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