When the Minnesota Vikings hired Kwesi Adofo-Mensah as their general manager in 2022, he inherited a number of difficult situations the previous regime left when they were trying to push the team all-in. One of those conundrums was Danielle Hunter‘s contract, which had an $18 million roster bonus set to hit the cap during the first week of free agency.
The Spielman/Zimmer Vikings put that bonus in place to force a decision. After missing 2020 with injury, Hunter was unhappy with the contract he signed in 2018. It did not pay him commensurately with the best edge rushers in the league, even though he had played up to that standard. While the Vikings were unwilling to commit more money to a player coming off of a tricky neck injury, they placated Hunter by moving money forward to force the contract back on the negotiating table in 2022.
Hunter got injured again in 2021, and the regime change meant that Adofo-Mensah was not part of Spielman’s planning. With a number of roster holes to tackle, Minnesota’s GM punted on Hunter’s contract situation, converting the roster bonus into signing bonus while adding void years to spread out the big cap hit.
That action led to Hunter being scheduled to earn just $5.5 million in cash in 2023. That number is untenable for one of the league’s top pass rushers, and a player who bounced back with 10.5 sacks in 2022. After a short hold-in by Hunter during the first week of training camp, Hunter and the Vikings resolved that situation on Monday, and Hunter agreed to an adjusted contract that pays him $17 million in 2023 with a chance for $3 million more in incentives.
BREAKDOWN OF CONTRACT DETAILS
ESPN’s Field Yates provided the details for Hunter’s modified contract:
The new contract increased Hunter’s 2023 cap hit by over $7 million, and the Vikings are left with about $10.27 million in cap space after this move. It also increased the dead cap hit the Vikings will take in 2024 if Hunter’s contract voids, from $11.5 million to just over $14.9 million. The Vikings are projected to have around $50.5 million in cap space in 2024 after this adjustment.
Importantly, this move leaves the Vikings with space to extend two critical players who are due for extensions, T.J. Hockenson and Justin Jefferson. If extended, Hockenson will likely cost less than his current $9.3 million against the cap. Jefferson counts less than $4.2 million against the cap this year. He will likely see that number go up, but it will be very easy to mitigate the increase.
Another important note is that the Vikings will still be eligible for a compensatory pick if Hunter leaves in free agency in 2024, per Nick Korte of Over the Cap.
While his contract contains void years, the Vikings did not change the original term of his contract, which was set to expire after 2023. A contract that is shortened with void years, like Anthony Barr‘s (his contract voided in 2021, but was originally set to expire in 2023), is treated like the player is cut, and will not earn a compensatory pick. But if a deal is signed with void years on it (like Dalvin Tomlinson this year) or if the void years are tacked on to the end of an existing deal, the team is still eligible to earn a compensatory pick for that player.
Hunter Returning averts the potential for a disastrous pass rush
The Vikings are thin at the edge rusher position after Za’Darius Smith departed. Only Marcus Davenport has shown serious potential as an edge rusher, and he has missed time during every season of his career so far with injury. Behind him, only D.J. Wonnum and Pat Jones II have been rotational players in the NFL. Neither has flashed high-level pass-rush potential throughout their careers.
Without Hunter, the edge-rush group had the potential to devolve into something similar to what we saw in 2020, when Yannick Ngakoue led the team with five sacks even though they traded him halfway through the season. Or in 2021, when the team plummeted from sixth in defensive EPA/play with Hunter to 23rd after he got hurt in Week 8. The team was able to manufacture sacks in 2021 due to Mike Zimmer’s pressure schemes. (Playing against rookie Justin Fields and geriatric Ben Roethlisberger didn’t hurt either.) But they had to blitz to do so, and that took away coverage resources that hurt the defense.
Now that Hunter is back in the fold, the Vikings will hopefully avoid a similar fate in Brian Flores’ defense.
when will kwesi commit?
When the Vikings brought in Adofo-Mensah as GM, he pushed the concept of a competitive rebuild. He wants the team to be contenders every year while improving the roster health with younger players on good contracts. Over his two offseasons, the team has shed a number of contracts for aging veterans, and the organization made bets on young players with upside in free agency, like Byron Murphy, Marcus Davenport, and Josh Oliver.
However, Adofo-Mensah has not committed to a player long-term. Everyone expects that first player to be Justin Jefferson, but Vikings fans will stay paranoid until the ink dries on his contract. Adofo-Mensah has not signed a player for longer than three years since becoming a GM. The only three veterans who he has signed — C.J. Ham, Josh Oliver, and Garrett Bradbury — are under contract for 2025. Notably, the Vikings turned down an extension offer from Kirk Cousins’ camp this offseason.
Why weren’t the Vikings able to extend Hunter long term? It likely has to do with Hunter’s asking price more than Minnesota’s desire to keep him, as Jeremy Fowler reported:
Minnesota’s approach isn’t necessarily new, with the understanding that Hunter likely wants a trade or release, absent a new deal. The Vikings have attempted to extend Hunter, but not on a long-term deal the player feels is commensurate with his skill set, sources said.
That quote could mean a lot of things, but I expect Hunter wanted to be paid like one of the best edge rushers on the market. He was seeking a deal that approached Myles Garrett‘s $25 million per year average. Given that the Vikings were willing to go up to an almost $21 million cap hit to keep Hunter, I expect they were offering him an extension in the $20 to $21 million per year range. Notably, that’s below Bradley Chubb‘s, extension for $22 million per year with the Miami Dolphins, even though Hunter is clearly the superior player. The difference is that Chubb, who was 26 at signing, is entering his prime. Conversely, Hunter will turn 29 halfway through the season, meaning he will be leaving his.
kWESI BOUGHT GOOD WILL FOR FUTURE PLAYERS, NOT JUST DANIELLE hUNTER
As outlined above, while Minnesota’s second-year GM didn’t inherit the situation with Hunter, the hold-in forced him to take action. From the outside, Adofo-Mensah has appeared somewhat difficult to negotiate with during his tenure. The Vikings haven’t signed any player (outside of draft picks) for longer than three years. On top of that, they moved on from a number of players, including long-time starters Adam Thielen, Eric Kendricks, and Dalvin Cook. They also restructured Harrison Smith‘s contract so the star safety is making significantly less money.
Of particular note is the Za’Darius Smith situation. The edge rusher forced his way off the team because he was unhappy with the way his contract was set up. Adofo-Mensah chose not to re-work Smith’s deal, instead trading him to the Cleveland Browns for limited additional compensation. In that case, the difference was that the Browns were willing to guarantee Smith the full $11.7 million, while with the Vikings he would have had to earn up to his $10 million salary in signing bonuses. This, combined with Smith handling the situation by selling his house and publicly maneuvering for a trade, seemed to indicate that the Vikings were willing to play hardball with players.
It was fair to question whether the Vikings would do the same with Hunter. He was asking for significantly more money and also faced injury questions. Under the current CBA, players under contract have very little leverage, so the team could have tried to force Hunter to play on his current deal. They could have also traded him, and there was clearly reported interest from other teams.
Instead, Adofo-Mensah and Hunter came to an agreement that was beneficial to both sides. Hunter gets more money, and the Vikings get to keep him for this season. That type of compromise can be beneficial to future negotiations, where players see the team is reasonable. This is backed up by Albert Breer’s reporting, who found that Thielen, Cook, and Harrison Smith all thought Adofo-Mensah communicated well and negotiated in good faith.
Having a GM who players and agents feel is treating them fairly is very important for a team in contract negotiations. The goodwill that Kwesi brings will be critical for negotiations with young stars such as Jefferson, Christian Darrisaw, and Hockenson.
Hunter could remain with the team beyond 2023
One might assume that a short-term contract means Hunter will leave in free agency after the season, but he has already expressed interest in returning to the team, telling beat reporters that he wants “to be a Viking forever.”
The two sides were unable to come to terms on a long-term deal. As mentioned above, that means that the Vikings were not offering what Hunter wanted on an extension, but either side could change the price next year.
Without Hunter being available on the free market, he might have priced himself higher than teams will be willing to pay in free agency last year. In 2022, Patrick Peterson had his contract void and decided to return to Minnesota after not earning a bigger deal from another team.
In another example, this past offseason Darius Slay had contract negotiations break down with the Philadelphia Eagles to the point where he expected them to release him. However, Slay returned to the Eagles less than a day later, just as free agency started. This is speculation, but I expect Slay, an aging player, wasn’t able to get the money he was expecting from other teams and decided to return. A similar situation could occur for Hunter after this upcoming season.
On the other side of things, this season the Vikings tried to re-sign Dalvin Tomlinson, going so far to move the void date for his contract back. They were ultimately unable to extend him. The Browns came in and paid him $15 million per year, which is significantly more than he was making in Minnesota.
If a team comes in and offers Hunter a big contract, the Vikings will be able to let him walk and get a third-round compensatory pick for their troubles. But if they are willing to pay him enough to extend him, they will receive a hidden benefit. Minnesota has about $50.5 million in cap space in 2024. Because of the way void years work with signing bonus proration, Hunter is currently to cost the Vikings about $14.9 million in dead cap in 2024. If they extend him, about $7.45 million of that will be moved into future years, so any extension they reach with Hunter will have a discount of that $7.45 million in the first season in terms of the cap. Obviously, that money will have to be paid in future years, but the impact becomes increasingly less as the cap continues to increase each season.
