Vikings Situation is Quietly Taking a ‘Nasty Turn for the Worse’

   

The start of the NFL season is ticking closer, and excitement is building by the day, especially for the Minnesota Vikings. The franchise is coming up on an important 2025-26 season for more reasons than one, but the main reason is because it will bring the debut of quarterback J.J. McCarthy, who was out last year with an injury.

Minnesota Vikings head coach.

On top of McCarthy being back, the Vikings are seen as a contender this year. They had a solid record in 2024-25, with 14 games won and three lost, so they have lots of success on which to build. Now, heading into the 2025-26 season, the Vikings have added some solid draft picks and other players, so they’re in good shape.

But, looking to the 2026-27 season, that could be a different story. While so much focus is on the upcoming season right now, there are quietly some problems going into the following year that the team will eventually need to address.


Inside the Minnesota Vikings’ Cap Situation

The Vikings could be in hot water when it comes to their salary cap situation for the 2026-27 season. In a feature for the Viking Age published by Luke Norris on Saturday, July 19, Norris says that the team’s “salary cap situation takes a nasty turn for the worse in 2026.”

The Vikings will head  into training camp with $23,540,752 in available cap space, according to Over the Cap. But, Norris warns that “while some may want the Vikings to use some of this available cash to fill the remaining holes on the roster, Minnesota would undoubtedly be better off by letting this money roll over into next year,” because of the 2026 situation.

 

The Vikings signed Justin Jefferson to a four-year, $140 million extension in June 2024, which was a huge contract at the time and made him the highest-paid non-quarterback in NFL history. “Justin Jefferson and the Minnesota Vikings agreed to an historic four-year, $140 million contract extension that includes $110 million guaranteed for practical purposes, and $88.7 million fully guaranteed at signing,” Spotrac noted at the time.

“Now, with the way the deal was constructed, Jefferson’s cap hit for the upcoming 2025 campaign,” Norris adds in the piece, “which is the first of the contract, is just $15,167,600, which ranks fourth among Vikings players behind right tackle Brian O’Neill ($26,019,114), defensive end Jonathan Greenard ($22,300,000), and tight end T.J. Hockenson ($16,649,118).”


The Numbers Are Daunting for the Vikings

The kicker is that in 2026, Jefferson’s figure goes up to $38,987,600, followed by $43,487,600 in 2027 and $47,487,600 in 2028. Also, the Vikings have just two players with cap hits exceeding $20 million this season, but that becomes seven the following year, which hurts.

“From an overall standpoint, the Vikings are currently set to have -$60,822,694 in available cap space in 2026,” Norris notes. “Yes, that’s a negative sign in front of the amount.”

That’s a freaky situation, to have negative cap space, but the franchise will move things around before then to free up some space, of course, and make it a bit less negative. Still, it’s a daunting situation and one the Minnesota Vikings should try to resolve as soon as possible and before it’s too late.