Keep, Cut or Restructure: Minnesota Vikings Edition

Editor's note: Since this article was posted, the Vikings have announced the cuts of Rhodes and Joseph as well as David Morgan.

It's not a secret that the Minnesota Vikings are in a salary cap predicament in the 2020 offseason.

As it stands now, the Vikings have less than $1 million in available salary-cap space -- $746,556 to be exact. It's not a very inspiring number as the NFL free-agency period looms.

However, while the situation looks bleak on the surface, Minnesota does have some flexibility. Several of the Vikings' most expensive contracts have been set up so that the team can get out with little penalty.

The Vikings were above the cap before Everson Griffen opted out of his deal to test free agency. Xavier Rhodes, Linval Joseph and Riley Reiff are three more players who are set to make $10 million or more in 2020 on their current deals. Additionally, each of them carries little dead money and thus could save the Vikings some money if cut.

And of course, as has been the case so many times in the past, restructuring any of these deals is also a possibility to provide the player more guaranteed money but a lower base salary. Perhaps just keeping the player on his current deal also makes the most sense.

Let's take a look at the contracts of Rhodes, Joseph and Reiff and see which scenario benefits the Vikings the most.

Xavier Rhodes

The 2017 All-Pro cornerback has declined quickly over the past two seasons. Whether it can be attributed to injuries, age or both, Rhodes looked like a shell of his prime self in 2019 and teams took notice. It's been said often that Minnesota's cornerbacks, as a whole, took a step back in 2019 and Rhodes' performance is seemingly a big reason for it.

Yes, Rhodes was a Pro Bowler in 2019. But let's not kid ourselves -- the Pro Bowl is a popularity contest more than a true evaluation of performance. According to Pro Football Focus, Rhodes allowed a completion percentage of 84.3 percent and a passer rating of 127.8 in 2019. Meanwhile, of the 120 cornerbacks who played 300 snaps in 2019, only six had a lower PFF grade than Rhodes.

Rhodes has a cap hit of $12.9 million in 2020, $14.1 million in 2021 and $13.8 million in 2022. He also carries dead cap figures of $4.8 million in 2020 and $2.4 million in 2021. So, if the Vikings were to cut Rhodes this offseason, they would save a total of about $33 million over three seasons and about $8 million in 2020.

That seems like a no-brainer. Cornerbacks don't suddenly become stars again during the back half of their careers. Rhodes has previously been a true shutdown corner and played a key role in Minnesota's success. Unfortunately, those times appear to be over.

VERDICT: Cut.

Linval Joseph

Joseph has been another key cog in Mike Zimmer's defense over the past several years, taking up space at the line of scrimmage and stuffing the run better than almost every interior defensive lineman in football.

In 2019, it looked like Joseph's decline was starting to take shape. He was still a solid, reliable defender in the middle for Minnesota. However, the Vikings were unable to stop the run in most of their losses in 2019. Aaron Jones ran all over the Vikings twice. Seattle churned up big run after big run to put the Vikings away. Damien Williams broke loose for a 91-yard touchdown to put the Chiefs over the top against Minnesota. And of course, the 49ers could not be stopped in the Divisional Round playoff loss.

This isn't to say Joseph is solely at fault for these results. That would be irresponsible. But would the Vikings have been run over in that fashion a couple of seasons ago? Maybe not. But Joseph is 31 and will turn 32 in 2020. It likely won't get better moving forward.

Joseph is set to make over $12 million in each of the next three seasons and has a dead cap penalty of $2.4 million in 2020 and $1.2 million in 2021. In total, the Vikings could save about $34 million over the next three seasons by cutting Joseph, including $10.4 million in 2020.

On one hand, there doesn't appear to be an immediate fill-in option to replace Joseph at nose tackle for the Vikings. That's the leverage Joseph has and why a restructure does make sense. However, over $10 million in savings in 2020 and $34 million altogether is too much to pass up.

VERDICT: Cut.

Riley Reiff

The left tackle position is one of the most fascinating in all of sports, let alone football. In general, evaluating offensive line performance is a bit of an estimation because in many cases, the viewers have no idea what the assignments are. What the viewers can see is how the players look in one-on-one situations.

Reiff would likely qualify as an average to above-average left tackle by many accounts. He holds his own against most opponents, while elite pass rushers can give him fits. In the run game, he's always been rock solid -- but in a passing league, protection skills are far more valuable.

Reiff's cap hit is $13.2 million in 2020 and $13.9 million in 2021. Reiff's dead money penalties over the next two seasons are $4.4 million and $2.2 million, respectively, allowing the Vikings to save a total of about $20 million over the next two seasons if Reiff was cut.

However, average to above-average left tackles are hard to come by. This is where Reiff has leverage, and it wouldn't be surprising to see him get a contract similar to these numbers in free agency. From that perspective, keeping Reiff makes the most sense.

Without knowing what kind of interest Reiff would have in a restructure, it stands to wonder if the Vikings could guarantee Reiff about $8-10 million in 2020 and 2021 in order to bring down the cap hits and save a few million dollars. Reiff gets guaranteed money for the next two seasons while the Vikings get just a little bit more flexibility to make a move for the 2020 season.

Does Reiff have any interest in a restructure? Nobody knows. But if the Vikings do want to make one more run at a ring under this regime in 2020, the front office will want as much cap space as possible. They could free up about $18 million by cutting Rhodes and Joseph and another $3-5 million or so by restructuring Reiff's deal.

Cutting Reiff outright would net the Vikings an additional $9 million in 2020, but that leaves you without a reliable left tackle; probably not a road the Vikings want to go down (again).

VERDICT: Restructure.