Vikings Restructure Harrison Smith Contract And Create $6 Million In Cover Space

In order to create some rooms under the salary cap, the Minnesota Vikings They restructured the contract of one of its longest-term members.

Per ESPN’s Yates Field, the Vikings restructured Harrison Smith’s safety contract. The move gives them $6 million in cover space, which they needed to formally make the deals they’ve agreed on for the past two days.

Smith has a list bonus of $8 million due this week. The Vikings turned this list bonus into a signing bonus, a move that would allow them to spread the amount over the length of Smith’s contract. This is where the $6 million savings cap for this year comes from.

Teams don’t need to ask players for permission to turn roster bonuses into signature bonuses, so it’s an easy way to lower the cap for most teams. It remains to be seen whether or not the Vikings will follow the same approach with defensive end Daniel Hunter. Hunter had a hefty $18 million bonus owed on Sunday, but turning it into a signing bonus would save them $13.5 million off this year’s cap.

We’ll likely see some other moves like this over the next few days, but the new front desk got the ball rolling by re-executing Harrison Smith’s deal to create a cover room.