Adam Thielen's Restructured Contract is a Risky One for the Vikings
The full details of Adam Thielen's restructured contract have finally been released, and the numbers are a bit surprising. The Vikings saved roughly $5.2 million on this year's salary cap, but they set themselves up to potentially have a lot of money tied to an aging receiver — who has dealt with some injury issues in recent years — in 2023 and 2024.
Here's the full breakdown, via Over the Cap:
On March 16, 2022, Thielen restructured the payment mechanisms in his contract. His overall salary remains the same but the team increased the salary tied to per game roster bonuses as part of the new contract. Thielen received $13.3 million in full guarantees and $18.3 million in injury guarantees as part of the new contract. He also received a $9 million signing bonus. If Thielen is on the Vikings' roster on the third day of the 2023 league year, his entire salary for 2023 will be fully guaranteed. The Vikings added a void year for salary cap purposes. The new contract created $5.16 million in cap space in 2022.
So Thielen's 2022 cap hit fell from over $16.8 million to a much more manageable $11.7 million, but this wasn't a pay cut or a simple conversion of base salary to signing bonus money. Thielen also received additional guarantees that will lead to some future decisions needing to be made by the Vikings' front office.
A 2023 cap hit of nearly $20 million for a 33-year-old receiver is a lot, especially considering he's missed 11 games over the past three years and hasn't had a 1,000-yard season since 2018. A 2024 cap hit of nearly $22 million is also very significant.
However, in all likelihood, Thielen won't play those seasons at those cap numbers. The Vikings will have options in the future. They could rework the deal again next offseason before his guarantees go into effect. If he struggles to stay healthy or produce this season, they could cut him next year and designate it as post-June 1 to maximize cap savings.
The issue with post-June 1 cuts or trades is that you can't actually use that cap space before June to sign free agents or draft picks. And even if you do it that way, there's still a decent amount of dead money involved.
The bottom line is that this is a somewhat risky restructure for the Vikings. They get to keep Thielen on their roster for 2022 and create over $5 million in cap space, but things will get interesting as soon as next year. They might end up with substantial cap hits — or dead money charges — for Thielen down the road. You can always continue to adjust contracts in the future and Vikings cap guru Rob Brzezinski deserves plenty of leeway for how he's handled these things over the years, but this feels like a precarious structure for the team.
If Thielen stays healthy and shines in 2022 on a great Vikings team, no one will care too much. But if he struggles or the team does, this deal could age poorly.
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