Vikings TE Kyle Rudolph Says He Won't Take a Restructured Deal This Offseason

The longtime Vikings tight end could be a cap casualty this year.

Heading into the 2021 offseason, Vikings tight end Kyle Rudolph's future is up in the air. He's coming off of a second straight season with fewer than 400 receiving yards after clearing that mark for four straight years. He's also set to have a cap hit of nearly $9.5 million in the second year of a four-year contract, which would currently be the fourth-highest cap hit of any NFL tight end.

The Vikings have young TEs Irv Smith Jr. and Tyler Conklin on the roster and could create over $5 million in cap space by moving on from Rudolph (though they'd have to take on over $4 million in dead money). As such, there has been a lot of speculation that the longest-tenured Viking may have played his final snap in Minnesota.

In a recent appearance on Ben Leber's podcast, Unrestricted, Rudolph addressed his future and noted that he doesn't feel like he's been used to his full potential as a pass-catcher over the past couple seasons.

"Early [in the 2019] season, the writing was on the wall," Rudolph said. "I had like seven or eight catches through the first six games, it was absurd. I was literally blocking all the time."

"I'm realistic," he added. "I see both sides. I'm looking at this situation like hey we're paying this guy a lot of money and you're not using him, so why are we paying him a lot of money? I think I'm worth every dime of my contract, but that doesn't mean that I'm used to my potential and I'm used to do what I do well."

It's clear that Rudolph is frustrated with his lack of opportunities in the passing game. He was drafted in the second round back in 2011 to be a big part of the Vikings' offense. And that was the case for many years. From 2016 to 2018, he ranked third in receptions among tight ends (204), sixth in receiving yards (2,006), and fourth in touchdowns (19). But as the Vikings shifted to a more run-heavy approach in 2019, Rudolph's production dwindled.

Despite drafting his eventual replacement in Smith in the second round and knowing they would be running the ball more, the Vikings still signed Rudolph to a four-year, $36 million contract extension prior to the 2019 season. Over the past two years, he has just 701 yards and eight touchdowns (including a career-low one this past season) in 28 regular season games.

Rudolph told Leber that he wants to remain in Minnesota. He's been in the state for ten years, has raised a family here, and has deep ties to the community through his charitable work. But he also said he doesn't just want to be an extra blocker.

"I've had multiple opportunities to get to free agency and it's never been appealing to me because I don't want to be anywhere else but here," he said. "I wanna be on the first team that wins [a Super Bowl] here. With that being said, I want to be a reason why we win the championship, I don't want to just be a swing tackle."

The Vikings keeping Rudolph on his current 2021 cap hit seems unlikely for a team that needs to find avenues to create cap space in a pandemic-affected year. But Rudolph has made it clear that he's not going to take a pay cut to help the team and stay in Minnesota. If that wasn't clear with the "worth every dime of my contract" comment, he made it even more apparent.

“[A restructured deal] is not going to happen," he said. "I feel like I have a lot of good football left. At 31, with how I feel physically, knowing what I can still do. It’s simply a lack of opportunities. In the past I was the one getting red zone targets. I can’t sign up for that again.”

So, unless the Vikings decide to keep him around and create cap space through other avenues, Rudolph might be headed elsewhere. They could try to trade him, perhaps to somewhere like Seattle, which just lost Greg Olsen to retirement. But they may have to just release him and move forward with Smith and Conklin.

If this is it for Rudolph in Minnesota, it was a hell of a decade-long run.

You can listen to the full Unrestricted podcast with Leber and Rudolph here. 

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