With NFL contracts, there's always more than meets the eye. It's important to take a look at the details and structure of a deal to get a better read for what it really means.
The Vikings, for example, signed Blake Cashman to what was reported as a three-year, $22.5 million contract. They also signed Andrew Van Ginkel to a two-year, $20 million deal. But a look at the way those contracts were structured shows that GM Kwesi Adofo-Mensah and company maintained some flexibility heading into next offseason.
Here are the details of Cashman's contract, via Over the Cap:
Of the $22.5 million, only $9.475 million was fully guaranteed at signing. That includes his $7.75 million signing bonus plus $1.725 million in guaranteed salary this year. His $5.525 million 2025 (base salary, roster bonus, and workout bonus) will guarantee if he's on the roster on the third day of the league year next March.
So the Vikings have a potential out after one year if Cashman doesn't fit well in Minnesota or underperforms, although that would come with a decent chunk of dead money. They can also easily get out of the deal — or sign him to an extension — after two years, to avoid the $10.1 million cap hit in 2026.
Van Ginkel's deal is even more interesting because of the use of void years:
Of his $20 million, half was fully guaranteed at signing. That's $7 million in signing bonus and $3 million in guaranteed salary over the next two years. An additional $3 million becomes guaranteed if he's on the roster on the third day of next year's league year. Then there are the void years to spread out the signing bonus, which results in Van Ginkel having just a $3.4 million cap hit this year. That's another deal where the Vikings could move on next offseason and eat some dead money like they did with Marcus Davenport this year.
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