Michael Pierce‘s stint with the Vikings is about to come to an end. Minnesota is planning to cut the the veteran defensive tackle, reports NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport (via Twitter).
According to the reporter, the Vikings tried to convince Pierce to take a “moderate pay cut,” but the player clearly refused. The team also tried working out a trade, but despite “some feelers,” a deal never materialized. While the wording of Rapoport’s tweet seems to indicate that the Vikings are holding out hope for a deal, a release still seems imminent.
Pierce signed a three-year, $27M deal with the Vikings in 2020, but that deal was pushed to 2021 after Pierce opted out of the 2020 campaign. The 29-year-old was attached to a $10.5M cap hit in 2022, and his release will leave behind $4M in dead cap.
Pierce made his Vikings debut in 2021, collecting 20 tackles and three sacks in eight starts. He suffered an elbow injury that forced him to miss the middle chunk of the season. The Stanford product spent the first four seasons of his career with the Ravens, starting 30 of his 60 games.
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