Steve Roberts-Imagn Images

Contract details for Josh Oliver prove Kwesi Adofo-Mensah's brilliance and further open the door for a blockbuster move

Originally posted on A to Z Sports | By Tyler Forness | Last updated Jun 24, 2025 6:28 PM ET

The Minnesota Vikings have made a lot of moves this offseason, but the extensions from general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah, including his own, have been the biggest stories.

The latest of those went to tight end Josh Oliver. He signed a three-year deal worth up to $27.5 million. He was set to have a salary cap hit of just over $9 million this year, but it was going to be curious on how things would look in terms of structure.

Josh Oliver's contract extension proves Kwesi Adofo-Mensah's brilliance

When you look at Oliver's contract extension, there are multiple elements to look at:

What are the cap hits in each year?
How does the dead money each year look like?
Is there flexibility for Adofo-Mensah to maneuver with the cap hits?

Over The Cap has the details for Oliver's contract extension and it's set up well for the Vikings.

Over The Cap

Things are very flexible for the Vikings when it comes to Oliver. If they need to move on from Oliver after 2026, they can do so with some cap savings. They can also maneuver the base salary if they need to get cap space quickly.

The real brilliance here from Adofo-Mensah is the cap hits over the next two years haven't changed much in total dollar amount, adding slightly less than $2 million in that time frame. However, this year's cap hit dropped about $5 million, giving the Vikings $23,540,752 in salary cap space going into training camp.

This raises another question. Could the Vikings be in line for a big move? There are some really interesting players out there for the Vikings to attack, but the biggest one is Jalen Ramsey.

Making a move for Ramsey would be a huge signal to the fanbase that they are going all-in to win a Super Bowl, and they will have ample cap space to make it happen. Now, Ramsey is due an option bonus of about $18.9 million on August 31st, meaning the Dolphins would need to move him before that date.

The Vikings could absorb his contract if they so choose, and the cap hit for could be as low as $5.1 million, or up to $9.9 million if the Vikings have to pay his $4 million roster bonus and $765,000 in per game roster bonuses

That could end up giving the Vikings an elite cornerback, while also keeping the cap hits reasonable this year and beyond, as his cap hit would project out to be around $18 million, as he would be projected to get another option bonus in 2026 and 2027.

The Oliver contract extension gives the Vikings more flexibility, and that could be a huge factor for the Vikings' potential Super Bowl run.

This article first appeared on A to Z Sports and was syndicated with permission.

More must-reads: