Roger Goodell's latest comments threaten Minnesota Vikings GM Kwesi Adofo-Mensah's brilliant team building strategy

Vikings team building strategy could be in jeopardy

The use of void years isn't a new practice, but it's one that seems to have the owners looking to eliminate. Commissioner Roger Goodell heavily alluded to that when he spoke at the owners meetings last week. 

“There are no formal plans on any discussions,” Goodell told reporters. “We obviously continue to be in close communication with the union on a variety of matters, but no start of negotiations have been set or are under consideration really at this point. We did spend time today talking, at length, about areas of our Collective Bargaining Agreement that we want to focus on. The two areas that we spent time on were really the cap system itself, the integrity of that system, how’s it working, where do we need to address that in the context of collective bargaining, when that does happen. That was a very lengthy discussion."

While Goodell didn't directly say that they will be looking to get rid of void years, it does seem that it was the focus of the discussion. Over The Cap's Jason Fitzgerald believes that to be the case.

Why would the NFL try to eliminate the practice of void years? It's relatively simple: some teams can't afford to do it. The reason? Escrow.

When you sign a player to a contract, the entirety of the guarantees in each player's contract needs to go into escrow to ensure that the players get paid. Now, this is a policy that was implemented decades ago because players weren't being paid in proper time, as an escrow account ensures that their pay will be distributed in a timely manner.

The reality is that some teams can afford to front a ton of money and spread it out over multiple years with the salary cap because they have the cash on hand to make it happen. Other organizations aren't flush with that much cash, and have to structure their contracts much differently. 

You can argue that it creates a competitive imbalance because some can do it while other's can't. However, the ability to do something doesn't mean they don't have it at their disposal if they so choose.

There are other elements at play with Goodell's comments, including future CBA negotiations, but this could be a major impact on the Vikings, both short and long-term.

If void years do go away, we can blame the Philadelphia Eagles for willing a Super Bowl on the back of them.