That means the Vikings just gained an extra $2.1 million toward the 2020 salary cap, an amount that represents the prorated portion of Michael Pierce's signing bonus, as well as his workout bonus. In total, the Vikings save about $5 million toward the 2020 cap because of his decision to opt out.CBS Sports wrote:Regarding players that elect to opt out of the 2020 season, the league and players agreed to remove those players' prorated signing bonuses from their team's 2020 books and roll them over to the following season, potentially creating millions in cap room that can be used to either replace those players for this season or be rolled over to the 2021 season, allowing those teams to offset the impact of the expected salary cap drop.
The Vikings can use that money toward extending Dalvin Cook, bringing back Everson Griffen, etc. Of course, we're losing a run-stuffing DT, but we were going to lose him anyway. It also extends Pierce for an extra year without costing anything extra. This is good news.