Vikings trying to trade Hunter

[CharVike]

I think ownership absolutely knows what they have, or they don't fire the GM who put most of this roster together.

Where I think the issue lies with ownership is they are far too willing to sacrifice the ability to build a SB roster in a couple of seasons in order to win 8 games in the upcoming one. They are unwilling to risk a bad season to get better in the future and that makes any GM's job really, really hard. So they go out and get KAM to fix Spielman's mistakes, and then don't allow him to actually do anything that could make that rebuild more successful.

Bingo!! We have a winner!

How is that a winner. You can't become a winner unless you become total crap first. How did the Packers stay competitive for 30 years? How did the Pats stay competitive. I don't recall those teams getting a top 5 pick. Indy crapped out and select Luck. How many Super Bowls did that produce. Maybe Luck was a loser. If people think the Wilf's know our roster inside and out are fooling themselves. They are business men. Do you think they spend anytime on that at all? That's the family life blood. Maybe they don't give a crap about their business and only care about the Vikings. IMO the Vikings are a part of their business. They don't want to know every detail down to the smallest level. They are above that. That's why they hire people. When they develop a piece a land do you think they are swinging a shovel? They hire people to take care of that project and look for the next opportunity which takes a ton of time. We have had many bad seasons. What has that produced? We have yet to replace Fran with a long term good QB. I think Cousins is that. There is no way you will get pro athletes to flush a season down the toilet. That would be career suicide and they will be done. People call some players loser. None of these guys are losers. The losers don't become pros. There is no way a new GM will flush a season. The road to a Super Bowl is wide open. Look at the teams who have been there the last 10 years. I highly doubt there was a 3 or 4 time straight winner. Anybody that thinks a new GM will flush a season is nuts. They won't be a GM very long because everybody will know what they are doing. The will be out of the NFL. We have some talent. It's not like we are a piece of crap from top to bottom. The Ram won with Stafford. Jimmy G has the 49ers winning and the list goes on.

[Cliff]

Im about to lose my mind over Kwesi and this new regime if they trade hunter. As bad as the saints cap management is, the fact that they just saved $80 million by not releasing a single player further proves the Vikings can keep hunter. This is by choice. We’re not being forced to trade hunter. And it has nothing to do with cousins. His contract saved $15 million. They are paying a 29 year old linebacker $13 mill, a 31 year old WR $16 mill and a 33 year old safety another $13 mill. But let’s trade our 27 year old elite defensive end and not touch their contracts.

What would you say their options are then to save cap space? You seem very sure they could do it, but how do you propose that? Just because the Saints were in a better position than you thought doesn't mean the Vikings are. Yes, they're paying those older players a lot of money but if they were to cut them would the cap go down enough? To trade you have to have a partner. Therefore, Hunter is your guy. He's the only one on that list you just made that the team would both save a lot of cap and get decent value for.

My guess is that Hunter wasn't/isn't willing to restructure. They just restructured Harrison Smith and saved 7m+ cap space by making his 8m roster bonus a 6m signing bonus and spread 2 million over the last 4 years of his deal. I assume they extended a similar offer to Hunter but he's got no incentive to take it. Do you want your $2m now or over the next 4 years with no interest?

Of course it has something to do with Cousins to some degree as he's the player taking up the most cap space. They saved some money on him, sure, but it's not as if his 31m cap hit doesn't exist.

**EDIT - Also FYI the following players agreed to restructure for the Saints:

Michael Thomas - $14.565 million
Ryan Ramczyk - $18,206,608
Andrus Peat - $9.73 million converted ($6 million freed up)
Malcolm Jenkins - $3.4 million
Cam Jordan and Tanoh Kpassagnon - $12,445,412 converted
Alvin Kamara - $10.465 million converted ($8.372 million freed up)
Marshon Lattimore - $18.45 million
Marcus Davenport - $6.8 million of cap space freed up

You have to have players willing to restructure to accomplish what the Saints did.

[StumpHunter]

Im about to lose my mind over Kwesi and this new regime if they trade hunter. As bad as the saints cap management is, the fact that they just saved $80 million by not releasing a single player further proves the Vikings can keep hunter. This is by choice. We’re not being forced to trade hunter. And it has nothing to do with cousins. His contract saved $15 million. They are paying a 29 year old linebacker $13 mill, a 31 year old WR $16 mill and a 33 year old safety another $13 mill. But let’s trade our 27 year old elite defensive end and not touch their contracts.

What would you say their options are then to save cap space? You seem very sure they could do it, but how do you propose that? Just because the Saints were in a better position than you thought doesn't mean the Vikings are. Yes, they're paying those older players a lot of money but if they were to cut them would the cap go down enough? To trade you have to have a partner. Therefore, Hunter is your guy. He's the only one on that list you just made that the team would both save a lot of cap and get decent value for.

My guess is that Hunter wasn't/isn't willing to restructure. They just restructured Harrison Smith and saved 7m+ cap space by making his 8m roster bonus a 6m signing bonus and spread 2 million over the last 4 years of his deal. I assume they extended a similar offer to Hunter but he's got no incentive to take it. Do you want your $2m now or over the next 4 years with no interest?

Of course it has something to do with Cousins to some degree as he's the player taking up the most cap space. They saved some money on him, sure, but it's not as if his 31m cap hit doesn't exist.

**EDIT - Also FYI the following players agreed to restructure for the Saints:

Michael Thomas - $14.565 million
Ryan Ramczyk - $18,206,608
Andrus Peat - $9.73 million converted ($6 million freed up)
Malcolm Jenkins - $3.4 million
Cam Jordan and Tanoh Kpassagnon - $12,445,412 converted
Alvin Kamara - $10.465 million converted ($8.372 million freed up)
Marshon Lattimore - $18.45 million
Marcus Davenport - $6.8 million of cap space freed up

You have to have players willing to restructure to accomplish what the Saints did.

Most, if not all of those restructures didn't require the player's consent to do. Converting salary to signing bonus to spread out over remaining years is just a cap move and it mostly irrelevant to the player.

The Vikings could save a lot in cap this season doing the same thing if they wanted too with Kendricks and Thielen. They also could have pushed more of Cousins cap hit to future years if they wanted too.

Hunter's situation is a bit different. Since he is on the last year of his contract he would likely have to agree to add void years to rework his deal without getting an extension. Something he would likely do if asked too, because it benefits him as much as the team.

In other words, this isn't about not being able to afford Hunter this season, it is about them being unable to afford him next season and beyond.

I don't think the Viking are offering that though

[Cliff]

Most, if not all of those restructures didn't require the player's consent to do. Converting salary to signing bonus to spread out over remaining years is just a cap move and it mostly irrelevant to the player.

The Vikings could save a lot in cap this season doing the same thing if they wanted too with Kendricks and Thielen. They also could have pushed more of Cousins cap hit to future years if they wanted too.

Hunter's situation is a bit different. Since he is on the last year of his contract he would likely have to agree to add void years to rework his deal without getting an extension. Something he would likely do if asked too, because it benefits him as much as the team.

In other words, this isn't about not being able to afford Hunter this season, it is about them being unable to afford him next season and beyond.

I don't think the Viking are offering that though

You may well be right. I'm (obviously) not an NFL contract expert and my observations mostly come from what I read of others in that regard. The "restructure" part of my argument was definitely off.

I will say that Hunter's trade probably benefits a rebuilding team most. Free up cap space, maybe an extra 1st rounder. That'd be a big deal for a new regime trying to build a team.

[VikingsVictorious]

What would you say their options are then to save cap space? You seem very sure they could do it, but how do you propose that? Just because the Saints were in a better position than you thought doesn't mean the Vikings are. Yes, they're paying those older players a lot of money but if they were to cut them would the cap go down enough? To trade you have to have a partner. Therefore, Hunter is your guy. He's the only one on that list you just made that the team would both save a lot of cap and get decent value for.

My guess is that Hunter wasn't/isn't willing to restructure. They just restructured Harrison Smith and saved 7m+ cap space by making his 8m roster bonus a 6m signing bonus and spread 2 million over the last 4 years of his deal. I assume they extended a similar offer to Hunter but he's got no incentive to take it. Do you want your $2m now or over the next 4 years with no interest?

Of course it has something to do with Cousins to some degree as he's the player taking up the most cap space. They saved some money on him, sure, but it's not as if his 31m cap hit doesn't exist.

**EDIT - Also FYI the following players agreed to restructure for the Saints:

Michael Thomas - $14.565 million
Ryan Ramczyk - $18,206,608
Andrus Peat - $9.73 million converted ($6 million freed up)
Malcolm Jenkins - $3.4 million
Cam Jordan and Tanoh Kpassagnon - $12,445,412 converted
Alvin Kamara - $10.465 million converted ($8.372 million freed up)
Marshon Lattimore - $18.45 million
Marcus Davenport - $6.8 million of cap space freed up

You have to have players willing to restructure to accomplish what the Saints did.

Most, if not all of those restructures didn't require the player's consent to do. Converting salary to signing bonus to spread out over remaining years is just a cap move and it mostly irrelevant to the player.

The Vikings could save a lot in cap this season doing the same thing if they wanted too with Kendricks and Thielen. They also could have pushed more of Cousins cap hit to future years if they wanted too.

Hunter's situation is a bit different. Since he is on the last year of his contract he would likely have to agree to add void years to rework his deal without getting an extension. Something he would likely do if asked too, because it benefits him as much as the team.

In other words, this isn't about not being able to afford Hunter this season, it is about them being unable to afford him next season and beyond.

I don't think the Viking are offering that though

Very well explained.

[halfgiz]

Bingo!! We have a winner!

How is that a winner. You can't become a winner unless you become total crap first. How did the Packers stay competitive for 30 years? How did the Pats stay competitive. I don't recall those teams getting a top 5 pick. Indy crapped out and select Luck. How many Super Bowls did that produce. Maybe Luck was a loser. If people think the Wilf's know our roster inside and out are fooling themselves. They are business men. Do you think they spend anytime on that at all? That's the family life blood. Maybe they don't give a crap about their business and only care about the Vikings. IMO the Vikings are a part of their business. They don't want to know every detail down to the smallest level. They are above that. That's why they hire people. When they develop a piece a land do you think they are swinging a shovel? They hire people to take care of that project and look for the next opportunity which takes a ton of time. We have had many bad seasons. What has that produced? We have yet to replace Fran with a long term good QB. I think Cousins is that. There is no way you will get pro athletes to flush a season down the toilet. That would be career suicide and they will be done. People call some players loser. None of these guys are losers. The losers don't become pros. There is no way a new GM will flush a season. The road to a Super Bowl is wide open. Look at the teams who have been there the last 10 years. I highly doubt there was a 3 or 4 time straight winner. Anybody that thinks a new GM will flush a season is nuts. They won't be a GM very long because everybody will know what they are doing. The will be out of the NFL. We have some talent. It's not like we are a piece of crap from top to bottom. The Ram won with Stafford. Jimmy G has the 49ers winning and the list goes on.

The Packers and Pats have stayed competitive because they have future Hall of fame QB’s

Cousins is probably not making the hall of fame. Because what has he accomplished?
Trading Cousins and Hunter would have been the best way to knock down the cap so we could build. But it would have set us back a year or possibly two. Keeping Cousins isn’t going to be a sure guarantee for anything next year.
We have already had Cousins for 4 years and what has he accomplished?

The Wilfs, that is just your opinion, because I don’t think you actually know how much they are involved or how often they have discussions with the staff.

[Hunter Morrow]

The reason why they took so long to trade him in my opinion is ownership meddling to stay "super competitive" (never win the super bowl or play in the Super Bowl for almost 20 years and get waxed in the regular season and playoffs by super bowl teams) at 8 or 9 wins a season. Hunter missed a whole season and just missed 10 games last year when his pecs blew up. His trade value will never be higher at a premium position for trading. He's 100 percent somebody who should be traded to make moves on IOL and defensive secondary but, "It wouldn't make sense to trade Danielle Hunter because that would prevent us from being "super competitve" (making or missing the playoffs by a game).

LOL just LOL.

[Pondering Her Percy]

What would you say their options are then to save cap space? You seem very sure they could do it, but how do you propose that? Just because the Saints were in a better position than you thought doesn't mean the Vikings are. Yes, they're paying those older players a lot of money but if they were to cut them would the cap go down enough? To trade you have to have a partner. Therefore, Hunter is your guy. He's the only one on that list you just made that the team would both save a lot of cap and get decent value for.

My guess is that Hunter wasn't/isn't willing to restructure. They just restructured Harrison Smith and saved 7m+ cap space by making his 8m roster bonus a 6m signing bonus and spread 2 million over the last 4 years of his deal. I assume they extended a similar offer to Hunter but he's got no incentive to take it. Do you want your $2m now or over the next 4 years with no interest?

Of course it has something to do with Cousins to some degree as he's the player taking up the most cap space. They saved some money on him, sure, but it's not as if his 31m cap hit doesn't exist.

**EDIT - Also FYI the following players agreed to restructure for the Saints:

Michael Thomas - $14.565 million
Ryan Ramczyk - $18,206,608
Andrus Peat - $9.73 million converted ($6 million freed up)
Malcolm Jenkins - $3.4 million
Cam Jordan and Tanoh Kpassagnon - $12,445,412 converted
Alvin Kamara - $10.465 million converted ($8.372 million freed up)
Marshon Lattimore - $18.45 million
Marcus Davenport - $6.8 million of cap space freed up

You have to have players willing to restructure to accomplish what the Saints did.

Most, if not all of those restructures didn't require the player's consent to do. Converting salary to signing bonus to spread out over remaining years is just a cap move and it mostly irrelevant to the player.

The Vikings could save a lot in cap this season doing the same thing if they wanted too with Kendricks and Thielen. They also could have pushed more of Cousins cap hit to future years if they wanted too.

Hunter's situation is a bit different. Since he is on the last year of his contract he would likely have to agree to add void years to rework his deal without getting an extension. Something he would likely do if asked too, because it benefits him as much as the team.

In other words, this isn't about not being able to afford Hunter this season, it is about them being unable to afford him next season and beyond.

I don't think the Viking are offering that though

This was exactly what I was about to say. This had nothing to do with the players wanting to. We do not need players consent to restructure their contracts. Which again, is even more baffling.

Today the Vikings did it with Harrison Smith FOUR days into free agency. Supposedly I read they are about to do it with Thielen tomorrow. FIVE days into free agency. They still have Kendricks they could do. Even Dalvin. And then figure out either and extension or restructure for Hunter. A simple restructure of Hunters contract saves $13 MILLION!!!

Bottom line is, Kwesi and his cronies were miles behind the 8 ball. Why is it taking THIS long to mess with their contracts to make cap room. They have so many options at their disposal and they are sitting on their hands and now rumoring to trade their best player. Worst part is, lets say we dont trade him, will he even want to be back now? The Browns just did this with Baker. Went after Watson, failed and now are saying Baker is their QB. Baker told them to F off and now requested a trade. We have to be careful of that as well.

I dont care what a.n.y.o.n.e. says when it comes to our cap space. Did we have a boat load of cap? No but there were teams in WAYYYYY worse shape than us going into free agency. And look at what they are doing. The Saints flipped $105 million in cap and didnt release a SINGLE player and now going after Watson. The Rams as of YESTERDAY were $14 million over. They restructured a few contracts and just signed Allen Robinson for 3 for $46. This was a team that was $40 million over the cap. The Saints were $76 million over. We were fricken 14 over!! And the Cousins extension put us at near even. And we are acting like we're in some gigantic cap hole that they cant dig out of. Did it really take FIVE days of free agency for Kwesi to finally realize you simply have to restructure a few guys to save you millions of dollars. While every other free agent we want signs on with other teams.

This is just extremely frustrating and this is EXACTLY why I was hesitant getting rid of Spielman. This isnt Cousins contract, this isnt anyones contract, this is Kwesi simply being overwhelmed and unprepared. These discussions should've happened weeks ago and there should've been some sort of plan or vision heading into free agency. There is no plan, this is a shi# show. And all he talked about in his presser was the "vision" him and O'Connell shared. What F'ing vision is that? You spinning in circles and not knowing what to do in free agency. With simple contract management.

I'm beyond frustrated that THIS is what we brought in. Maybe I'm overreacting but again, I always give guys time but I can already see the writing on the wall here. This guy is in over his head. And if he doenst figure this out asap, he's going to drive this team into the ground and be out of a job sooner than later.

[Pondering Her Percy]

The reason why they took so long to trade him in my opinion is ownership meddling to stay "super competitive" (never win the super bowl or play in the Super Bowl for almost 20 years and get waxed in the regular season and playoffs by super bowl teams) at 8 or 9 wins a season. Hunter missed a whole season and just missed 10 games last year when his pecs blew up. His trade value will never be higher at a premium position for trading. He's 100 percent somebody who should be traded to make moves on IOL and defensive secondary but, "It wouldn't make sense to trade Danielle Hunter because that would prevent us from being "super competitve" (making or missing the playoffs by a game).

LOL just LOL.

You do realize that you can still keep Hunter and get offensive lineman right? And also, who are you going to "beef up the OL" with?? The top 9 guards in free agency that have already signed with other teams? Little late to the party Kwesi, but you keep doing you!

And convince me either of those injuries were not fluke injuries? The most serious one, the neck, had zero effect on him last year. And who comes back after a torn pec and has any sort of complication or setback? I'll tell you, nobody. So if you ask me, Hunter is worth every penny of that "gamble" of keeping him because when he's playing, he's one of the best, if not THE best end in the league and outside of maybe JJ, the best overall player on this entire team.

[Hunter Morrow]

It would free up a lot of money. It would net picks. It would put us in a position next year to not be right up against the cap or 10+ million over so we could actually sign people. It would be the beginning of a necessary teardown of the team.

[allday1991]

Like many others have mentioned I am quite confused to as if we are re-building or actually trying to make a run at it, the new management IMO lacks a clear direction at this point. I know he doesn't participate as much as he use to (which is no problem ) but id love to hear mothmans opinions on managements directions so far.

[Pondering Her Percy]

Like many others have mentioned I am quite confused to as if we are re-building or actually trying to make a run at it, the new management IMO lacks a clear direction at this point. I know he doesn't participate as much as he use to (which is no problem ) but id love to hear mothmans opinions on managements directions so far.

You’re right I don’t see any clear path to what they are doing or trying to accomplish. And all Kwesi has done is talk about “vision”. I’m starting to think that’s a bunch of crap. He’s getting his “welcome to the nfl” moment right now and it’s already lasted way too long

[J. Kapp 11]

What would you say their options are then to save cap space? You seem very sure they could do it, but how do you propose that? Just because the Saints were in a better position than you thought doesn't mean the Vikings are. Yes, they're paying those older players a lot of money but if they were to cut them would the cap go down enough? To trade you have to have a partner. Therefore, Hunter is your guy. He's the only one on that list you just made that the team would both save a lot of cap and get decent value for.

My guess is that Hunter wasn't/isn't willing to restructure. They just restructured Harrison Smith and saved 7m+ cap space by making his 8m roster bonus a 6m signing bonus and spread 2 million over the last 4 years of his deal. I assume they extended a similar offer to Hunter but he's got no incentive to take it. Do you want your $2m now or over the next 4 years with no interest?

Of course it has something to do with Cousins to some degree as he's the player taking up the most cap space. They saved some money on him, sure, but it's not as if his 31m cap hit doesn't exist.

**EDIT - Also FYI the following players agreed to restructure for the Saints:

Michael Thomas - $14.565 million
Ryan Ramczyk - $18,206,608
Andrus Peat - $9.73 million converted ($6 million freed up)
Malcolm Jenkins - $3.4 million
Cam Jordan and Tanoh Kpassagnon - $12,445,412 converted
Alvin Kamara - $10.465 million converted ($8.372 million freed up)
Marshon Lattimore - $18.45 million
Marcus Davenport - $6.8 million of cap space freed up

You have to have players willing to restructure to accomplish what the Saints did.

Most, if not all of those restructures didn't require the player's consent to do. Converting salary to signing bonus to spread out over remaining years is just a cap move and it mostly irrelevant to the player.

The Vikings could save a lot in cap this season doing the same thing if they wanted too with Kendricks and Thielen. They also could have pushed more of Cousins cap hit to future years if they wanted too.

Hunter's situation is a bit different. Since he is on the last year of his contract he would likely have to agree to add void years to rework his deal without getting an extension. Something he would likely do if asked too, because it benefits him as much as the team.

In other words, this isn't about not being able to afford Hunter this season, it is about them being unable to afford him next season and beyond.

I don't think the Viking are offering that though

From what I understand, that’s incorrect.

Hunter is due an $18 million roster bonus on the 5th day of the league year, which is Sunday. A roster bonus can’t be spread out for cap purposes. If they pay it to him as a roster bonus, it all counts toward this year’s cap.

However, a roster bonus can be converted to a signing bonus without the player’s consent. Hunter still gets his $18 million check on Sunday, but by converting it to a signing bonus, the Vikings can amortize it over more years. However, if they do that, they can’t trade him, or else they end up eating the bonus as dead cap.

Something else must be at play here. Maybe Hunter has said he doesn’t want to play linebacker in a 3-4. Maybe they have a medical report that we don’t know about (unlikely because he’d have to pass a physical to be traded). Maybe they’ve got another team on the hook for a trade and they haven’t agreed to the details yet. There HAS to be something going on because Kwesi isn’t stupid enough to let this go to Sunday without converting that roster bonus to signing bonus.

The negotiating with Hunter was done last year. This is why Spielman did it as a roster bonus … so they could convert if they plan to keep him, or let another team take on the bonus if they trade him. Hunter couldn’t care less. One way or another, he gets a very large check this Sunday.

[CharVike]

How is that a winner. You can't become a winner unless you become total crap first. How did the Packers stay competitive for 30 years? How did the Pats stay competitive. I don't recall those teams getting a top 5 pick. Indy crapped out and select Luck. How many Super Bowls did that produce. Maybe Luck was a loser. If people think the Wilf's know our roster inside and out are fooling themselves. They are business men. Do you think they spend anytime on that at all? That's the family life blood. Maybe they don't give a crap about their business and only care about the Vikings. IMO the Vikings are a part of their business. They don't want to know every detail down to the smallest level. They are above that. That's why they hire people. When they develop a piece a land do you think they are swinging a shovel? They hire people to take care of that project and look for the next opportunity which takes a ton of time. We have had many bad seasons. What has that produced? We have yet to replace Fran with a long term good QB. I think Cousins is that. There is no way you will get pro athletes to flush a season down the toilet. That would be career suicide and they will be done. People call some players loser. None of these guys are losers. The losers don't become pros. There is no way a new GM will flush a season. The road to a Super Bowl is wide open. Look at the teams who have been there the last 10 years. I highly doubt there was a 3 or 4 time straight winner. Anybody that thinks a new GM will flush a season is nuts. They won't be a GM very long because everybody will know what they are doing. The will be out of the NFL. We have some talent. It's not like we are a piece of crap from top to bottom. The Ram won with Stafford. Jimmy G has the 49ers winning and the list goes on.

The Packers and Pats have stayed competitive because they have future Hall of fame QB’s

Cousins is probably not making the hall of fame. Because what has he accomplished?
Trading Cousins and Hunter would have been the best way to knock down the cap so we could build. But it would have set us back a year or possibly two. Keeping Cousins isn’t going to be a sure guarantee for anything next year.
We have already had Cousins for 4 years and what has he accomplished?

The Wilfs, that is just your opinion, because I don’t think you actually know how much they are involved or how often they have discussions with the staff.

The Pats just made the playoffs with a rookie QB. Blaming the QB for a teams failures is wrong. We had Tark and he took us nowhere because the team sucked. He came back and took us to the Super Bowl 3 times. He was with the Giants and didn't do much. Don't you think the team played a role in any of that? Cousins hasn't accomplished much but a playoff appearance. Watson who is a good QB lead his team to 4 wins the last year he played. Who do you blame for that. I think the team sucked and there isn't a QB that ever played this game that was taking that 4 win team anywhere. I don't know what the Wilf's do but they do have a business outside of the Vikings ownership. From Wiki A real estate developer, his two main family-run businesses, Garden Homes and Garden Commercial Properties, have constructed some 25,000 homes in 39 states across the country since their initial ventures. I'm sure they have other stuff going on. People like that don't sit still. Maintaining your wealth and developing new business is a hard job. IMO that is more concerning than the Vikings winning or losing. But I do feel they want to win. They are competitive people. Your opinion is fine. That's what you would like to see happen. I have mine and always have. They hardly even come true. If they did Jones would be on our team.

[J. Kapp 11]

From a purely player perspective, I wouldn't want to see a healthy Danielle Hunter traded away. He's either our best player or a close second behind Justin Jefferson. When healthy, he's a monster on defense.

But there may be much more at play here than anybody realizes. Here are some possible reasons the Vikings would trade him.

• Possibility 1: Hunter has requested a trade.
This could be for any number of reasons. Maybe he doesn't want to play in a 3-4. Maybe he feels jilted in previous contract negotiations (after all, he did say last year that he wanted to be the highest-paid edge rusher in the game). Maybe he feels like the Vikings didn't take care of him from a health standpoint (remember, Eric Sugarman was fired, and we're hearing reports from former players that he wasn't necessarily a great guy). Maybe he wants a chance to win a Super Bowl, and he doesn't think the Vikings are going to get there. There could be any number of reasons Hunter would want a trade.

• Possibility 2: The Vikings want to save money.
We keep talking about how the Vikings would save cap space by restructuring his contract. Just convert that $18 million roster bonus to a signing bonus and lower his cap hit, right? But he'd still cost the Vikings in future years (and that's in addition to the $5 million in restructure costs from his previous negotiaton). By trading him, they trade away his $18 million roster bonus, along with his $1.6 million salary and $100,000 workout bonus. That's roughly $20 million. Subtract his $3 million from a previous restructure, and they Vikings would save $17 million against the cap this year.

• Possibility 3: The Vikings could get a haul in draft picks.
Do a Google search of "Danielle Hunter." You'll find teams all over the league who are interested in him. It's likely they could get more for Hunter than they could have gotten for Cousins.

Possibility 4: The Vikings have a player in mind to replace him.
If possibility 3 is in play, then this certainly is. If they receive a first-rounder in a trade for Hunter, they could draft a stud early. Or maybe they have a veteran free agent in mind who would cost less.

The other thing is his health. He's played only 8 games out of the past 33. The Vikings may see this as a problem, although they'd certainly not let other teams know that. But privately, they may have seen enough.

The truth is that we don't know what's going on behind the scenes. I think it's wrong to assume KAM and KOC simply don't have a plan. We should let this play out. We'll know what's going on soon enough.

I'll repeat what I posted earlier ... if the Vikings are going to trade Hunter, then they're NOT going to restructure his contract. Otherwise THEY would be on the hook for that $18 million. If they trade him without restructuring, they also trade the roster bonus, and his new team would have to restructure his deal. One way or another, this will be resolved before Sunday. He'll either be traded, or that contract will be restructured before then.