Getty General manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah of the Minnesota Vikings.
The Minnesota Vikings‘ contract negotiations with Pro Bowl pass rusher Danielle Hunter have hit a roadblock less than a week before the start of training camp.
Hunter, who received nearly $50,000 in fines after skipping mandatory minicamps in May, is looking for a lucrative long-term extension after a series of restructures left him with just $5.5 million cash left to earn on the final year of his contract — which ranks 56th among edge rushers.
KSTP’s Darren Wolfson reported on July 18 that the Vikings are opening to sweeten Hunter’s earnings for the 2023 season. However, there is an impasse on what the deal may look like beyond this season.
“The Vikings absolutely want him back in 2023,” Wolfson said on SKOR North’s Mackey and Judd podcast. “The Vikings are willing to give him a sizeable bump this year, salary-wise. My sense is, it’s coming down to the guaranteed money and the structure beyond 2023… There’s some haggling over guaranteed money beyond this year.”
Wolfson reported last week that contract talks would ramp up with many Vikings staffers returning to work after summer break. Minnesota and Hunter’s camp appear to still be apart as the potential for Hunter’s holdout to stretch into training camp grows.
Key Stat That Could Deny Danielle Hunter Premier Contract With Vikings
After becoming the youngest player to reach 50 career sacks after the 2017 season, Hunter signed a five-year, $72 million contract that he outplayed the following two seasons. He posted a league-leading 154 pressures across the 2018 and 2019 seasons, per Pro Football Focus, and the third-most sacks (29.0) among all NFL defenders.
There’s no denying that Hunter should be paid more considering the market for premier pass rushers in the NFL.
But even after a comeback campaign in 2022 where he tallied 13 sacks and produced the sixth-most pressures in the league (70), there are still questions surrounding Hunter’s prospects of being the Vikings’ top pass-rushing threat.
Last season, Hunter benefited from Za’Darius Smith being double-teamed more frequently. Before Smith, it was Everson Griffen who helped Hunter feast by attracting more double teams. Hunter has yet to play a full season being the No. 1 threat that opposing teams game plan to stop.
This chart shows Hunter among a cluster in the bottom left of pass rushers who saw fewer double teams but didn’t win the snap as frequently as the league’s top pass rushers.
Double team rate at Edge (x) by pass rush win rate at Edge (y) for the 2022 NFL season.
(ESPN / NFL Next Gen Stats)
Hunter is still an elite talent, but if his camp is trying to negotiate a deal that rivals the top-tier pass rushers like T.J. Watt ($28 million a year) or Myles Garrett ($25 million a year), Minnesota may be apprehensive.
Meanwhile, Hunter’s camp has a bad taste in its mouth after the last negotiations didn’t materialize in a deal that matches his production when healthy.
“I was told that the agent for Danielle Hunter is playing some serious hardball, making negotiations a little more difficult than it was anticipated,” SKOR North’s Declan Goff reported on June 13.
What’s the Right Price for Danielle Hunter?
Realistically, Hunter should garner a deal in the range of $20 million annually after Hunter’s annual value per year of his career has hovered under $10 million.
Pioneer Press columnist Charley Walters projected Hunter is looking for a three-year, $65 million deal at $21.7 million annually.
That would make him the seventh-highest-paid edge rusher in the NFL behind Miami Dolphins linebacker Bradley Chubb ($22.0 million a year) and ahead of Buffalo Bills veteran Von Miller ($20 million a year).