Minnesota Vikings linebacker Anthony Barr was a gambling man last offseason.
With expectations of a playoff berth on the table from Vikings ownership, Barr restructured his contract, voiding the final two years of his deal so that he could reach free agency this offseason.
Barr could still stick around Minnesota and re-sign with the Vikings this offseason.
However, ESPN’s Courtney Cronin speculated that the four-time Pro Bowl linebacker would “bet on himself” in free agency after taking a pay cut to stay with the Zimmer-led Vikings.
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Barr Unlikely to Return to Minnesota
In a recent episode of the Sportrac podcast, Cronin projected that the team’s general manager and head coach would likely have to make some difficult decisions to clear cap space and begin a rehaul of the once-vaunted, now-vapid Vikings defense.
After Barr missed all two games of the 2020 season with a torn pectoral muscle and five games last season with a knee injury, Cronin sees it unlikely Minnesota’s new regime will want to spend significant cash on the soon-to-be 30-year-old linebacker.
“Anthony Barr, probably not back next year. He restructured his contract last year to be able to bet on himself in free agency in 2022. I can’t see with what he was paid this year and all that they were not able to get out of him because of a knee injury… that they’d want to bring him back unless it was back at some pretty substantially lower salary than what he was getting last year,” Cronin said.
In a cryptic social media post, Barr hinted that Week 18’s season finale at U.S. Bank Stadium may be his final game in purple and gold. OverTheCap’s Jason Fitzgerald estimated Barr to garner a contract worth $5 million a year in free agency, per Pioneer Press reporter Chris Tomasson.
Whether Barr would take a deal in the ballpark of $5 million with the Vikings depends on what kind of offer he garners from other teams. He turned down more money with the New York Jets to return to Minnesota in 2019 in an act of loyalty to the team and Zimmer, who drafted Barr with his first pick as Vikings head coach in 2014. Zimmer rewarded him by lobbying “heavily behind the scenes” for the front office to reach an agreement that would bring Barr back in 2021, Cronin reported. Barr’s cap hit was reduced to $12.4 million, but he did see a significant boost of $9.4 million in guaranteed earnings after the restructuring.
He is one of potentially nine defensive starters who are on the fringe of leaving the Vikings — some through free agency and some who could be cap casualties with a new regime.
At the very least, Barr’s future seems bleak, with longtime friend and college teammates Eric Kendricks settling into reality in a recent press conference.
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Who Stays and Who Goes
The Vikings are currently $12.1 million over the 2022 salary cap, per Sportrac. While Kirk Cousins’ contract takes up 21.4% of the team’s cap space, Minnesota not be ready to part ways with the veteran quarterback.
If that’s the case, the Vikings could see another mass exodus of players who were part of the team’s NFC Championship Game run in 2017.
Harrison Smith and Danielle Hunter both have hefty cap hits that a new regime may want to clear off the books to at the very least find replacements for the 2022 season with seven defensive starters expected to reach free agency: cornerbacks Patrick Peterson and Mackensie Alexander, safety Xavier Woods, defensive ends Everson Griffen and Sheldon Richardson and linebackers Nick Vigil and Barr.
The Vikings will likely want to reach a contract extension with Hunter or trade him to avoid an $18 million roster bonus the team agreed to when restructuring his contract last offseason. Meanwhile, Smith, who carries the second-highest average annual salary of $16 million among safeties, may not have the same utility in a different defensive scheme the new head coach may install in Minnesota.
Minnesota will need to sort out its cap situation in order to even field a defense of starting-caliber players.
“This defense has been the cornerstone of this franchise for so long. I do wonder when they bring in a different head coach: Is that still the vision for this team? It just doesn’t feel like that’s going to be the case considering where the NFL is trending,” Cronin said.
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Vikings’ 4x Pro Bowler to ‘Bet on Himself’ in Free Agency, Insider Says