As the Vikings approached free agency this past offseason, the message from head coach Mike Zimmer was clear: It's fine to aim for a home run at quarterback as long as it doesn't mess with the defense.
The Vikings did, indeed, spend big on a QB by landing Kirk Cousins at $28 million per season guaranteed for three years. Any of their internal options — Sam Bradford, Case Keenum or Teddy Bridgewater — would have been significantly cheaper but also carried more risks.
With the season set to kick off Sunday against San Francisco, an evaluation of their salary cap indicates the Vikings have threaded the needle — at least for now — by upgrading with more stability at quarterback while also still committing heavily to their defense.
That shows up in their spending habits like this:
• Per spotrac.com, six of their eight most expensive players this year in terms of cap hits — six of the seven after Cousins, their highest-paid player — are defensive players: Xavier Rhodes, Anthony Barr, Everson Griffen, Harrison Smith, Linval Joseph and Sheldon Richardson.
• While the Vikings aren't close to being the biggest defensive spenders this year in the NFL — that honor goes to Jacksonville, which has a whopping $122.5 million in cap space devoted to defensive linemen, linebackers and defensive backs — they are far and away the biggest defensive spenders in the NFC North.
The Vikings have $101.1 million in cap space — more than half — committed to the defense this year. Green Bay, Chicago and Detroit are all between $72 million and $75 million in defensive spending this year, and all three spend far more on offense than defense.
Now, some of that just reflects where players are in their careers. The Vikings have drafted heavily on defense since Zimmer's arrival, while he also inherited stars such as Smith and Rhodes. A lot of those players are done with their less expensive rookie deals and have cashed in with lucrative extensions. But it also shows a commitment to defense.
