Minnesota Vikings tight end Kyle Rudolph is making it known that he will not take a pay cut.
The Vikings are currently dealing with a salary cap problem. Minnesota is projected to be $12.8 million over the cap. The Vikings have two options in dealing with the cap space issue. The options are to either release Rudolph or restructure his contract. The 31-year-old tight end has three years left on his deal with the team.
Releasing Rudolph would allow the team to gain $5.1 million in cap space. Restructuring the veteran’s contract would allow the team to lower his 2021 expected salary of $7.65 million to approximately $3.8 million.
However, the issue is that the tight end has no desire to take a pay cut. Rudolph revealed on the Unrestricted with Ben Leber podcast that he was unhappy with how the team changed his offensive role. Over the past two seasons with the Vikings, Rudolph went from the team’s second leading receiver to a mere afterthought. “It wouldn’t happen,” Rudolph said on thoughts of the team possibly approaching him for a salary cut.
In regard to the team’s salary cap issue, he said, “I’m looking at this situation like, ‘Hey, we’re paying this guy a lot of money and you’re not using him, so why are we continuing to pay him a lot of money?”
In that same podcast, Rudolph added, “With that being said, I think I’m worth every dime of my contract.” The veteran tight end continued, “That doesn’t mean that I’m used to my potential, and I’m used to doing what I do well, so it will be interesting over the next few months.”
Rudolph’s role on the team changed dramatically from 2019 to 2020. Since he wasn’t catching as many passes this past season, he was asked to do other things to improve the offense. “I’ve somehow become a pretty decent blocker because I’ve been forced to,” he said.
Despite the role change and some of his angry comments, Rudolph reiterated that he wanted to stay with the Vikings. “I don’t want to go anywhere else,” he said.
