This past year, the Minnesota Vikings had a bevy of salary cap issues they needed to address. With $46 million in the hole, they made numerous cuts to get under the salary cap and make a couple of free agency moves.

The lack of day two NFL Draft picks has them in trouble. After making three of them in 2022, the Vikings made two combined over the next three NFL Drafts under former general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah, and neither of them have been in the second round. That was one of the main reasons why they fired Adofo-Mensah.

Jake Golday’s contract could become an issue

Since the Vikings haven’t had a second-round pick, they haven’t had to barter over guaranteed money with second-round picks. It’s become a growing trend for players in the second round to receive fully guaranteed contracts. Last year, every pick in the top-40 received one, and that number is likely to grow.

T.J. Sanders of the Buffalo Bills was the first pick at 41st overall that didn’t have his contract fully guaranteed. Even though it wasn’t, he had $10.07 million of his $10.64 million of his rookie contract fully guaranteed.

The Vikings selected Cincinnati Bearcats linebacker Jake Golday at 51st overall, with his contract projected to be a four-year deal worth $9.684 million. Last year’s 51st overall pick was Nic Scourton of the Carolina Panthers, who had $6.6 million of the $8.61 million of his contract fully guaranteed, with just $60k of his fourth year fully guaranteed.

It’s not likely Golday will get a fully guaranteed contract, but the contract will likely give him more guaranteed money than what Scourton got. However, there is the potential for enough players taken above Golday getting fully guaranteed contracts for him to ask for one. That could make things a little complicated when it comes to negotiations.

This is going to be a thing every year until the entire second round is fully guaranteed, and it’s best to be aware of that.