One of the bigger decisions that new Minnesota Vikings general manager Nolan Teasley is what to do with key extensions looming. Without having any major investment in the players on the roster, that creates elements of doubt.

He could love the idea of extending both right tackle Brian O’Neill and wide receiver Jordan Addison, but both ideas could be the exact opposite of what he wants to do with the roster.

I broke down what I believe his contract should look like after the NFL Draft and came to a three-year deal worth $72 million, basing it on a lot of factors, including the market, age, and how Rob Brzezinski structures his contracts.

Year	Base Salary	Prorated Signing Bonus	Per Game Roster Bonus	Workout Bonus	Guaranteed Salary	Cap Number
2026	$1,300,000	$7,703,892	$0	$	$1,300,000	$8,003,892
2027	$14,400,000	$4,000,000	$500,000	$100,000	$15,000,000	$19,000,000
2028	$26,400,000	$4,000,000	$500,000	$100,000	$11,700,000	$31,000,000
2029	$26,400,000	$4,000,000	$500,000	$100,000	$0	$31,000,000
2030	Void	$4,000,000	Void	Void	Void	$4,000,000
2031	Void	$0	Void	Void	Void	$0
2032	Void	$0	Void	Void	Void	$0
Total	$68,500,000	$23,703,892	$1,500,000	$300,000	$28,000,000	$93,003,892

What could the O’Neill camp be looking for? I reached out to fellow A to Z Sports writer Kyle Crabbs, who represented O’Neill in negotiations.

What Brian O’Neill’s camp might ask for

In the last twenty years, the NFL has seen three right tackles earn a contract with an annual average salary equal to 10% of that year’s salary cap at time of signing. Penei Sewell (2024), Ryan Ramczyk (2021), and O’Neill’s last contract with the Vikings in 2021.

The fit here has been stellar, and O’Neill has continued to age well, although he did miss some time in 2025 with a leg injury after posting over 1,000 snaps five times in the previous six seasons. Age will naturally be a concern for the Vikings and O’Neill does turn 31 years old this September — so we know asking for another 10% AAV as a percentage of cap contract is probably ambitious. But we’ll draw some inspiration from what the Philadelphia Eagles did to handle an aging Lane Johnson — who is also an athletic right tackle. The Eagles knocked a half of a percent off Johnson’s re-up with the team in 2023 as a 32-year old veteran.

We’d like to do the same and ask for a salary average equivalent of 9.6% of this year’s salary cap for the terms of a new deal to stay in Minnesota. That’d be an average of $28.91M per season.

Asking price: 3-year, $86.75M contract extension

Percentage of cap matters

This is an interesting element of the conversation. Looking at the percentage of salary cap does matter. 9.6% would rank O’Neill tied for sixth in percentage of salary cap given among right tackles. Is that where he should be at this stage of his career? Given the injury concerns he’s had in recent years, it’s worth a discussion.

Oddly enough, his first extension was an average of 10.1% of the cap, and the extension I had proposed is 7.97% of the cap, which would be 13th-highest in the salary cap era for a right tackle.

What is the likely approach? In this negotiation, finding some middle ground makes the most sense, and splitting the difference here would make the most sense. In this scenario, O’Neill would get a three-year deal worth $79.5 million, an average annual value of $26.5 million. That is worth 8.8% of the salary cap, which is in line with the deal Trent Brown got in 2019, and right behind the four-year extension Johnson signed in 2023.