Vikings mailbag: Would Stickum help fix fumbling problems?

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Q: Where can I send a box of Stickum? —@MikeDigitalink

BG: We'll start here, with a tongue-in-cheek question that actually gets to one of the Vikings' biggest issues. They lead the league in lost fumbles, with eight, and the Chiefs game highlighted their struggles with drops, on both sides of the ball. Alexander Mattison, who dropped a key screen pass in the fourth quarter, has three drops this season, as does T.J. Hockenson and K.J. Osborn. The three players are tied for fifth in the league, according to Pro Football Focus.

On defense, Mekhi Blackmon couldn't come down with a possible interception on Sunday, two weeks after Akayleb Evans' dropped interception caromed to Joshua Palmer for a touchdown in the Chargers' win. It's been a point of frustration for Vikings coaches, and coach Kevin O'Connell stressed it as forcefully as we've heard this season in his Monday news conference.

"There is nothing more important than when a Minnesota Viking has the football in their hands right now, in any phase," O'Connell said. "If we can get our hands on it defensively, the same thing goes for them as well. That has got to be the starting point for us leaving the locker room on game day till the time we get back on the plane to go home after our game this week. That mentality is there is nothing more important than that."

As for the Stickum? You might be interested in this piece from the NFL's 100th anniversary celebration a few years ago. Essentially, players' gloves have improved to the point where the sticky substance that players like Raiders cornerback Lester Hayes used in the 1970s should no longer be necessary. The emphasis there, given the Vikings' recent results, is on "should."

Q: What role does Kene Nwangwu have on this team after missing so much time? Is he limited to kickoff returns or will they try to work him into the rotation? —@c_haberman

BG: The Vikings designated Nwangwu to return to practice on Wednesday, after a low back injury that's kept him out the first five weeks of the season. Nwangwu has a 21-day window to practice before the Vikings have to make a decision about adding him back to the active roster, so they can take their time with him. Special teams coordinator Matt Daniels said Thursday, "it's important for us to see how Kene progresses with his injury," adding, "We'll kind of ramp him up and progress him as needed, as he kind of works his way back into playing football again. He hasn't done it in a long time, so it'll take a bit of time to get his conditioning and feet under him." With Cam Akers taking on a bigger role in the offense, I'd expect Nwangwu will be primarily a kick returner when he does get back, though injuries and player progress can always change things.

Q: How much cap space do the Vikings have for 2024, before any new JJ contract? —@mtmik06

BG: We'll have to start with a few estimates. Let's assume for now the NFL salary cap falls around $256 million, as Over the Cap has projected. The Vikings have $8.416 million of cap space for the rest of the 2023 league year, according to NFL Players Association data. If they don't make any significant moves the rest of the year and roll over something close to $6.5 million in cap space, they'd have an adjusted cap of $262.5 million, with $212.3 million of cap liabilities due to the 36 players who have contracts and three (Kirk Cousins, Danielle Hunter and Marcus Davenport) who have void money for next year.

So that's about $50 million of space, though the real number is less than that because the Vikings will have to sign a draft class and enough players to put together an offseason roster of 90 players. The NFL counts a team's top 51 cap figures against its offseason cap; if the Vikings were to keep their eight picks and fill out the roster with league-minimum players, they'd have around $38 million of space, before any adjustments to the contracts of veterans like Harrison Smith (who has a $19.215 million cap figure for 2024).

Jefferson has a $19.743 million cap figure for 2024 because of his fifth-year option, so the even if the Vikings sign him to a deal worth $30 million or more before next season, the structure of it likely wouldn't raise the cap number that much for next season. It's possible, too, they'd trade some of their draft picks if they win enough games this year that they'd need to move up to select a quarterback near the top of the 2024 draft, so the cap figure devoted to their rookie class will certainly change.

To wrap up a long explanation with a simple conclusion, they'll have more money to spend next year than they have had in recent history. They decided to absorb all of the dead money for veterans like Adam Thielen in 2023, rather than pushing the costs into the future, so they'll be able to make some moves in 2024, with even more flexibility in 2025. They'll have lots of needs, though, so they'll still need to spend wisely.

Q: What's your prediction on what Kirk signs for next year, irrespective of where it is? With all the QB struggles in the league, what's his worth? —@donraul007

BG: At the moment, Cousins is playing on a deal that averages $35 million per season, which is the 15th-highest figure in the league. Contracts for young quarterbacks have surpassed $50 million per year; it's not likely Cousins will get a deal in that range, given the fact he'll be 36 next August, but he currently leads the league with 13 passing touchdowns and ranks second in the NFL with 1,498 passing yards. Spending at least a month without Justin Jefferson could change his production, but it's reasonable to assume Cousins will head into next year seeking a deal worth at least the $40 million per season Daniel Jones got from the Giants last year. The Jones contract, which came in the middle of Cousins' talks with the Vikings about a new deal last year, affected the tenor of those negotiations, from what we've heard. Whether he gets that much will depend on how many suitors he has, but as shrewdly as Cousins and agent Mike McCartney have managed the financial side of the quarterback's career, it's difficult to expect Cousins looking for less than that if he does indeed hit the open market.