Minnesota Vikings TE Kyle Rudolph dissatisfied with usage, will not accept pay cut



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MINNEAPOLIS – Minnesota Vikings tight end Kyle Rudolph knows his worth and he won’t give any discounts until his 11th season in the NFL.

During an appearance on the “Unrestricted with Ben Leber” podcast, Rudolph expressed his displeasure with his role in the Viking offense over the past two seasons, rising from second or third wide receiver for Minnesota from 2015 to 2018 to an afterthought in the passing game in 2020.

Minnesota is set to exceed the cap of $ 12.8 million before the league’s new year and earn $ 5.1 million in cap space if it releases Rudolph this offseason (which comes with 4.35 million dead money dollars). The Vikings could also restructure Rudolph’s current deal, three years to go, to cut his 2021 maximum number from $ 9.45 million to almost half.

It wouldn’t be the first time the Vikings have approached the Pro Bowl Double Finals with a restructuring proposal. In June 2019, Rudolph reworked his contract to a four-year extension two months after Minnesota used a second-round pick to draft tight end Irv Smith Jr. from Alabama. Last season, Smith was third for the Vikings in receiving and touchdowns (365 yards, five touchdowns).

Rudolph said he’s unsure how the Minnesota front office would approach his situation before free will, but he has stood firm with his belief that he should be paid in full for what his contract entails.

“Obviously I’m a realist. I see both sides,” Rudolph said. “If I was [team owners] the Wilfs, if I were [general manager] Grinding wheel [Spielman], I look at this situation like, ‘Hey, we’re paying this guy a lot of money and you don’t use him, so why do we keep paying him a lot of money?’

“That being said, I think I’m worth every penny of my contract. It doesn’t mean that I’m used to my potential and that I’m used to doing what I do well, so it will be interesting during the period. in the next few months. Like I said, I have three years left on my contract. I don’t want to go anywhere else. I kind of became a pretty decent tackle because I had to do it. It certainly wasn’t something that I have done well at any point in my career. Maybe in high school because I was taller than everyone else, but even then I just wanted to run and catch balls. “

“At the start of last season, the writing was on the wall,” Rudolph continued. “I saw where our offense was going. I had seven or eight catches in the first six games. It was just absurd. I was literally blocking all the time.”

Rudolph caught 28 passes on 35 targets in 2020, his lowest performance since the 2014 season. He tallied 334 receiving yards and one touchdown, the latter a career low for the former second-round pick.

Rudolph was asked to pass the block on 43 shots last season, down from the 68 pass blocking shots he played in 2019. The tight veteran revealed on the podcast the reason for his injured reserve designation at the end of the season which forced him to miss week 13 to 17: a sprain from Lisfranc to the foot.

Asked what he would do if the Vikings came up with a restructuring proposal that would keep him in the same role he played in attack, Rudolph made it clear that he would not accept a reduced salary for 2021. He is planned to make a base. salary of $ 7.65 million next season.

“It wouldn’t happen,” he said. “You can only play this game for so many years, and I feel like I still have a lot of good football left. Now we are moving fast, I have played these three years with my contract and I’m 33, 34 now and they’re like, ‘Hey, we want to keep you a few years at a much lower number, but we want you to help X, Y, and Z these young guys out’ – sign me up.

“But like I said, at 31, with how I feel physically, knowing what I can still do … It’s just a lack of opportunities. In the past, it was me who was getting red zone targets. I can’t sign. again for that. “

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