Malik Willis Revelation Not Ideal for Vikings

Indianapolis — Twelve days before the 2026 league year opens, the Minnesota Vikings learned that their presumed fallback plan at quarterback carries a price tag they almost certainly cannot afford.

Malik Willis, the former Green Bay reserve who has started only three NFL games, is now projected to command “at least $30 million per year” on the open market, according to conversations circulating at this week’s NFL Combine. The assessment, first reported by NFL insider Jordan Schultz, lands like a miniature bombshell inside the Vikings’ already strained salary-cap ledger.

Minnesota enters the final fortnight before free agency an estimated $43 million above the cap. Reconciling that overage while simultaneously finding an additional $30-plus million for a single player would require a financial contortion act even the league’s most creative cap architects view as improbable. League observers note that the combined $75 million gap—current overage plus new money—places the Vikings in an almost untenable position to pursue the cycle’s top available quarterback.

The revised forecast also represents a sharp departure from recent industry chatter. Comparable reclamation projects for Sam Darnold and Baker Mayfield had hinted Willis might secure something in the $20–25 million range. Schultz’s reporting erases that buffer, stating flatly that decision-makers inside Lucas Oil Stadium “believe him getting at least $30M per year is a foregone conclusion.”

Willis’s meteoric valuation stems from tantalizing flashes in limited action. Extrapolated across a 17-game schedule, his three Green Bay starts translate to Lamar Jackson-level per-game production, a statistical tease that has general managers “drooling,” per Schultz. Yet the leap from three starts to top-of-market payday is unprecedented in the modern era of quarterback contracts.

For Minnesota, the timing is especially inconvenient. The club opted not to extend Darnold last offseason at a price point that would have fallen neatly inside the $30 million neighborhood now attached to Willis. Instead, the Vikings face a roster purge or extensive restructures merely to achieve cap compliance. One hypothetical remedy floated by Daily Norseman’s Warren Ludford—reworking Justin Jefferson’s $25 million base salary into a signing bonus—would free roughly $20 million, enough to retain a cluster of role players and specialists but far short of what is required to add a marquee quarterback.

The broader marketplace appears more accommodating. Miami and the New York Jets have emerged as speculative favorites, each carrying clearer paths to cap space and need at the position. The Dolphins further deepened the intrigue by hiring former Packers executive Jon-Eric Sullivan as general manager, maintaining the Green Bay-to-South Beach pipeline that already delivered head coach Jeff Hafley. The Jets, meanwhile, have only an underwhelming, injury-marred season from Justin Fields on their immediate horizon and could pivot toward Willis for a potential upgrade.

Other quarterback-needy outfits are monitoring the situation. Arizona is bracing for a possible divorce from Kyler Murray on contractual grounds, while teams such as Las Vegas, Tennessee, and New Orleans linger on the periphery of the rumor mill.

Whether Minnesota chooses to orchestrate the requisite cap gymnastics—or quietly bows out—league observers agree on one point: the revelation that Malik Willis will not come at a “prove-it” discount has fundamentally altered the Vikings’ offseason blueprint, and the clock is ticking toward March 9, when legal tampering commences and suitors can begin formal courtship.