Kyle Rudolph unhappy with Vikings
It was a disappointing season for the Minnesota Vikings who finished the regular season third in the NFC North with a 7-9 record, missing out on the playoffs for the second time in three years. The team failed to live up to expectations and players were left questioning what the future holds.
On an appearance on the “Unrestricted with Ben Leber” podcast, Vikings’ tight end Kyle Rudolph addressed his current situation with the team as he still has three years remaining on his current contract with a 2021 cap hit of $9.45 million. With the team needing to shed salary to get themselves under the cap, Rudolph was asked whether he would consider taking a pay cut to help out the organization.
“Obviously, I’m realistic. I see both sides,” Rudolph said, via ESPN. “If I were [team owners] the Wilfs, if I were [general manager] Rick [Spielman], I’m looking at this situation like, ‘Hey, we’re paying this guy a lot of money and you’re not using him, so why are we continuing to pay him a lot of money?’
“With that being said, I think I’m worth every dime of my contract. That doesn’t mean that I’m used to my potential and I’m used to do what I do well, so it will be interesting over the next few months. Like I said, I have three years left on my contract. I don’t want to go anywhere else. I’ve somehow become a pretty decent blocker because I’ve been forced to. It certainly wasn’t something that I ever did well at any point of my career. Maybe in high school because I was bigger than everyone else, but even then, I just wanted to run around and catch balls.”
Rudolph was drafted 43rd overall by the Vikings in the 2011 NFL Draft and has spent his entire career in Minnesota. He has been to the Pro Bowl twice (2012, 2017), even being named Pro Bowl MVP in 2012.
“Early on last season, the writing was on the wall,” Rudolph continued. “I saw where our offense was going. I had like seven or eight catches in the first six games. It was just absurd. I was literally blocking all the time.”
The veteran had 28 receptions for 334 yards and one touchdown in 12 games played during the 2020 campaign. It was the least amount of games he had featured in since 2014 when he only managed to play nine games.
Rudolph is hoping to return to the Vikings for the 2021 season, but is adamant about not reducing his salary at 31-years-old.
“You only get to play this game for so many years, and I feel like I have a lot of good football left,” Rudolph said. “Now we fast-forward, I’ve played these three years on my contract and I’m now 33, 34 and they’re like, ‘Hey, we want to keep you around for a couple years at a much lower number, but we want you to do X, Y and Z help these young guys out’ — sign me up.
“But like I said, at 31, with how I feel physically, with knowing what I can still do … it’s simply a lack of opportunities. In the past, I was the one getting red zone targets. I can’t sign up for that again.”
