Since they kicked off their 2017 training camp with three contract extensions in an 11-day span — giving two deals to players with two years remaining on their contracts — the Vikings have gone to more audacious lengths to keep their core players together than just about any team in the NFL.
They have issued 12 contracts of more than $50 million each in that time, writing deals with a total value of over $814 million. They at least partly guaranteed nearly half a billion dollars of those deals — $499,030,361, to be exact.
The Vikings paid everyone from a free-agent quarterback who got the first fully-guaranteed deal in NFL history to a tight end who'd mused publicly about the possibility of being traded before he signed.