Everson Griffen is seeing his name being brought up as a possible cap casualty as the Minnesota Vikings look for ways to free up salary cap space for the 2019 offseason. Those rumors are not unfounded, as it appears the front office is drawing a bit of a line in the sand about the future of the veteran defensive end.

Multiple media reports on Tuesday have stated that the Vikings have submitted an offer to restructure his deal in the aftermath of the Anthony Barr contract, which is set to pay the linebacker $13.5 million per season. ESPN's Courtney Cronin gives a detailed explanation below. A decision should be coming soon, as his salary for 2019 locks in at midnight on Friday.

"It's been quiet on the Everson Griffen front (on Tuesday), but that doesn't mean there isn't work going on behind the scenes. I'm told that Griffen and his representation have been approached with the terms of a restructure from the Vikings and that the defensive end has expressed a desire to remain in Minnesota, but doing so will probably have to come via different terms than the way his contract is currently structured with $10.9 million of his base salary set to become fully guaranteed on Friday. As of right now, the ball is in Griffen's court as to whether he wants to accept the new terms the Vikings laid forth or aim to continue his career elsewhere. It's possible that these talks could continue on past the 3 p.m. start of the new league year on Wednesday. Theoretically, the Vikings could structure Anthony Barr's new deal to fit under the cap in 2019 to buy them time to work through talks with Griffen, but in the end, whether the DE takes a restructure is likely going to determine his future in Minnesota."

Griffen, a fourth-round pick in the 2010 NFL Draft, is entering his 10th season in the NFL, all with the Vikings. During that time, he has racked up 66.5 career sacks in 73 career starts (132 games played). However, last season was a bit of a struggle for the veteran pass rusher, as he missed five games to tend to a mental health issue and posted his lowest sack total since the 2013 season with 5.5 sacks on the year.

He signed a contract extension with the team during training camp in 2017 that came in at four-years, $58 million through the 2022 season. Should the Vikings decide to release or trade him, it would free up $10.5 million in cap room with a dead cap hit of $1.2 million.

The NFL is a business, and sometimes a harsh one despite the good faith in which contracts are signed. The Vikings would likely love to have Griffen back on some sort of renegotiated deal, but given his production, point in his career and the price tag, not everything currently matches up and it does appear that he at least has lost a little bit of a step. They have a tough decision to make in terms of what his worth to the franchise is and it would not be a shock to see them start to tune down his role as they did with Brian Robison, but it would be really hard to justify keeping him around at almost $11 million.

(There are still Super Bowl aspirations in Minnesota despite missing the playoffs in 2018, leading to a key offseason of decisions and moves --Don't miss any of the action! Sign up for our FREE Vikings newsletter here!)

The offseason is in full swing as NFL teams work to build for the 2019 season and beyond. The start of free agency and the new league year officially begins on March 13, though teams are allowed to begin negotiating with free agents as early as March 11 and agree to deals. The 2019 NFL Draft kicks off from Nashville, Tennessee on April 25, 2019, and runs through April 27, 2019. The first round will be held on Thursday night, followed by the second and third round on Friday night and will conclude with rounds four through seven on Saturday.