Most fans of the Minnesota Vikings probably haven’t thought about the name of Sharrif Floyd for a while. Floyd played in the 2016 regular season opener against the Tennessee Titans, and has not been on the field since. His issues, apparently, stem from a botched surgery on his knee that has caused nerve issues in one of his legs.

In his latest column for the St. Paul Pioneer Press, columnist Charley Walters has this to say about the Floyd situation:

It’s looking more and more like there’s some sensitive legal stuff going on between the Vikings and defensive lineman Sharrif Floyd, who the team decided not to release even though he was eligible to be cut Monday.

Now, as an outsider, I’m not sure what sort of legal issues there could be about Floyd’s status with the team.

The Vikings picked up Floyd’s fifth-year option in the time period shortly after the 2016 NFL Draft at a cost of just under $7 million. As Floyd was unable to pass a physical before the start of the 2017 league year because of the injury, that fifth-year option became full guaranteed, and Floyd’s entire salary counted against the team’s salary cap this past season.

As far as I can tell. . .and I’m certainly no expert in contracts or anything along those lines. . .but it would appear that the Vikings have fulfilled their obligations to Floyd as far as his contract is concerned. Walters’ report doesn’t really bring a lot of clarity, but I had been under the assumption all this time that Floyd’s contract would be finished at the start of the new league year and that he would be a free agent.

Floyd spent this past season on the Non-Football Injury list (as opposed to the Physically Unable to Perform list) as well, which would indicate that his current inability to play was, in fact, connected to the botched surgery and not due to anything that happened on the field.

I’m sure this situation will work itself out at some point over the next few weeks, but that was just an interesting little bit about a situation that I hadn’t thought much of in recent weeks.