This week, when the Vikings’ brain trust arrives in Indianapolis for the league’s annual scouting combine, it will do so with a different set of financial constraints than it has experienced in most recent seasons.
The combine — which doubles as the league’s first substantive look at the upcoming draft class and the unofficial kickoff of free agency — has more often than not seen the Vikings pursuing an ambitious agenda in recent years. In 2013, general manager Rick Spielman publicly deflected questions about trading Percy Harvin; the Vikings dealt him to Seattle weeks later, before missing out on Mike Wallace and eventually signing Greg Jennings.