How the Kirk Cousins Trade Really Came Together

A lot of commenters, Albert, thousands, really , um, uh, and emails pouring in, thanking us for uh making the Kirk Cousins to Minnesota Vikings trade happen.

Uh, you know, a lot of people can say that, oh, you know, it's so easy to connect Kirk Cousins and the Vikings.

Not so.

We've been doing it since late September.

Uh, and, uh, I, I, I am patting myself on the back.

I'm hugging myself.

I know a lot of Vikings fans have reached out and said, Connor, if it wasn't for you, I think we'd still have Carson Wentz against the Packers on Sunday.

Uh, so, well, well-deserved victory lap for the MMQB podcast.

Uh, we're gonna break down the trade deadline before we get to our Previews, and let's start there.

Kirk Cousins is back, baby.

Uh, it's Super Bowl or bust in Minnesota.

You could see the load off of Kevin O'Connell's shoulders during the press conference this week.

Kirk Cousins, it's like he goes back and like, it's a love fest there.

The whole family shipping out from Las Vegas and coming and like, they're just yanking the kids out of school.

I love everything about this.

Yeah, the, the amazing thing to me about it is like how it came together really quickly and how The decision for the Vikings sort of hinged in some ways on how Carson Wentz played on Monday night, which was not good.

And I, and I think that the Vikings were genuinely taken aback by the way their offense looked, and it's not all Wentz's fault, but, uh, you know, the totality of it and getting to see that and like again, seeing the defense having to, I mean, I think what we saw in that game was to some degree, The defense starting to feel the weight that they had had to carry over two months now, you know, and it started to, and, and, and now you're going up against Josh Allen, and it's just, it's a lot, you know, and, um, I think they felt that the week before, the weight they had to carry against the Lions, you know, and when you start to play these better teams, and now they're able to put pressure on you in different ways.

It changes the context of everything.

And so this thing came together quick.

It's a unique opportunity.

I, again, I, I tried to, we talked about this on the, on the live show on Tuesday night.

Like precedents are hard to come up with on this.

Like I, like the one I thought of that I didn't think of then was Carson Palmer, but like even that one , even that one, like Carson Palmer wasn't someone else's starting quarterback.

He was sitting out at the time.

Jimmy Garoppolo in mid-season, but he wasn't the Patriots' starting quarterback at the time.

He was Tom Brady's backup.

So, we've seen teams trade for starting quarterbacks in the middle of the season.

And there are a couple of examples.

Um , maybe the one that is most analogous to, and this isn't perfect either, would be Sam Bradford.

And we did, I think, talk about that one going from the Eagles to the Vikings in 2016, and that opened the door for Carson Wentz to start in Philly, which is like Kirk Cousins being traded opens the door for Fernando Mendoza to start in, in Vegas, but You know, it's, it's a swing by the Vikings.

It's something they researched, it's something they put a lot of time into over the course of the last couple of weeks.

It was something that they really, I think, agonized over.

And, um, I think it's like got a chance to be a win for everybody because, like, as we said on the live show, You avoid the undeserved awkward benching of Kirk Cousins that was probably gonna come, you know, once they fall out of the race, or once they make the decision, OK, we've got to like start to look forward.

Fernando Mendoza had been ready, so it spares them that.

The Raiders now get the rest of the season to have Fernando Mendoza take his lumps, and, you know, they start to, to, to build with their quarterback of the future and then the Vikings, you know, in a very competitive environment where You know, I think any of the 7 teams could, you know, like the 7 teams in the west and the north, the 7 we've talked about playing for 5 spots.

You know, and like any of those teams may be good enough to be the #1 seed.

Also, any of those teams might make the play, miss the playoffs, you know, like the beauty of it.

And so like that's the thing with those 7 teams, and we've talked about this for a couple of weeks now, with those 7 teams, like I think the margins are gonna be razor thin.

And so being able to do something like this, which isn't just about bringing in a good quarterback, it's also about.

Now do you get more out of Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison and TJ Hawkinson?

Like it's gonna change the dynamic there, you know, um, I.

I think it's got a chance to be a win for everyone involved , for Mendoza, for Cousins, for Raiders, for the Vikings, like every, this has a chance, and we'll see in a few weeks, this has a chance to be a true, like everyone wins sort of scenario .

I mean, the Raiders to come out of this with, they spent less than a million dollars on Cousins.

They get a 3rd round pick out of it.

They got to sit Mendoza for, you know, for, for, for half the year and They got like the mentorship of Cousins for Mendoza for 5 months is pretty incredible.

It's a great, it's a great deal.

I, I, I gotta say this 6 months.

Let me ask you this, so.

John *** says that no call came in until the morning of the trade deadline, and so they talked the day before, so they talked the day before.

The Vikings and the Raiders talked the day before about it, yeah, OK.

But, but even then, OK, like, like I used to cover the Jets and Mike Tannenbaum was the general manager, and it, it's no different than, you know, Mike Borganzi said it at his press conference.

It's some version of every rock every day.

I'm talking to everybody all the time.

The Vikings, they truly didn't confront the idea that they needed another quarterback until Carson Wentz completely collapsed on Monday.

Like, you know what I mean?

Like there's more to it than that though.

Like I, I would tell you like.

So Nolan Teasley is completely sort of reconfigured the front office there.

So he brought in Andrew Healey, who's a, you know, a high-end data guy from the Browns to be one assistant general manager.

He brought in Trent Kirchner from Seattle, um, who has been working for John Schneider forever to be like sort of the head of scouting as the other assistant general manager.

So you had those two groups working on it.

You had the coaching staff chipping in.

And I, you know what, and I, and I laid this all out in a story I did yesterday on the inside.

At the, the, the, the, the, the, the machinery of the, of the Kirk Cousins trade, they spent like 3 weeks digging through, and this is at every position, running backs, interior defensive linemen, interior offensive linemen, to look at all of their options.

So a ton of work went into this.

And they also did make exploratory phone calls.

Now, here's the difference.

It's like, it wasn't the GMs making those calls, right?

It's, The pro scouting director, it's the pro scout.

It's like, they're, all those people are talking to each other.

So, like, when Like Nolan Teasley or John Spytek say we didn't get called, we didn't get a call.

It's like, it's true that maybe the general manager didn't get that call, but there were people further down the line that were trading information.

So, you know, I, I, until Monday, I like, like, and Spytech did not shop Cousins.

Like it was, we're good, you know, like, and it, it was more if someone reaches out to us, and I think on Monday the Raiders show, showed more of an openness to it than they had previously.

And the Vikings were in a spot where it was like, we don't know where Kyler Murray, we don't know when Kyler Murray is gonna come back.

And the hamstrings especially like troublesome because of the way he plays the position.

And now Carson Wentz had a really nice week of practice.

So like, let's see how this goes.

So they opened the conversation there, and it's, OK, we're gonna check back in with you in the morning.

So, Teasley texted Spy tech at 8:00 a.m. Central, 6:00 a.m. Pacific.

So basically, at the first point, you'd be comfortable texting somebody on Tuesday morning.

So they had like sort of laid the groundwork with the pro scouts.

Then Monday, they touched base, and so the Raiders know a call is probably coming, so they have time to discuss it on Monday night.

Are we willing to do this?

And then Tuesday.

That's when the real negotiation begins and that's when, as like everybody knows now, the Raiders give the Vikings permission to reach out.

Kevin O'Connell, um, calls Kirk Cousins, I guess they called each other together based on what KO said.

That was a cute little story, yeah, they both called each other at the same time.

Yeah, yeah, and, um, and, and then, and then, obviously, and I, I thought what was interesting about it too.

And I had this in the story too.

They talked for almost an hour, which is kind of crazy because the clock's ticking, you know what I mean?

And so there was some stuff they had to go through because as, as most things that end, it didn't like it didn't end perfectly, you know, when Cousins left.

And then when there was a little bit of an exploration of a return to Minnesota for Cousins back in March this offseason.

That didn't go especially great either.

And so there were some things that they had to talk through , you know, and um they reminisced about Washington and Minnesota and all the time they spent together, but then they also worked through all of it, and I think everybody was happy with where it landed.

It's one of those situations where I, I have to imagine it's so strange because, you know, Kirk Cousins ultimately gets the chance to be the conquering hero.

But what, what makes me laugh about the situation, and I, I said this to one of my friends the other day is like, it's like having a kid, right?

And you're like, I'm gonna do whatever it takes to protect my kid, and I'm gonna send them to the best schools, and I'm gonna put them in the best camps, and I'm gonna do all this stuff.

And then it's almost like someone's like, Hey, I'll give you, like, 5000 bucks to not send them to the best school, and you're like, oh, cool, done.

Here you go, like, yeah, go over there then.

And like, so the Raiders, and I'm not saying this, I mean, they, they padded Mendoza as long as they could, but I just thought it was so funny that they were like, We're doing everything we can to keep this kid off the field.

We're doing everything we can to make sure he's fully.

Oh wait, a 3rd round pick?

OK, cool.

Yeah, hey, Mendoza, let's start against the Seahawks.

Fuck it.

I mean, I, I, I, I feel like I've said, I, I do feel like I've said this the last few weeks though.

Like they felt like internally he was ready, but the Seahawks , like that's where, that's where we made the call, like, you know, and I know it's, you know, you, you're gonna do it, you're gonna do it when you do it, right?

And you didn't do it when you do it, and there was a deadline, and like, what, like that's that part of it's not perfect, you know, I'm not gonna sit here and tell you that it is, um.

I, like, again, like I, I, I, I think that there are, like, and, and these things rarely can be perfect the way that you want to roll them out, is the last chance to trade them, you know, and that 3rd-round pick is going away if you don't trade, if you don't, if you don't wind up, and it gets you out of $10 million in March, which is another piece of it.

And, you know, I, I think like for the Raiders, I, I had an anecdote in the story too, where last week, Kirk talked to his agent, Mike McCartney.

Um, basically said to him, like, he's ready, like, and, and they were, and, and, and McCartney told Cousins, like, I don't think you're getting traded.

And, um, and Cousins said, well, Just so you know, like, Mendoza is ready, so he's gonna get the call at some point.

And if I'm gonna be traded, I want it to be to Minnesota.

So, like, I, there was just, there was just like all kinds of like little things that went into this, and I, I do think.

You know, we can talk toward toward blue in the face about the about philosophically when you put a quarterback in there.

I gotta remember to tweet my little like fun little the Albert Breer list, chart, yeah, I gotta update the chart.

I gotta get update the chart and put it out, but, um, I think we all knew, you know what I mean, that like the reality is almost never does a first round quarterback sit the entire year and Like I don't think that was ever gonna be the case here.

I think it was more like, we want to be in a position where we can support him properly.

And I would bet like the way that Clint Kubiak calls that game on Sunday against Seattle is gonna be with that in mind, like all the progress that we've made as far as his footwork and his eyes and tying the two together and Like how we want him to move in the offense and the detail of it, like, he's gonna make sure in the way he calls the game that he protects the progress they've made there because a quarterback getting knocked around in game action can undo some of that progress.

I, uh, I, I have some thoughts on, uh, Mendoza, and we're gonna do the game preview here at the back end of the show.

I went back and looked at my notes from his first preseason start, and, uh, yeah, I'm excited to watch him.

I'm very excited.

He, he , he's looked ready, um, and you know that he's doing the mental stuff right.

You, you know what I mean, and you can watch every little video, and that was the makeup.

And when you see him on the sideline, like him and Kirk are talking through things and, you know, I, I, the video, uh, that someone tweeted out yesterday where Cousins is like, no, you got it.

Like, you know, this is what we saw, this is what we're looking at, this is what I was looking at, you, you know, man, you know, and, uh, so I, I, I think that that part of it's good.

I think if people knew.

The way he got ready for the draft, and I have an anecdote.

I hope, I hope I'm gonna be able to share at some point, but He did some Like incredibly conscientious things in the lead up to the draft, that was aimed at not just Making sure that teams thought highly of him.

And that he was nailing the process.

But focused on.

I'm gonna be ready when I get there, and I'm gonna have a really good rookie year, you know, like, and there's stuff that he did was so conscientious, that was, I mean, I, like, I was blown away, blown away, like this kid's gonna be ready.

You can see why Tom Brady liked him, you know what I mean?

Like, it's very, very obvious.