Report: Vikings Declined Discount From Kirk Cousins, Who Wanted 3-Year Guarantee
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It continues to look more and more like Kirk Cousins will play out the final year of his contract in 2023. That doesn't mean his Vikings career is guaranteed to come to an end after this season, it just means that he'll enter the campaign without the long-term security he's had since coming to Minnesota five years ago.
Every indication this offseason has been that the Vikings and Cousins couldn't reach a middle ground on contract extension talks. That led to the team doing a salary cap conversion with his contract, adding two more void years to create $16 million in space without committing to Cousins beyond this season.
In a recent episode of the Access Vikings podcast, Star Tribune writers Ben Goessling and Andrew Krammer shared some interesting details on the Cousins extension talks. Essentially, the issue was that Cousins wanted a three-year, fully guaranteed deal, but the Vikings didn't want to commit to him through the 2025 season.
"The sense I've gotten is that they didn't want to commit as long as what he was looking for," Goessling said. "It seemed like they were almost moving in different directions. They wanted something shorter, he wanted something longer. My understanding is that 2025 was the issue."
Cousins, who turns 35 in August, will be 37 prior to the 2025 season. And although he's been extremely durable and has shown no signs of slowing down yet, not every quarterback can be Tom Brady and remain ultra-productive into their late 30s and early 40s. That appears to be a big reason why the Vikings' new regime, after extending Cousins last offseason, is now seemingly exploring its options for life after their veteran starter.
"They are at least willing to look at the possibility of, 'Do we go to a bridge starter? Do we go to a younger quarterback?'" Goessling said. "They're willing to look at their options in conjunction with Kirk Cousins rather than just committing to him for the next three or four years."
Most notably, it sounds like Cousins was willing to take a bit less than market value in exchange for the security of three fully guaranteed years, but the Vikings still weren't interested.
"I had also heard that he wasn't asking for $40 (million), he wasn't asking for that much in terms of what Daniel Jones got, who is obviously much younger but much less accomplished," Krammer said. "Cousins' camp was kind of surprised, I guess, from what I heard, at the Vikings not jumping (at), or at least accepting, more of what they were asking for."
This all falls in line with what Vikings GM Kwesi Adofo-Mensah told reporters at the NFL combine, which is that the team wants "flexibility" at the quarterback position. By not extending Cousins beyond this season, they can keep their options open. Maybe that means drafting someone like Will Levis or Hendon Hooker this year and having them sit behind Cousins for a year. Maybe it means waiting until next offseason to figure out the plan for 2024, which could include bringing Cousins back, finding a bridge QB, and/or drafting one.
Whether it's this year or next year, it does seem like the Vikings are interested in the idea of drafting a quarterback that they can hopefully develop into their franchise guy.
"The other piece of this is that they haven't had this idea of a young quarterback on a rookie contract for a long time," Goessling said. "And I think there is some intrigue in the building with that idea. What would it look like if we had this, kind of, financial hack of 'We're paying a starting quarterback 7-8 million dollars a year rather than 30 and we're getting that level of production.' If you get that guy right — and that's a big if — but if you get it right, that certainly is intriguing, I think, to some of the people in the building."
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