Vikings Sign Kirk Cousins to One-Year, $35 Million Contract Extension

Cousins is now under contract through the 2023 season.

The Vikings have signed quarterback Kirk Cousins to a one-year, $35 million contract extension, as first announced by his agent Mike McCartney.

New GM Kwesi Adofo-Mensah and HC Kevin O’Connell have publicly said that Cousins their quarterback in recent weeks, and now they’ve committed to him for the next two years. The deal is fully guaranteed and comes with a no-trade clause.

For the Vikings, this move saves roughly $14 million on their 2022 salary cap, nearly getting them under the cap. It also means Cousins is no longer entering a contract year. O’Connell has said that he’s excited to coach Cousins and build an offense for him, and now he gets to do that. The Vikings reportedly received calls from teams interested in Cousins this offseason, but decided to keep him in Minnesota.

By signing him to a one-year extension, the Vikings aren’t making a long-term commitment to Cousins, but they’re still cementing that he’ll be their QB for at least the next two years.

For Cousins, his track record of doing excellent business in the NFL continues. He’ll play on a fully guaranteed deal for an eight consecutive season in 2023. Cousins will make $40 million this season and $30 million in 2023. His cap hits are $31.4 million this year, $36.25 million next year, and two void years (2024 and 2025) were added onto the deal. The no-trade clause ends speculation that he could be moved to a different team.

The Vikings are running it back with Cousins in 2022 and 2023. Now we’ll see if O’Connell and Adofo-Mensah can get more out of him and build a championship-caliber team with Cousins at the helm.

Thanks for reading. Make sure to bookmark this site and check back daily for the latest Vikings news and analysis all offseason long. Also, follow me on Twitter and feel free to ask me any questions on there.


Published
Will Ragatz
WILL RAGATZ

Will Ragatz is a senior writer for Vikings On SI. He is a credentialed Minnesota Vikings beat reporter, covering the team extensively at practices, games and throughout the NFL draft and free agency period. Ragatz attended Northwestern University, where he studied at the prestigious Medill School of Journalism. During his time as a student, he covered Northwestern Wildcats football and basketball for SB Nation’s Inside NU, eventually serving as co-editor-in-chief in his junior year. In the fall of 2018, Will interned in Sports Illustrated’s newsroom in New York City, where he wrote articles on Major League Baseball, college football, and college basketball for SI.com.