Kirk Cousins Put on Notice by Vikings Ahead of Contract Dispute

Getty Kirk Cousins #8 of the Minnesota Vikings.

The Minnesota Vikings are open to all possibilities at quarterback next season, including moving on from Kirk Cousins.

In his end-of-season news conference, general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah was held to the fire by local media who sought to find insight into how the Vikings will handle one of the most important offseasons in recent memory.

Despite a public narrative that Vikings ownership is unwilling to rip off the band-aid — eat $28 million in dead cap to let Cousins walk — Adofo-Mensah said that he has received no mandates from above and that he is open to looking at moves that improve the team’s short- and long-term windows.

Adofo-Mensah continued, unprompted, offering his personal opinion that the idea of taking a step back — the biggest step being a change at quarterback — is irrelevant if the team is not ready to contend.

“Taking a step back in the short term isn’t a big deal if you don’t think you’re actually close,” Adofo-Mensah said, per The Athletic.

While Adofo-Mensah has maintained a desire to bring Cousins back, it comes under the terms of a contract that gives the Vikings financial flexibility — an offer Cousins did not accept in negotiations last offseason.

Unshaken by the idea of taking a step back, Adofo-Mensah likely won’t budge in contract talks with Cousins’ camp ahead of free agency in March.

Vikings GM Kwesi Adofo-Mensah Says Roster is Not Up to Championship Standard

GettyGeneral manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah of the Minnesota Vikings.

For years, Cousins has carried the Vikings to competitive seasons that have ended prematurely outside of the NFC Conference Championship — the very game the Vikings made in 2018 that prompted his arrival to Minnesota just months later.

The roster was ready to compete then, boasting the NFL’s No. 1-ranked defense from the 2017 season, but all the Vikings could muster with Cousins was a wild-card win over the New Orleans Saints in the 2019 postseason before being rolled by the San Francisco 49ers in the divisional round.

San Francisco is a team that has weathered losing their starting quarterback, hemorrhaged their future by trading three first-round picks for Trey Lance, and still persevered to be a conference frontrunner. Adofo-Mensah was in the 49ers front office from 2013 to 2019, helping build the NFC juggernaut that could make its fourth conference championship in five seasons this year.

Asked if he thinks the Vikings, whose roster has atrophied before his arrival, are close to contending, Adofo-Mensah said that his team did not rise above adversity and injuries this season — something he’s seen the 49ers have had the depth to overcome.

“I think at different times this year — we’ve shown it in the last two years in fact — but I think you want to get to that place in your program where it’s consistent year in and year out [and] you can overcome adversity,” Adofo-Mensah said. “We’re not there to that standard yet, but we’ve made the playoffs, we’ve got in playoff contention for a lot of this year through a lot of things. So, I think we’re pointed in the right direction.”

Vikings’ ‘Big Offseason’ Decision on Kirk Cousins Will Define Next Decade

GettyVikings stars Justin Jefferson and Kirk Cousins after a Week 3 loss to the Chargers.

Adofo-Mensah admitted his answer of whether the Vikings are a contender was a winding road, but he added that his intention this offseason is to make that answer simple by 2025.

“It’s going to take a big offseason for me to answer that question a little bit more in short order next time,” he said.

With Cousins on a veteran quarterback contract, the Vikings have had little funds to fill roster holes with free agents that could compensate for years of poor drafting. Some of that falls on Adofo-Mensah — whose 2022 draft class has produced just one starting caliber player — but the previous regime’s final two drafts bear equal scrutiny.

The bill is due for Justin Jefferson, Danielle Hunter and Cousins this season — and the Vikings cannot re-sign everyone while also acquiring valuable free agents in an all-in move.

The market rate for a veteran quarterback of Cousins’ caliber exceeds $40 million a season, making the roster-building advantages of a quarterback on a rookie-scale deal even more enticing.

If the Vikings use their first-round pick on quarterback at No. 11 in the draft, the rookie quarterback’s entire four-year contract would cost $23 million — an average cap hit of $5.8 million a year through the 2027 season.

The Vikings are on the hook for $28 million whether Cousins is under contract or not next season. That dead cap will be a drain on their ability to build a roster in 2024.

But Adofo-Mensah’s comments on taking a step back show he’s more than willing to take on that dead cap if it means having a rookie-scale deal at quarterback to free up significant cap space for the future.