Injured quarterback Kirk Cousins will return to the NFL next season. The question is whether he will do so as a member of the Minnesota Vikings or some other organization.
Cousins spoke with media members on Friday, November 17, and declared that he will be back on the field in 2024, despite initial doubts on whether this season would be the last time he ever plays professional football following an Achilles rupture he suffered against the Green Bay Packers on October 29.
“Now, a couple weeks removed, I can say, ‘No, it’s not going to be,'” Cousins said. “I’m excited to write the next chapter and see what God wants to do with it.”
Kirk Cousins Willing to Wait Until Spring to Discuss Extension with Vikings
GettyQuarterback Kirk Cousins of the Minnesota Vikings.
Cousins’ return to Minnesota remains in limbo, as the team focuses on a playoff push without its starting quarterback. But ever the consummate professional and teammate, Cousins said Friday that he is fine with waiting to return to the negotiating table until after the 2023 campaign is complete.
“March will happen in March. February will happen in February. Those conversations will happen, but it’s just not time yet,” Cousins said. “We’ve got so much to focus on with this season. Guys are playing so well, and that’s where our attention really needs to be.”
Minnesota traded for Josh Dobbs two days following Cousins’ injury, and he has since led the team to two consecutive victories. The Vikings now stand at 6-4 and have a better than 87% chance to make the playoffs, per ESPN’s Football Power Index.
Kirk Cousins Voices Desire to Retire as Member of Vikings
GettyMinnesota Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins.
Cousins has expressed time and again a desire to finish his career in Minnesota and attempted to negotiate a multiyear extension with the Vikings over the offseason to ensure that outcome.
“It’s always been that way since I got here,” Cousins told KFAN on Friday. “I understand there are a lot of options, but it’s my desire to be a Viking, retire a Viking and finish my career here.”
The QB’s representation offered the organization an unspecified “discount” over the summer in exchange for more years on a new deal, but general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah did not agree to those terms. Minnesota extended Cousins on a one-year contract two offseasons past, which will end up paying him a total of $35 million in 2023.
Jordan Schultz of Bleacher Report reported on Tuesday that both sides have softened to the idea of Cousins returning next season, perhaps because his injury has left him more amenable to a one-year contract in his age-36 season.
“It’s my understanding that … both [Cousins] and the Vikings are much more receptive to a return in 2024,” Schultz said. “That could potentially mean a one-year contract, I’m told. But the relationship that Cousins has built not only with [head coach] Kevin O’Connell but with the Vikings staff, the players, the brass — he’s so well respected inside that locker room and really in that city.”
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Kirk Cousins Sends Clear Message on NFL Career, Vikings Future