Getty Kirk Cousins #8 of the Minnesota Vikings huddles with his team in the first half of the game against the Chicago Bears at U.S. Bank Stadium on January 09, 2022 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Photo by Adam Bettcher/Getty Images)
It’s already approaching that time of the year again.
Kirk Cousins contract season.
The Minnesota Vikings quarterback has signed three new deals in the past five years in what’s become a near-perennial affair for the veteran quarterback.
And despite signing a one-year contract extension in March, Cousins may be well on his way to inking another deal in the offseason, Charley Walters of the Pioneer Press asserted in a recent column.
Cousins Playing Himself Into Biggest Annual Extension of His Career
In an October 15 column, Walters took inventory of the first five weeks of the Vikings’ season, noting the team’s best start since 2016 along with the best start of Cousins’ career.
“Cousins, 34, already is guaranteed $30 million for the 2023 season, the final year of his contract. He has played well enough through the Vikings’ 4-1 start that the notion of trying to trade him for draft picks to get an elite QB next spring might not be a consideration. If the Vikings continue to win, they wouldn’t get a high enough first-round pick to take a top young QB anyway,” Walters wrote.
Minnesota and Cousins’ prospects this season only improved following a gutsy win over the Miami Dolphins in Week 6. The first year of the new regime’s “competitive rebuild” has found the Vikings’ firmly planted in the playoff picture — making moving on from Cousins a difficult decision after first-year general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah admitted that “burning it down” at quarterback made him nervous in the offseason.
Adofo-Mensah offered Cousins a trial one-year deal in the offseason after the front office entertained trading the veteran quarterback in the offseason. The extension helped create cap space to reinforce the defense with veteran defenders Harrison Phillips and Za’Darius Smith, two key free agents acquired to help improve a defensive unit that was the bane of the team’s success in 2021.
The bet to keep the Vikings roster intact is looking good so far, and the front office could find themselves doubling down on Cousins by the offseason with few reliable quarterbacks expected to be free agents and Minnesota playing itself out of a high draft pick this season.
Giving Cousins another year on his contract is expected to be pricey with the quarterback market soaring in the offseason. Walters estimated the cost of Cousins’ next deal could be nearly $40 million a year — the largest annual salary of Cousins’ career.
“There’s even a distinct possibility now that the Vikings, if Cousins continues to play well, next March could extend him for at least a year, through 2024, when he would be 36. A one-year extension would be expected to cost nearly $40 million,” Walters wrote.
New Regime, Same Story for Vikings.
Pending a playoff appearance this season, the Vikings will find themselves in a similar situation they were in three seasons ago.
Cousins led a walk-off game-winning drive on the road against the New Orleans Saints in the 2019 NFC wild Card round. The emphatic win secured Cousins a two-year contract extension and another go-around with Rick Spielman and Mike Zimmer, who also received new deals that offseason.
However, the Vikings drifted further from the playoffs the past two seasons despite Cousins posting several career-best numbers.
This season is different. Cousins has posted his worst total QBR (51.1) as a starter but is coming through when it matters most in the fourth quarter. He’s led three comeback game-winning drives in the fourth quarter already this season despite his statistical decline.
Time will tell whether Cousins’ recent string of clutch play is just empty calories or if the veteran quarterback is coming into his own.
But for the moment, first-year head coach Kevin O’Connell may have started to unlock the clutch gene in Cousins.