Getty Kirk Cousins is garnering significant interest among quarterback needy teams.
The trade market for Minnesota Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins may never be higher this upcoming offseason.
Cousins is ranked the fourth-best quarterback in the NFL by Pro Football Focus (PFF), has the fifth-best quarterback rating (101.9) and is seventh in passing yards (3,656) and touchdowns (29) this season.
Cousins could garner plenty of trade interest between his 2021 performance and an expected quarterback carousel around the league in the offseason.
PFF recently assessed the Vikings quarterback’s trade value, offering a “realistic trade scenario” approaching a pivotal offseason for the franchise.
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Cousins Garners High-Value Draft Picks
Several quarterback-needy teams in the upcoming offseason feel they’re one piece from making a deep postseason run.
Meanwhile, the Vikings have been flirting with mediocrity over the past two seasons and appear further from returning to the NFC Championship game after coming up one game shy of the Super Bowl in 2017. That postseason prompted Minnesota to push all its chips in and sign Cousins to a historic, fully guaranteed contract — the first of its kind in the NFL.
PFF’s salary cap analyst Brad Spielberger recently projected the quarterback market for the 2022 offseason and gave Cousins a high appraisal. The previous skepticism surrounding Cousins’ trade value was his $35 million salary owed in 2022, which ranks third among NFL quarterbacks. Minnesota was thought to have to take on some of his salary and his full $10 million signing bonus to make a trade happen.
But amid a solid season under center in a Vikings franchise teetering on the verge of a rebuild, Spielberger suggested that the Vikings could trade Cousins to the Pittsburgh Steelers and receive first- and third-round picks in return while the Steelers take on his full salary.
Here’s Spielberger’s rationale for the trade scenario:
MINNESOTA VIKINGS QB KIRK COUSINS → PITTSBURGH STEELERS
Terms: Steelers send 2022 1st, 2023 2nd
Minnesota Vikings dead money: $10,000,000
Pittsburgh Steelers inherited contract: One year, $35 million fully guaranteedThis may seem a bit crazy, given that Cousins is PFF’s fourth-highest-graded passer (86.1), but if Minnesota ownership elects to move on from head coach Mike Zimmer and start over, trading Cousins is the quickest means to turn things around in a hurry. A decision must be made this offseason one way or the other because Cousins is entering the final year of his contract, which carries a fully guaranteed $35 million salary. After receiving two franchise tags with the Washington Football Team, Cousins has effectively become untaggable for the remainder of his career.
No team wants to enter a season with their quarterback playing on the final year of his deal with no ability to ensure he sticks around if extension terms cannot be agreed to in the offseason. This provides Cousins with tremendous leverage, and Minnesota is therefore probably unwilling to let it play out this way. The team must either extend or trade him this offseason.
To that end, the Vikings used the No. 66 overall pick in 2021 on former Texas A&M quarterback Kellen Mond, a player with 46 starts in the SEC and a rocket arm, but also one who struggled to consistently play at a high level and take care of the football. However, Mond’s 80.9 PFF passing grade in his 2020 senior season was a career-best mark, and he had the lowest turnover-worthy-play rate of his college tenure (2.4%).
The question with Cousins is not whether he’s a proficient signal-caller, but whether he’s good enough to win with a roster that has to work around the fact he accounts for 15%-20% of the salary cap in a given year. Mond is undoubtedly not the player Cousins is right now, but his 2022 cap hit is roughly 2.6% of the veteran’s 2022 cap hit of $45 million. One way to look at this: Is Kirk Cousins 38 times better than Kellen Mond?
Cousins has already been linked to the Steelers earlier this season, along with the Denver Broncos and New Orleans Saints.
However, it’s unclear what kind of draft capital the Vikings can truly garner for Cousins, whose reputation around the NFL continues to be polarizing. In a recent CBS Sports article, an anonymous NFL executive and Chris Simms, while holding opposite views on Cousins as a player, both believed there may not be a ton of trade interest in the Vikings quarterback.
“The NFL executive said, in his opinion, the Vikings would not be able to move him without swallowing money,” CBS Sports’ Adam Kilgore wrote. “Simms also believes the Vikings would have difficulty moving Cousins, for a different reason: (Los Angeles Rams coach Sean McVay) and (San Francisco 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan) already have longtime answers at quarterback, and other franchises would “chicken out” to make Cousins their quarterback because of his public reputation.”Die-hard Vikings fan? Follow the Heavy on Vikings Facebook page for the latest breaking news, rumors and content from Skol Nation!
Trade or No Trade, Vikings Will Need to Reassess Cousins Future This Offseason
Cousins’ contract has left little wiggle room to rebuild a crumbling defense and an upstart offensive line made of entirely drafted players.
The potential is still there for several developmental players, but the Vikings continue to convince themselves their window is open, signing veterans every offseason to fill spots. But navigating Cousins’ contract has made free-agency shopping look more like a swap meet and less like a trip to the boutique.
Vikings ownership expects a playoff appearance to thwart any changes this season, with the first likely being head coach Mike Zimmer. Whether it’s a commitment to an actual rebuild likely leans on what Minnesota decides to do with Cousins.
Spielberger’s trade scenario would be ideal in picking up a pair of high-value draft picks, but if the Vikings decide they want to keep Cousins, a contract extension will be necessary.
With Cousins’ $45 million cap hit on the books for the 2022 season, the Vikings are $10 million over the expected cap ceiling next season, per Sportrac. With nearly the entire starting defense on expiring contracts, Minnesota will have to rebuild that side of the ball again, primarily through a penny-pinching free agency process.
It’s a recipe for another mediocre season if the Vikings can’t create some cap space and find reliable replacements in their prime. The best way to do that is to either trade Cousins or extend his contract, stretching his guaranteed money across another two seasons to lessen his weight on the team coffers.