The Minnesota Vikings made a big move ahead of the 2026 NFL trade deadline on Tuesday, as they sent a 2027 third-round pick to the Las Vegas Raiders in exchange for old friend Kirk Cousins. With the Vikings getting virtually no production from the quarterback position again this season, the team is hoping that a revitalized Cousins can help get their offense going.
It’s been about a season-and-a-half of offensive woes for Minnesota, and it was clear during the team’s horrific loss to the Buffalo Bills in Week 9 that things were on the verge of coming apart at the seams. According to an anonymous NFL general manager, the Vikings very well may have saved their season by simply making a move for Cousins, even though he hasn’t played a snap for them yet.
Anonymous GM Sends Harrowing Message on Vikings’ Quarterback Situation
Over the offseason, Minnesota signed Kyler Murray in free agency to come in and compete with J.J. McCarthy for the starting quarterback job. While Murray ended up winning the job very early in training camp, he hasn’t been much of an upgrade over McCarthy under center. In what has effectively been five games of work, Murray has completed 100 of his 154 pass attempts for 1,022 yards, five touchdowns, and three interceptions.
Those numbers are obviously less than stellar, but the Vikings were winning, so nobody really complained. Consecutive losses to the Bills and Detroit Lions, though, have changed the tenor of this conversation. Murray did next to nothing against the Lions, and after suffering a hamstring injury that sidelined him against Buffalo, Carson Wentz replaced him and didn’t even manage to throw for 100 yards against one of the worst passing defenses in the league.
Minnesota quickly canvassed the league for trade targets after its Week 9 loss, and it locked in on Cousins, who previously spent six seasons with the team. Cousins had been dealing for the Raiders prior to this trade, and he should immediately be an upgrade over the likes of Murray and Wentz. Had the Vikings not made a trade for a quarterback before the deadline struck, one anonymous NFL general manager believes things would have gotten ugly fast for this team.
“That team was about to fracture,” the GM bluntly said, per NFL insider Jason La Canfora of casino.org. “The defense was going to crack.”
Can Kirk Cousins Actually Save the Vikings Season?
After a pair of rough seasons with the Atlanta Falcons, nobody really expected much from Cousins with the Raiders, but he has actually been surprisingly efficient so far this season (202/315, 2,340 YDS, 20 TD, 8 INT). Now, he’ll rejoin an offense that features studs like Justin Jefferson, Jordan Addison, and T.J. Hockenson, so it’s not a stretch to expect Cousins to experience immediate success under center.
Will it be enough for Minnesota to go on a Super Bowl run? That’s going to be a tough ask, as Cousins is going to have to get reacclimated with this team on the fly. And while he has been productive, we have seen the rug quickly get pulled out from underneath him when it comes to his play at previous points in his career, so nothing is guaranteed. Cousins will presumably draw the start for the Vikings on Sunday when they return to action against the Green Bay Packers.
Anonymous GM Drops Truth Bomb on Vikings’ QB Situation Before Kirk Cousins Trade