Vikings QB Kirk Cousins Growing Impatient With Lack of Contract Talks

Minnesota Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins is as ready as the team’s fan base to figure out his playing future.

The four-time Pro Bowler conducted an interview with Sky Sports NFL on Tuesday, January 30, in which he noted that he is anxious to begin negotiations with the Vikings and/or whatever other teams might be interested in acquiring his services for the 2024 season and beyond.

“Many people who ask, including friends and family, are surprised to learn that the conversations really don’t begin until March,” Cousins said. “I would love to know where I’m going. I would love to get those conversations going now.”

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Vikings Still Hold Significant Advantage in Attempt to Re-Sign QB Kirk Cousins

Cousins wasn’t criticizing the Vikings or other prospective destinations, such as the Atlanta Falcons, for not engaging with him up to this point. In fact, Atlanta would be breaking league rules by negotiating with Cousins in any manner ahead of March 11, which is two days before free agency officially begins on March 13.

Minnesota, however, is the one organization that can do a deal with Cousins now. The quarterback played for the team in 2023 on a one-year, $35 million extension he signed ahead of the 2022 campaign. That contract doesn’t officially void until free agency opens, which means he remains a member of the Vikings roster.

As such, the franchise can negotiate an extension with Cousins up until March 11 and beyond, while other teams are technically barred from doing so for approximately the next six weeks. That doesn’t mean all other teams will follow the rules. In fact, it is well-known across all professional sports leagues that free agency rules often function as looser guidelines, with the real rule being to go ahead and tamper, just don’t get caught.

That said, Minnesota still holds a significant advantage in any attempt to re-sign Cousins as the incumbent franchise with several extra weeks of negotiation runway. That may also may mean, however, that if Cousins was sending a message with his comments last week, it was the Vikings organization to which he was speaking.

“I’m just sitting at home, watching the playoffs,” Cousins told Sky Sports. “I don’t have much going on except for rehab, but I really have to wait until the first couple weeks of March to be in those conversations. So that’s what we’re doing. We’re just waiting it out.”

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Kirk Cousins Will Cost Vikings Considerable Cap Space in 2024 Whether He Plays There or Not

The conundrum Minnesota faces at quarterback heading into the 2024 season is multilayered, and Cousins and his contract appear at several critical points throughout the discussion.

To bring Cousins back, the Vikings are looking at upwards of $90 million guaranteed over two years, according to reporting done by Charley Walters of the Pioneer Press on January 29. Spotrac, meanwhile, projects Cousins’ market value at $39.3 million annually over a new three-year deal ($118 million total), much of which Minnesota would probably need to fully guarantee.

That much guaranteed money over that many years is an iffy prospect, at best, when considering Cousins will play next season at the age of 36 and is coming off an Achilles rupture in late October — by far the most significant injury of his 12-year NFL career.

Beyond that, bringing Cousins back potentially robs the Vikings of their ability to find a young QB on a more reasonable contract whose long-term future aligns with all the youthful talent in the team’s pass-catching corps — far and away its greatest roster strength.

All that said, Minnesota will incur a $28.5 million dead cap hit in 2024 if they let Cousins’ contract void, which is a crippling number when it comes to the Vikings’ hopes of restocking the roster to immediately contend in a competitive NFC North Division.

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Vikings Face Tough Choice Between Kirk Cousins, Rookie QB in Upcoming NFL Draft

The Vikings were a little too good in 2023 despite Cousins’ absence for the second half of the campaign, finishing 7-10. As a result, the team holds the No. 11 overall pick. That means that to select one of the top QBs in April, Minnesota will probably have to mortgage its next couple of drafts and trade into the top three.

Doing so might be the Vikings’ best solution, as they could reasonably hope to sub out Cousins for a potentially generational rookie and replicate their offensive success from the last few seasons as early as Year 1. The difference in price would also mitigate Cousins’ dead cap hit in 2024 and make the sport’s most important position that much cheaper in Minnesota for the next four years.

But should Minnesota make that call, it will hamper the franchise’s ability to build up its defense and offensive line through the draft. That isn’t likely to be a palatable solution for analytics-based general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah. A tentpole of his team-building philosophy relies on acquiring as much young and healthy talent playing on affordable contracts as possible, which the draft supplies better than any other avenue.

The Vikings’ other option is to select one of the second-tier QBs in a deep class at the position, either at No. 11 or after a trade down that nets them another pick or two. Doing so may still mean the end of Cousins’ tenure in Minnesota due to all the guaranteed money he’s seeking, though not necessarily.

If the Vikings choose to keep Cousins and draft a QB in middle of the first round, it would the latest — and likely the most expensive — hedge in a long series of hedges at the position over the past two years.

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