Getty Kirk Cousins could be in line for another hefty contract extension.
If Kirk Cousins stays with the Minnesota Vikings in 2022, a discussion surrounding a contract extension will have to unfold.
The 31-year-old veteran quarterback enters the final year of his two-year, $66 million contract extension in 2022 — a payoff season where he’s slated to carry a fully guaranteed $45 million cap hit, the third-highest of any quarterback in the league.
In his four years in Minnesota, Cousins’ biggest critique has not been his play but rather the price the Vikings have paid for him.
Star Tribune beat reporter Andrew Krammer recently revealed the chances of Cousins taking a team-friendly contract extension — and they’re not great.
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‘He’s Still Not in the Charity Business’
On the Access Vikings podcast, Krammer and fellow beat reporter Ben Goessling discussed the upcoming offseason that could see Cousins either traded or extended.
The expected hiring of Los Angeles Rams offensive coordinator Kevin O’Connell has led to several reports of the duo’s amiability after working together for a year in Washington.
“Here’s the thing you have to keep in mind: They’re going to be bringing in (head coach) Kevin O’Connell,” Adam Schefter said on ESPN’s coverage of the Pro Bowl, per NESN. “Kevin O’Connell worked with Kirk Cousins in Washington. Kirk Cousins endorsed Kevin O’Connell for that job. One of the reasons Kevin kind of wants that (Minnesota) job is because of Kirk Cousins. There’s a relationship.”
Their relationship isn’t a new development. Cousins spoke glowingly of O’Connell even back in 2018.
“He would seem to check all the boxes of a head coach,” Cousins said in 2019, per The Athletic. “He relates well to players, has command of the room when he speaks in a meeting, and most important has mastery of the X’s and O’s. He’s still pretty young, so I’m sure he can benefit from more experience, but it’s more a matter of when not if.”
Does O’Connell entering TCO Performance Center in Eagan, Minn., improve the chances of Cousins staying at a lower pay. Sure, but it’s not likely to come in the form of a restructuring, but a contract extension.
Here’s a segment of Krammer and Goessling’s conversation from the Access Vikings podcast:
Goessling: I think there’s a possibility this means Cousins is still your quarterback at least for the short term. Is Kirk Cousins willing to be here at less than $45 million? I think there’s a chance of that happening now there’s a coach that Kirk Cousins likes.
Krammer: I’ve got a grain of inside information that Kirk Cousins is still, as of February 2022, not in the charity business. That’s all I’ll say.
Goessling: That’s true. That’s always been the question.
Krammer: He’s still not in the charity business meaning he’s still as shrewd of a businessman as there is in the NFL and a guy who has made a lot of money. If that number is going to come down it’s going to be in some way I think that hangs on the Vikings books in some (future) year.
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Cousins’ Contract Extension Won’t Come Cheap
Cousins is coming off the best two-season stretch of his career. And with quarterbacks now playing in their prime past the age of 35, his camp will contend that his deal be no different than his past contracts.
However, there is a way to at least diminish his cap hits for the next couple of seasons, ultimately kicking the can further down the road.
Former NFL agent Joel Corry broke down the finances of Cousins’ contract and projected the Vikings could clear $20 million off the books in 2022 with a four-year extension.
The Vikings should be able to comfortably clear $20 million 2022 cap space through a Cousins extension. One way this could be done is by is lowering Cousins’ base salary to a fully guaranteed $5 million while giving him a $50 million signing bonus on a four-year extension. There would be $10 million of annual signing bonus proration from 2022-26 to go along with the existing $10 million of signing bonus proration in 2022 relating to the 2020 extension. Cousins’ 2022 cap number would drop from $45,166,668 to $25,166,668 in the process.
That deal would ride out the duration of newly hired general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah’s contract with the Vikings, ultimately tying Cousins to the general manager and potentially the head coach again.
However, after seeing the demise of the last regime’s marriage to Cousins, Adofo-Mensah may not be willing to venture down that same road.