Getty Kirk Cousins, of the Minnesota Vikings, warms up before the game against the Los Angeles Rams at U.S. Bank Stadium on December 26, 2021 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Photo by Stephen Maturen/Getty Images)
Following the Super Bowl next Sunday on February 13, the Minnesota Vikings are expected to hire Los Angeles Rams offensive coordinator Kevin O’Connell officially.
Then comes arguably the biggest decision for the franchise that will impact the team for years to come.
What to do with Kirk Cousins.
O’Connell worked with Cousins as Washington’s quarterbacks coach in 2017, however, the Rams coordinator gave a “nuanced review” review of Cousins during his interview, The Athletic’s Chad Graff reported. O’Connell won over the organization with his interview that leaves the quarterback’s future in the air.
No further details have been revealed of O’Connell’s plans at quarterback.
However, ESPN’s Vikings beat reporter Courtney Cronin predicted what could come of Cousins this offseason amid a whirlwind of changes that have hit the front office and coaching staff.
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Cronin Says Vikings Keep Cousins
ESPN recently called upon its NFL Nation reporters to speculate a possible quarterback carousel this offseason with many of the league’s top quarterbacks potentially on the move this spring.
However, Cronin doesn’t see Cousins among them.
“Finding a trade partner who is willing to take on Cousins’ $35 million fully guaranteed base salary is no simple task. The Vikings would undoubtedly be on the hook for millions if they traded the 33-year-old quarterback (by absorbing a big part of his salary to move him) when there’s only one year left on his deal,” Cronin wrote.
The caveat that comes with keeping Cousins is eating his $45 million cap hit, which would take up 21% of the team’s cap space next season. The Vikings are already $14 million over the salary cap in 2022, meaning the team will have to rework several contracts to take on that cap hit or offer Cousins another lucrative contract extension to push his earnings further down the road.
But with the quarterback market likely to skyrocket this offseason, Cousins’ extension will not come cheap and the Vikings will have to assess whether he’s their guy of the future or if they’ll bite the bullet and ride out the final year of his deal.
“While that one year does come with a $45 million cap hit, Minnesota can look to restructure other veteran contracts (Harrison Smith and Adam Thielen?) and/or trade edge rusher Danielle Hunter to free up cap space so they can keep Cousins for 2022 without having to pay him another lucrative extension,” Cronin wrote.
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Former Agent Suggest Contract Extension for Cousins
Cousins’ contract is the last of the team’s pricy deals ready for restructuring or an extension. Cousins likely won’t agree to the latter, but he could be on board for another extension.
The 33-year-old quarterback is slated to be the third-highest paid player at his position next season with a $45 million cap hit on the books — $35 million in his fully guaranteed base salary and another $10 million in a signing bonus.
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.
And after seeing how that panned out for the last regime, Adofo-Mensah may not be willing to offer an extension of that stature to the veteran quarterback.