The Minnesota Vikings are worried about the present, as they are 6-2 and in a fight for the NFC North division and Wild Card playoff spots, which is why they pulled the trigger, sending a 2027 third-round pick to the Las Vegas Raiders for Kirk Cousins.
Kyler Murray was inconsistent and couldn’t move the Vikings’ offense toward an upward trajectory. Meanwhile, Carson Wentz had a disastrous performance in Week 9 against the Buffalo Bills.
As a result, the Vikings needed to make a trade, as they have a championship-caliber defense that can take them on a deep playoff run, but what the team was lacking was just average-to-above-average QB play. Nonetheless, the way Cousins was playing in Las Vegas, Minnesota will be getting more.
While the focus is on Cousins to get this team to the playoffs, if he performs well and gets Justin Jefferson going, the question is whether Minnesota and the player would want to extend this for another season.
Cousins is on a one-year contract and is 38, but former Arizona Cardinals general manager Steve Keim doesn’t see why both parties wouldn’t want to run it back next season if all goes well.
“I would call it an audition,” Keim said on the Nov. 11 edition of “Inside Football.” “… But I would say Kirk Cousins is at an age where he’s got to decide how long he wants to play and with that defense, and considering they can continue to keep things rolling there, I don’t know why he wouldn’t want to continue to stay in Minnesota. I also saw an interview where he said he wanted to stay there all along.”
Cris Carter Could See Kirk Cousins With Vikings Past This Season
Moreover, former Vikings wideout Cris Carter also sees the possibility of Minnesota and Cousins being together past this season, given that the player didn’t want to leave after his first stint and there’s more wiggle room to sign him to a contract.
“Kirk Cousins never wanted to leave,” Carter said. “But people need to understand that most people don’t follow other teams as closely as we follow our own teams. At that time, with the torn Achilles, even if they decided to pick up the option for Kirk Cousins, this was the least amount of money he had made in 10 to 15 years. I was about to say, this was a change for him.
“He made $360 million. This is a bargain at any other time. The Vikings also had to sign Justin Jefferson to a record-breaking extension. They couldn’t extend Kirk Cousins and Justin Jefferson at the same time, and the salary cap was a little bit different. Now, there’s more wiggle room.”
Kirk Cousins Has Message for Justin Jefferson
Meanwhile, on Nov. 11, Cousins spoke with the media about Jefferson as the two look to rekindle the connection they had in the veteran’s first stint in Minnesota.
“For me, with Justin, it’s just play to play, play in and play out,” Cousins told reporters. “You’re always going where your reads take you, and Kevin [O’Connell] will always do a great job of trying to give him opportunities. He’s always done a great job of making us look smart. I think that’s what my approach will be again.
“You don’t go chasing things, but you also understand the player that he is, and you go where your reads take you. You know that he tends to make you right when you throw him the ball in his direction.”
Kirk Cousins Issued Candid Take on Vikings Future After Deadline Trade