Vikings Predicted to Open Season With $242 Million QB Under Center

The Minnesota Vikings‘ future depends greatly on if the team re-signs Kirk Cousins or trades up to draft a top QB prospect, but there’s a reasonable chance neither happens.

Seth Walder of ESPN believes there is a more likely outcome, which he detailed in an article predicting who will open the 2024 season as the starting quarterback for each NFL franchise. Walder’s prediction for the Vikings is Russell Wilson — still technically of the Denver Broncos, for now — with the caveat of Bo Nix.

“Let’s call this Wilson plus Oregon’s Bo Nix,” Walder wrote on Tuesday, February 27. “Cousins might end up back in Minnesota, but I could see the Vikings balking at giving him a multiyear guaranteed contract. If he’s out of the picture, Wilson is probably the next-best short-term solution. (I’m assuming the Bears wouldn’t deal Justin Fields inside their division.) But don’t be surprised if the Vikings go after multiple players to fill Cousins’ void. If they do, acquiring Wilson and drafting a QB at No. 11 makes the most sense.”

Walder predicted that Cousins will begin the year as the Atlanta Falcons‘ starting quarterback. He projected that LSU’s Jayden Daniels and UNC’s Drake Maye — the two prospects for whom the Vikings would most likely try to trade up — will be the opening-day starters for the New England Patriots and the Washington Commanders, respectively.

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Russell Wilson Had Sneaky Good Season in 2023, Could Make Sense for Vikings in Short-Term

Walder is not the only analyst to float Wilson as a short-term bridge to a young starter in Minnesota, in part because he is a nine-time Pro Bowler with a Super Bowl win on his resumé and is likely to soon be available.

A relatively rough run of a couple years aside, that sounds like the type of quarterback head coach Kevin O’Connell can work with. And Justin Jefferson, Jordan Addison and T.J. Hockenson are the type of pass-catching trio any NFL starter worth the name, over the hill or not, can deploy to make a pretty delicious batch of proverbial lemonade.

Wilson was much-maligned after a poor season in 2022, but the QB actually played better than he gets credit for last year. Wilson completed 66.4% of his passes for 3,070 yards, 26 TDs and 8 INTs across 15 starts, per Pro Football Reference.

He has limitations as a 35-year-old who is undersized at the position and has lost some of the athleticism that once made him an elite improviser outside of the pocket, but Wilson’s career as an NFL starter is not over, even after 12 years in the league. He’s going to land somewhere and get his shot, and that destination could be Minnesota if the dominoes fall just right.

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Broncos Must Pay Huge Money to Cut QB Russell Wilson

Broncos head coach Sean Payton told reporters at the NFL Combine in Indianapolis on Tuesday that he expects the team will make a final decision on Wilson soon.

“I expect we’re going to know fairly quickly,” Payton said, per Jeff Legwold of ESPN. “There are several factors here. The cap projections came out, we’re further down the road with the draft class, obviously the pro free agents, so I would anticipate it within the next two weeks.”

Cutting Wilson will cost Denver $85 million in dead money, as he is currently under contract on a $242.6 million extension he signed with the franchise in 2022. Even still, all signs from both the Broncos and Wilson point to a dissolving of the relationship in the coming days.

If that happens and he hits the open market, the Vikings will be able to sign Wilson to a short-term deal at a favorable price point. Minnesota should be among the quarterback’s top potential destinations, as the team won the NFC North Division two seasons past and has a solid infrastructure/roster that is ready to win now.

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