A report emerged Friday that the Vikings did not make the best offer for Kirk Cousins, and it was rather easy to speculate which franchise did. And some details on the Jets’ process have emerged.
The Jets may well have been the runners-up for Cousins, and they are believed to have made a $30MM-per-year offer for the quarterback, Manish Mehta of the New York Daily News reports.
Cousins’ agent, Mike McCartney, said the Vikings’ offer was “not even close” to the best for his client. And a previous report had the Jets ready to offer a boatload for the 29-year-old passer. And it’s quite possible they could have offered a $30MM-AAV fully guaranteed deal. That would have qualified as a better proposal than what Cousins accepted.
While the Vikings didn’t make the best offer, the one they did make comes with some historic provisions: an $84MM fully guaranteed deal, a no-trade clause and the prevention of placing the franchise tag on Cousins once the deal expires, Mehta reports.
During his press conference in Minnesota, the now-wealthier quarterback said he did some scouting on the city while he was in town for Super Bowl week, informing his wife that “everything was checking the boxes” in Minnesota. The Redskins agreed to trade for Alex Smith while Cousins was in Minneapolis, so the Vikings may have been the frontrunners from the start — even though it wasn’t yet known if they were going to place the franchise tag on Case Keenum. Mehta adds Cousins was not believed to have made a trip to the New York/New Jersey area for Jets-scouting purposes.
As far as the Jets go, being so committed to chasing Cousins harmed their free agency prospects, Mehta writes. Although they feared the Vikings in this chase, they were still holding out hope as of Tuesday morning he could be swayed to come to New York. The Jets reporter notes the team could not make sizable financial proposals on Monday because of the commitment they would have needed to make to Cousins if he were to sign with them. Mehta reports the Jets gave Cousins a deadline on Tuesday morning.
After Cousins-to-Minnesota became an accepted reality on Tuesday, however, the Jets sprang into action — most notably with their Trumaine Johnson commitment. New York signed both Josh McCown and Teddy Bridgewater to serve as a bridge to the likely passer the team will draft at No. 3 overall.
Another theory at Jets headquarters is McCartney helped arrange Cousins going to Minnesota to help Josh McCown — also a McCartney client — receive a better Jets offer. While that may be a bit extreme, since McCown got $4MM more in 2018 ($10MM) than he did in 2017, Mehta reports that is a real sentiment with the Jets.
I wouldn’t have taken the Jets offer, either. Mediocre O-Line. Below average at best receivers. Average run game. Not to mention a revolving door of coaches and a volatile market. Just not worth it compared to the Vikings talent and every penny of guaranteed money.
Cousins built a house in Michigan in 2017, so presumably that is where he plans to live in the offseason. Michigan and Minnesota have a reciprocal agreement, according to Robert Raiola, director of the Sports & Entertainment Group at the CPA and consulting firm PKF O’Connor. That means Cousins would not have to pay Minnesota tax, just Michigan. The Michigan tax rate is 4.25. If he signed with another team, he would have to pay tax in that state and Michigan. New Jersey’s tax rate is 8.97 by comparison.
So, if Cousins were to sign with the Vikings, he would only have to pay taxes once on his football income, at a rate of 4.25%. If he signed with the Jets he would have to pay not only the Michigan state income tax, but also the income tax of New Jersey (8.97%)
From dailynorseman.com
So rough math would be about 4 million/year in taxes as a Jet, or 1.2 million/year in taxes as Viking. A difference of 2.8 million/year. So 30 million per year after taxes as a Jet would have been about 26 million take home and 28 million per year after taxes as a Viking is about 26.8 million. This the Jets offer was actually worse than the Vikings.
Yeah, math.
Yawn
feel free to skip. why comment
Yea i see this jackass comment on every post saying the same thing… What do you get out of commenting on this stuff like that other then you are a moron
Its that oildale water. They put arsenic and lead in it on purpose so people will grow more teeth…
So the jets could have paid him 2 million more a year to lose! Right decision made!