As we prepare for the madness of free agency at the opening of the new league year, the Vikings are also attempting to keep their quarterback off of the free agent market for next year. According to Mike Garafolo of NFL Network, it’s looking more and more likely that Kirk Cousins will be testing free agency a year from now. 
A year ago, the Vikings ensured they would have Cousins under contract through the 2023 season by extending his existing two-year deal an additional season. In each of the two years of that original deal, Cousins held a cap hit of just over $31MM. The additional season sees him once again with an egregious cap hit of $36.25MM.
With those hefty hits on the salary cap, the Vikings are attempting to work with Cousins to figure out an extension that could benefit both parties, earning Cousins a payday while relieving some of the cap pressure on the team. Garafolo’s reports indicates that, as of right now, no deal appears to be imminent.
The team is working with a soft deadline by which they would prefer to have an extension done. Cousins’s current contract includes a 2023 roster bonus of $20MM that becomes guaranteed this week. He’ll be paid $15MM of the bonus next week with the remaining $5MM to be paid out in September. The existing deal also holds two automatically voided years that carry $18.75MM of cap hits into 2024 and 2025.
With no momentum towards a new deal getting done, it’s looking like Cousins intends to play out the last year of his contract, flirting with the idea of free agency this time next year. Minnesota will likely continue to try to work something out, as they are currently near the bottom of the league in cap space for the 2023 season. A failure to reach a new extension with Cousins will make things difficult for the Vikings as we approach the start of free agency.
Egregious? Dude is better than some guys ahead of him on the list ..
Egregious is a hilarious word to use by this writer, Kirk cousins is like baseline for how good a QB has to be, and egregious is probably an overstatement but it made me exhale out of my nose with speed
as the prophecy states:
Aaron Rodgers will fizzle out on the Jets and sign with the Vikings in 24
That’ll have him following in Brett Favre’s footsteps.
That was the joke lol
Kirk is a serviceable QB. He is good but not great. And that is the MO of the Vikings. For 40 years I have watched the same movie over and over again the Vikes are good enough to be good and a playoff contender but never good enough to be great. When they are bad still pick like 15 in a 1-2 QB draft. Ponder was a massive reach and proved it. It just sucks watching every year when other teams find their QB of the future the Vikes run out veteran after veteran and hope he is the one to take them over the hump.
True dat Slappy. They can never put it all together. This past season they had an amazing O, but their D was the worst I’ve ever seen it. When their D finally takes off, the offense will have holes. Never fails!!
Serviceable??? Lol He’s way way better than over half the QB’s out there!!! I’ve read a few stupid comments before but this takes the cake. You say he’s serviceable I guess his passer ratings throughout the years justifies that comment eh? SMH
The Cousins hate is hilarious. Look at his QB stats compared to Lamar Jackson since 2020. Jackson is heralded as a top 5 QB and Cousins as hot garbage
Stats don’t show the QB he is. He raked in garbage time – that doesn’t make a good QB. This year he was a little more clutch, but when you get 200 extra yards and a bunch of completions because you’re facing a 3rd string defense after the game is over for you shouldn’t be reason for applause.
against a dime rushing 5 ..
easier said than done.
As many of you know I have 28 years of NFL scouting experience…my crystal ball says he resigns with Minnesota
Trade him to the 49ers for Lance and a 2024 1st
49ers font have the cap room to pay Kirk and their skill position players. They need the rookie QB contract to keep the group together.
Lol you’re dreaming
Egregious? Lmao have you seen the qb market
If it is not Cousins in 2024, who is it?
It wasn’t Monds, Stanley, Browning.
Mullins is a free agent.
Got to consider the impact of the QB position on the team’s ability to extend and retain Jefferson.
Speed of the game is Cousins’ enemy. Lack of mobility and seeming inability to free-lance are his biggest issues. When it matters, OCs give him a 20-yard play when 4 is needed.
Bad coaching, bad drafts and bad contracts.
Cousins just isn’t a Super Bowl contender. He’s slow, only finally started letting it rip a little more this year early in the game and is not the kind of guy to get the team revved up week after week.
Vikings fans who have watched the last few years know how much of his “stats” came on the late end of losing battles when the outcome of a deep throw didn’t really matter. He doesn’t have that special sauce to lead a team all the way.
Vikings could tag him in back to back seasons then return him to Washington.
And here within lies the problem in the Kirk Cousins agruements. Yes, he stats tell the story of one of the better QBs in the NFL. And he has piled up a lot of those stats in normal game time and not all in garbage time. But just because a player has very good stats does not mean that they are a SB QB. Too many people rely on just stats to decide if a player is good or not. Trent Dilfer’s stats were horrendous, but he has won a SB. Terry Bradshaw won 4 SBs and is in the HOF, yet his stats do not say HOF. Barely over 50% completion rate, only 2 more TD throws over INTs (212 to 210). The need for the old-school “eye-test” is still a VERY necessary component to judge whether a player is great or not. Cousins will never win a SB for the mere fact that he just doesn’t have the “It” factor in him. This was never more clearly evident then at the end of the Vikings season when he checked down to Hockenson, well short of the 1st down marker (4th and 8, 2yd pass). he excuse was he gave it to Hockenson, to let the TE make a play. A truly great QB will not defer to others around him to “make a play”, he will do it himself, helping others to rise. Cousins will get his stats every year, but he will never to the type of things to boost himself to greatness.
No one should blame Cousin’s on his pay. The vikes created the deal, he signed.
No one should blame cousins on his play, he gets the play and he executes it
No one should blame cousins in his work ethic, he’s first one there and last to leave
No one should blame anyone, but the front office idiots that keep with this blood bath year after year?
I truly wonder how a QB like randle Cunningham came into the 98-99 season and lit up almost every record out there in offense and had a mediocre team behind him with and losing the nfc championship game to a missed field goal?