The late 2010s featured three offseasons filled with Kirk Cousins headlines. A number of “what if?” scenarios emerged from the saga that produced two Cousins franchise tags and a fully guaranteed Vikings free agency offer.
Residing as a key player in the Cousins market — due to Kyle Shanahan‘s ties to the productive quarterback — the 49ers removed themselves from the equation back in 2018, when they re-signed then-recent trade acquisition Jimmy Garoppolo. Shanahan had confirmed at the time the organization had Cousins on the radar between the point of the Garoppolo trade (October 2017) and his extension (February 2018). San Francisco was willing to make a bigger move for Shanahan’s former Washington pupil before that point.
A source rather close to this situation, Mike Shanahan said Kyle was willing to offer Washington the No. 2 overall pick in the 2017 draft for Cousins, via The Athletic’s Alec Lewis (subscription required). The 49ers’ 2-14 showing in 2016 led them to holding the second overall pick in 2017, the first year of the Kyle Shanahan-John Lynch regime. After making back-to-back HCs one-and-dones, 49ers CEO Jed York gave Shanahan and Lynch six-year contracts. The second-generation NFL HC appeared prepared to put the long leash to good use in the first weeks of his San Francisco tenure.
At the time, we heard three teams expressed interest in Cousins via trade. Washington had franchise-tagged Cousins in 2016 and was preparing to do so again, and the 49ers always appeared likely to be involved in an effort to acquire him. Prior to venturing to Cleveland and then Atlanta, Kyle Shanahan had coached Cousins for two seasons in Washington, operating as his father’s OC.
An offer of the No. 2 overall pick for a franchise-caliber QB going into his age-29 season would have been interesting, but Mike Shanahan indicated, via Lewis, his former team “wouldn’t even return the phone call.”
Dan Snyder and president Bruce Allen ran the Washington franchise at this point, and stability proved elusive. Contentious negotiations took place later that year, with Allen famously mispronouncing Cousins’ first name — the “Kurt” interview — multiple times in the wake of a second round of July negotiations not producing a deal. Cousins, of course, played out a second season on the tag and signed a fully guaranteed three-year, $84MM deal with the Vikings in 2018.
This trade proposal also came about during a period that did not feature the quarterback movement the 2020s have brought. This saga played a part in that change. After previously being told Garoppolo was unavailable, the 49ers quickly accepted the Patriots’ offer of the then-Tom Brady backup for a second-rounder. Three months later, Washington agreed to trade for Alex Smith — more than a month before Cousins hit free agency — in 2018.
The 49ers did not carry a starter-level QB into the 2017 season, beginning the year with Brian Hoyer and third-round pick C.J. Beathard as their top options. They had used the high draft choice on Solomon Thomas, trading down with the Bears, who had drafted Mitchell Trubisky at No. 2. The early part of the 49ers’ 2017 draft did not age well, with Thomas going ahead of Patrick Mahomes and Deshaun Watson and the team’s No. 31 overall choice (Reuben Foster) washing out after multiple off-field incidents. Shanahan’s team found its footing with Garoppolo in the years to come, though QB headlines have been constant during the Garoppolo-Trey Lance–Brock Purdy era in San Francisco.
Cousins, 35, is now in the final year of his third Vikings contract. The team extended its starter for a second time in 2022 but only restructured the deal in 2023. Cousins does not expect another round of Vikes talks until 2024, though he has said many times he wants to stay in Minnesota. It would be unlikely the 49ers would circle back to Cousins were he to reach free agency next year, as Brock Purdy has received steady praise from Shanahan. But with Lance gone and the former Mr. Irrelevant not yet fully entrenched as a long-term option, this door may not be fully closed.
If Kyle thinks Kirk was worth the 2nd pick, then please rescind his ‘offensive mastermind’ label. Kirk is great for a fantasy QB, not in real life. Plenty of 4th quarter stats on gimme drives. That’s about it.
Do you play fantasy? Kirk is the opposite. He’s not a pretty fantasy QB1 at all, but he is more than a capable top 12 QB in this league.
Yes, I play fantasy. Last year Kirk passed for 4,500 yards w/ 29 TD’s. The year prior, he passed for 4,200 yards and 33 td’s. Great numbers no doubt. His playoff record is 1-4. That’s not top 12 material, sorry.
Jimmy G is 5-2 in the playoffs, does that mean he’s top 12?
It’s almost like football isn’t a team sport or anything and the Vikings have had awful defenses.. Sorry…
Jimmy has never completed a full season. No he’s not top 12. Saying some QB is top 12-15 means they’re average. There’s 32 starting QB’s.
Well now you’re moving the goal posts here. First Kirk wasn’t top12 because of a 1-4 playoff record, and now Jimmy isn’t top12 even though he’s 5-2 in the playoffs…
Is it availability or playoff wins that you’re measuring success by?
Hint : both are irrelevant so it doesn’t matter.
Both are relevant. As a starter, you need to complete a full season and win in the playoffs. How is that irrelevant needing that from your starting QB?
People are 50/50 split on Cousins’ career. I’m of the opinion he gets stats not big wins. Grap can win, but not stay on the field. Would you place Tannehill in the top 12? He’s 2-3 in playoffs. I’d say he’s an average QB.
It’s a team game. A QB does not play defense. A QB doesn’t play special teams. A QB doesn’t block. A QB doesn’t catch passes. Using win-loss record is a lazy argument. He’s only on the field for 45%-55% or the game. Prime Tom Brady isn’t winning all those rings without a great team around him.
You pretty much just answered why Kyle wanted him. Kyle figured if he was able to put up those kinds of numbers without him, Kyle figured as a team, with him having full autonomy to call whatever plays ue wanted, they could easily surpass those numbers.
However, as a 49ers fan, I’m glad they didn’t acquire him back then. If Cousins was demanding that kind of deal from the 49ers, it is very possible he would have had to sit out or get traded. I HIGHLY doubt that the 49ers would have given him a fully guaranteed deal. That has never been the case with the 49ers.
Have you looked at the QB landscape lately? Cousins is top 10 imo. Mahomes, Burrow, Allen, Rodgers, Herbert, Jackson, Hurts. Tua, Cousins and Lawrence probably round out the top 10.
Kirk is still better than Jimmy G, which very well may have been enough to win a title, since they almost did it with Jimmy.
They drafted Solomon Thomas and traded three 1sts for Lance. If they did trade the pick for Cousins it would’ve been a lot better than what actually happened
They’d have 2 SBs if they did
I have to agree, but at the same time, their team wouldn’t have been nearly as deep.
There’d likely be no Bosa either, because they wouldn’t have finished second to last due to Jimmy’s injury that year.
Who knows if we are still able to keep Kittle and Deebo, but odds are we can’t keep them AND acquire CMC…
So, it is extremely difficult to say how the 49ers would have turned out with Captain Kirk
People hate Cousins, but what you get for your average top five pick is much less than a 4000 yard, 30 TD type QB. Cousins led the Vikings to 13 wins last year with the worst, or second worst, defense in the league. Do you really not think that the 9ers’ defense would not have made that better?
Obviously, one would like to have the Peyton Manning type pick in the top five. When you consider the overall landscape of NFL production, most players don’t come close to that. Who is worth a top five pick, then? Burrow and Herbert look great and I think most of us would consider them in that category today. As good as they are, however, they haven’t had as much production as Cousins has since 2017 (even though it is certainly reasonable to expect that they will surpass that easily in the next few years). We can expect to rank Cousins behind them. Rodgers, as a productive veteran, is probably next. After those type of guys (obviously Mahomes as well), there’s not much.
Garappolo did well in San Fran, so I don’t think that they ended up losing too much, but it’s ridiculous to say that a QB of Cousins’ production is not worth a top five pick. If this were an anonymous quarterback, peoples’ sentiment would be different. If that doesn’t seem right, consider what the 9ers did with their top pick a couple of years ago. I’m sure that Cousins would have been a better choice than that.
I should clarify, I don’t mean to say that Cousins is worth more than Burrow or Herbert or Rodgers. I am just saying that there are not too many QBs that you can reasonably expect to have the same impact that Cousins has had, despite his poor reputation. If you took a rookie QB second overall who gave the exact numbers that Cousins has, you would likely be satisfied with the deal. I think that the Redskins would have been happier if they got from RGIII what has been put up by Cousins.
As always, you make excellent points & very well written. For me, Kirk is 35 and has a 1-4 playoff record. He chokes in big games.
Thank you. His record is what it is, but even that is better than many second rounders get you. Kirk may not be that franchise savior that Manning or Brady or Brees was, but he is a guy that could move the needle on a good team. I’m not saying that the 9ers even SHOULD have done it, necessarily (after all, Garappolo won them a lot of games and punched a ticket to the Super Bowl); I am simply noting that Cousins would be worth the pick, compared to what most draft picks end up producing in their careers.
I generally just skip these articles because I don’t consider what a team might have done transaction wise in the distant past, has any relevance on what is happening now.
Fair. That’s how I feel about “re-drafts” or “this team picked this player with this player still on the board”. These types I feel have a slight bit more relevance because it helps a bit with understanding teams’ perspectives in terms of valuing known commodities, but you do have a point. 2017, in terms of sports leagues, computer parts, and social media trends, was a long time ago.
We could go back and question the Steelers decision to cut Johnny Unitas but that is rather irrelevant now.
Why do that when you can trade 3 1st’s and a 3rd for a fourth?
Cousins salary demands are a big reason why Minnesota hasn’t done anything in the playoffs. When you pay good players like great players your roster will always be a player or two short..
Well said. Kirk is good, not great.
Everyone said that Brian Flores was going to make a huge difference for the Vikes D. Guess not. They were obliterated last night.