OCTOBER 30: Further testing has confirmed Cousins’ Achilles tear, Rapoport notes. He will miss the remainder of the campaign ahead of an uncertain offseason regarding his future. Rapoport’s colleague Tom Pelissero adds that a schedule with respect to surgery and a recovery timeline will come together later this week. The team has since confirmed the unwanted news.
OCTOBER 29: Kirk Cousins has never missed a game due to injury in six years with the Vikings. That streak will likely come to an end soon. The 12th-year quarterback left the Vikes’ Week 8 win over the Packers with what the team fears is an Achilles injury, per Kevin O’Connell.
The contract-year QB will undergo an MRI on what NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport confirms is an Achilles injury, but ESPN.com’s Adam Schefter confirms the worst fears. Cousins indeed tore his Achilles, according to Schefter. O’Connell used past tense at points when describing Cousins’ 2023 season, though the second-year HC did not pinpoint the severity of the malady.
This being confirmed would deal a crushing blow to the Vikings, who have rallied back from 0-3 to 4-4 via their road win today. The team has only needed to play without Cousins once since signing him in 2018, with Sean Mannion starting late in the 2021 season due to the starter contracting COVID-19.
Fifth-round rookie Jaren Hall replaced Cousins in Green Bay, but O’Connell did not confirm the BYU product would start if Cousins is indeed out of the mix, ESPN.com’s Kevin Seifert notes. The Vikings reacquired Mannion earlier this month, adding the ex-Cousins backup to their practice squad. Nick Mullens will be considered for the role, but the team’s Week 1 backup is not eligible to play in Week 9. Minnesota placed Mullins on IR due to a back injury; he must miss two more games.
Cousins’ good injury fortune dates back to his Washington days. Since replacing Robert Griffin III for good, Cousins has never missed a game due to injury. This comes at an inopportune time for the player as well. Cousins and the Vikings have agreed on three contracts since 2018, but the team let its longtime QB1 go into a contract year this season. The sides agreed on a restructure in March. Cousins, 35, does not expect to revisit negotiations until 2024.
The Vikings are attempting to become the sixth team to book a playoff berth in a non-strike season after starting 0-3. Only one club — the 2018 Texans — have done this in the 21st century. Naturally, with the NFL expanding its playoff bracket to 14 teams in 2021, more teams are bound to join this club. Minnesota seemed poised to make a strong push, as only two games against a team with a winning record — both Lions matchups — remain on the defending NFC champions’ schedule. But Justin Jefferson missing more time — potentially being out longer than the four-game minimum — and Cousins being likely out for the rest of the season will suddenly make a postseason voyage unlikely.
When Cousins went down, he was in the process of leading Minnesota to a second straight win without Jefferson. Cousins completed 23 of 31 passes for 274 yards and two touchdowns. The steady QB sits tied with Tua Tagovailoa for the NFL lead with 18 TD passes this season. Cousins entered Sunday on pace for a career-high mark; his current best came in 2020. But the Vikings will be set to regroup, with Jefferson being forced to miss two more games due to his IR placement.
Mullens is in his second season with the Vikings, who signed him just before the 2022 campaign. Of the internal replacement options, Mullens is the most experienced QB on Minnesota’s roster, having started 17 games (16 of those in San Francisco). Mullens is a career 65.3% passer, whose TD-INT ratio sits at 27-22. While Kyle Shanahan‘s system undoubtedly aided the former UDFA, Mullens would seemingly be the team’s best option. But it is unknown if his back injury will cooperate in the near future. Mannion has been in the NFL since 2015 but has made three starts.
This could be the injury that prompts a Carson Wentz discussion. The Jets passed on pursuing the 30-year-old free agent when Aaron Rodgers went down in Week 1, but given the midseason emergency circumstances, it would stand to reason the Vikings would consider a one-time MVP candidate who has 92 starts on his resume. The Commanders released Wentz in March; the former No. 2 overall pick has not been closely connected to a team since. Colt McCoy auditioned for the Vikings earlier this month, but the team brought back Mannion soon after.
Ugly day for QBs in the early games. Tyrod Taylor, ribs … Kenny Pickett, ribs … now Cousins with an Achilles.
Think he’ll be hitting up Aaron Rodgers for his dr’s phone number?
That sucks.. he was having yet another very good season for the Vikings despite their defense being bad
Looks like Jefferson was right to delay signing a contract extension. He has all the leverage in negotiations now.
Time for Minny to see. JJ, the DE and everyone else that brings back draft capital. Refuse to pay both Diggs and JJ for some reason so get value for them.
You don’t trade JJ. You pay him.
I agree, but they haven’t. .
Must blow it up, none of the QBs the dumb media brings up will help Minny. They weren’t winning the SB with Cousins sure as heck wouldn’t with a McCoy, Keenum, Brisset, or Tannehill.
Blow what up? They can’t trade injured players, and not many other players have trade value. Darrisaw is a keeper, Hunter may have been traded anyway, and Smith has an $11 million cap hit that increases to $19 million next year, and $22 million the year after that. Hockenson just got extended, and looks to be a keeper for the future as well. There’s not much to blow up outside of that; there really are only a handful of players that would realistically be moved now.
This isn’t a team with a lot of individual pieces that will fetch huge returns. They’re not trading Addison in his rookie year, and Osborne isn’t getting a big return that’s worth losing a quality third receiver. Mattison is not valuable, and Akers profiles as a low compensation return for the Vikings’ only plus rusher. Fans always want to “blow it up” when something goes wrong, but it’s not a catch all solution for every bad season. This isn’t, say, Washington, where there are two or three good players who would fetch good picks to build forward with. Teams have to want these guys, and they’re going to have to want them enough to make the trades worth it. I don’t see many players in Minnesota being so in demand that their being traded adds significant resources.
What Minnesota needs to do is decide whether they want to try again with Cousins in the absence of a clear successor, or use their top pick on a new QB. If that’s what you mean by “blow up”, then I see what you’re saying, but making a decision on one player hardly profiles as such to me. They can’t trade him, so Cousins is going to be a part of the question for some time. Even then, I don’t know what sort of tear down Minnesota can reasonably do right now, or even this offseason. The defense was liable to be redone anyway, as is necessary, and Cousins may have been out as is. So I don’t think that this changes the Vikings’ strategy much, other than help nudge one specific player out the door. Cousins has played exceptionally well this year, and he was making a playoff push look surprisingly attainable. I’m not sure who, other than Hunter, could reasonably be moved right now that would net a useful return.
Try Hunter / Hicks and Cleveland. Then listen to offers on JJ….Someone may blow them away with a offer on him they cant refuse.
And I’m not talking 7th rounders for Hunter or JJ. Multiple 1sts and 2nds could come from those two REAL easy.
Blow up as in get as many positive assets for Hunter, Hicks, Harrison Smith if someone wants him.
JJ would require a 1st and multiple 2nd or 3rds unless he is okay getting paid and having a top rookie QB.
Time for a Cooper Rush trade. He made the Vikings look terrible so if we really are a playoff team he would be good enough to take them to the playoffs !!!!
I’m being sarcastic……blow it up , trade anyone and everyone and get draft capital and pretend the Vikings wont screw up the draft.
The former regime in Minnesota tried the draft capital approach by having 22 7th round picks between 2017-2020. You’re not going to build a title contender doing that.
I hate injuries, even for players on teams I don’t like. But there is a small blessing in disguise with Cousins going down. Jaren Hall was was drafted because they saw something they liked in him. Maybe, just maybe, he turns out to be a very good NFL QB? The “blessing” is that they get the rest of the season to see if he will be or not. If he is, The Vikings are probably winning a few more games (most of the rest of the schedule is pretty easy). And if he is not, they are probably losing more games and improving their draft position to get their QB of the future. I like Cousins, but the cost of resigning him next season will be too great to build up the other spots that need more help, so this looks like it might have been his last game in a Vikings jersey. Paydays coming foe J-Jetta and Hunter (at least there should be) make retaining Cousins after this year monetarily impossible…unless they want the entire rest of the roster to be UDFAs.
The Vikings drafted Wade Wilson and Brad Johnson later than Jaren Hall and those QBs were serviceable enough to play at least 125 games during their careers. At this point the fans in Minnesota will have to look hard to find many silver linings among the storm clouds.
Why is no one mentioning that Kirk tore his calf on natural grass? Non-stop articles about AR tearing his calf on turf and how bad turf is.
You can have injuries on turf? What? Say it ain’t so, Florio
In this era of “can’t stay off social media” I’m shocked Jefferson hasn’t posted an epistle
Bummer !!! Say what u want bout Cousins dude puts up stats n until now nvr missed gm. Can do alot worse than having em as Ur starting QB. Just look around league @QBs reaching 4life vests mid gm. Sum of its comical.
I say now is the time to extend Kirk & JJ! The team looks good honestly.
This will be huge in determining his next deal, not only how does long is he out, can he come back, etc etc but also how do the Vikings perform without their long time QB. Like imagine if Carson Wentz comes in and goes 5-2 to finish 9-6 on the season or something in that range. All of a sudden the narrative will be Cousin is easily replaceable … he’s not worth it ….
That said it’s safe to assume the Vikings season will regress a little and they won’t get the desired amount of wins. Maybe they low key tank in order to get a cheap young QB. Save money not paying Cousins or getting a replacement, but also building for the future. You’ve got a young RB in Akers, you’ve got multiple young WRers in Jettas, Osborn and Addison.
Makes sense to get someone like Penix, Sanders or Bo Nix. Even if it’s not at the top of the first a lot of these guys will end up middle/late first aswell as second round guys. It’s a draft class filled with talent at the position.
Not a Kirk Cousins fan, but it’s sad to see him go down in what was his best season so far, with wins even in prime time.