Vikings fans who would love to forget the 1998 NFC Championship might have another reason to think about it.
The team that beat the Vikings that day in January 1999 could be poised to pilfer quarterback Kirk Cousins.
We can’t get into the specifics, for now. But we’re getting very credible indications that Cousins is seriously considering moving his family to Atlanta. Which would mean, obviously, that he’d be signing with the Falcons.
The Falcons have always been the top alternative to the Vikings for Cousins, who becomes an unrestricted free agent next Wednesday. And for good reason. His wife, Julie, grew up in nearby Alpharetta, Georgia. Her parents still live there.
The Vikings have, by all appearances, decided they want to keep Cousins, but only at their price. They seem to think he won’t get a better offer elsewhere. If he does, they seem to be content to let him go.
Vikings coach Kevin O’Connell told PFT Live on Tuesday (the video is attached) that he absolutely, unequivocally wants Cousins back. And we believe him. Do others in the organization, from G.M. Kwesi Adofo-Mensah to owners Mark and Zygi Wilf, feel the same way?
The counter would be, presumably, that Cousins is 35 years old, and that he’s recovering from a torn Achilles tendon. Also, in six years with the Vikings, the team has made the playoffs only twice. (They likely would have made it in 2023, but for his injury.)
The attraction for Cousins, beyond the contract, would be a plethora of great skill-position players — and the fact that the NFC South is currently weaker than the NFC North.
The Vikings still have six days of exclusive negotiating rights with Cousins. If they want to keep him, they could make an offer he won’t refuse.
Of course, it might be too late for that. If the Falcons made enough of an indication last week to Cousins’s agent, Mike McCartney, as to what they’re willing to do, Cousins might already have decided to go. And he might not be interested in the Vikings doing now what they could have done before the Falcons got his attention.
The Falcons previously had been linked to a trade with the Bears for quarterback Justin Fields. Ultimately, that might have just been a misdirection, aimed at potentially letting them snag Cousins while the Vikings assumed no one else would make him a better offer than whatever the Vikings have made.
