A recent item from Kevin Seifert of ESPN.com regarding Minnesota’s quest for a franchise quarterback made it clear that they preferred to draft a quarterback in round one but to keep Kirk Cousins as the starter, for 2024 or longer.
That wasn’t the message that was communicated to Cousins.
Appearing on the latest episode of the Scoop City podcast, Cousins said that, at the time he was deciding on his future, the Vikings weren’t planning to draft a new quarterback.
“I don’t think they were ready to go there yet in March,” Cousins said, via quotes distributed by TheAthletic.com. “I think the reality is just that they wanted to give themselves that flexibility. And I remember [coach] Kevin [O’Connell]'s words, which I’m not going to hold them to, were, ‘Hey, if we sign you back, I would think it’s very unlikely that we would draft somebody.’ It was something to that effect. But I also know in the league things change.”
He knows things change from what happened after he signed with the Falcons. Presumably, they told him something similar about not using the eighth overall pick on a player who wouldn’t help the team win this year.
Still, Cousins got more security in Atlanta than he would have gotten in Minnesota. His new contract carries $90 million guaranteed through the first two years, with another $10 million in 2026 that will become fully guaranteed in March 2025.
“I just felt it had been — and was going to be — basically one year, one year, one year,” Cousins said regarding his situation in Minnesota. “I felt like, ‘Yeah, maybe I do want to play in Minnesota another five or six years, but it’s going to be on one-year contracts.’ That’s the plan they’ve chosen that they wanted to walk. I thought, ‘OK, I don’t really want to do that. I’ll do it if it’s my only option.’”
Whether he stays in Atlanta more than one year remains to be seen. Two seems to be the outer limit, unless they plan on sitting 24-year-old Michael Penix Jr. for three seasons.
As mentioned earlier today, the final decision as to when Penix takes over could be made, or at least heavily influenced, by owner Arthur Blank.
Regardless, Cousins will make $62.5 million this year, and he’s guaranteed to add $27.5 million next year. It seems clear that, even though Minnesota and Atlanta both opted for top-10 quarterbacks in the draft, Cousins was never going to get a deal like that one from the Vikings.