gopherwrestler Posted January 17, 2022 Share Posted January 17, 2022 With a new GM and Head coach approaching, what is the best situation for the franchise? Keeping Cousins? Do we extend his contract? Do we actually look to cut him, and eat his salary and move on? Is the best situation for him to trade him away? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PrplChilPill Posted January 17, 2022 Share Posted January 17, 2022 (edited) If you can deal him for a first, even if you have to throw in a 3rd or 4th, I do that. If not, I keep him for 1 year. I don't think an extension is ideal, but if they can get his salary down to 25-30 MM in an extension, that might, might, work. The cap is just going up and up.... I have zero interest in cutting him. What does that do? Like, I see no way that is a good idea, unless the new GM/coach are going for 100% vaccinations...in which case a lot of guys need to move on (I'm not endorsing that one way or the other). Edited January 17, 2022 by PrplChilPill 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NoDakViking Posted January 17, 2022 Share Posted January 17, 2022 Straight cut is 100% off the table. I'd trade him unless we are getting lowballed pretty harshly. Ideally you try get what you can in 2023. 2022 is going to be a down year either way so gear up for QBOTF. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SemperFeist Posted January 17, 2022 Share Posted January 17, 2022 (edited) Trade him if the deal is right. Extend him if the deal is right. That will be the gist of every discussion in this thread, on an infinite loop until an actual decision gets made. Christ, it’s going to be a long 8 weeks. Edited January 17, 2022 by SemperFeist 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wcblack34 Posted January 17, 2022 Share Posted January 17, 2022 1 hour ago, SemperFeist said: Trade him if the deal is right. Extend him if the deal is right. That will be the gist of every discussion in this thread, on an infinite loop until an actual decision gets made. Christ, it’s going to be a long 8 weeks. PREACH!!!! This is correct. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CriminalMind Posted January 18, 2022 Share Posted January 18, 2022 Preference for trading him in February, well before Teams can sign “stop gap FA QBs” and well before QB prospects can be fully evaluated and well before the actual draft when QBs are selected. As long as we are not being severely low balled trade him away (eat $10M dead cap). If a team wants us to eat more, I would want higher draft compensation. Culture change is needed so another 3 year extension is sadly terrible also, and really should only be considered if it’s at the beginning of FA (and there is a subsequent immediate move where the cap space is needed to sign a top top tier Free Agent (I’m not taking about a Pearce or Tomlinson or Patterson type) Cutting Cousins is off the table Keeping Cousins at 45M Cap hit is alright, not ideal, but at least the future damage is minimized. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SemperFeist Posted January 18, 2022 Share Posted January 18, 2022 A couple of things to keep in mind for this carousel discussion. 1.) The Vikings need to be under the cap BEFORE any Cousins trade could be made official. 2.) Cousins will, in all likelihood, cost the Vikings a $20M-$25M cap hit in 2022 whether he’s on the team or not. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Worm Guts Posted January 18, 2022 Share Posted January 18, 2022 If you really think 2022 is a lost season, I'm not sure cutting Cousins should be off the table. I'm sure it would help position us to draft a QB. That being said, I don't particularly want to sacrifice a season. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swede700 Posted January 18, 2022 Share Posted January 18, 2022 6 minutes ago, Worm Guts said: If you really think 2022 is a lost season, I'm not sure cutting Cousins should be off the table. I'm sure it would help position us to draft a QB. That being said, I don't particularly want to sacrifice a season. Even if 2022 is a lost season, cutting him is off the table, because it doesn't solve the cap issue. Then you're just freely allowing any other team to sign him to a veteran minimum deal. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uncle Buck Posted January 18, 2022 Share Posted January 18, 2022 If I were the Wilfs, I'd take the opportunity this off-season to blow it up and start (almost) completely over with the new GM and head coach. Trade the older defensive players while they still have some value and roll into the future with just the talented young players you have on the roster. Kirk would be one of the players I would trade. As others have said, there is no reason to consider just letting him walk. There will be teams out there who want a quarterback badly enough to give you some assets for him. I know this is supposedly not a good draft for QB's, but even if you had get a guy like Gardner Minshew for 2022, it's better than spending huge money on a QB in a rebuilding year. Take some lumps with a lousy season this year, get a nice high draft pick in 2023, and get your franchise QB in 2023. I would also consider trading for Deshaun Watson while his value is low. If you could get him for a couple of first round picks, that would be a good deal from a football standpoint. If you don't want anything to do with him, I can understand that too, though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteelKing728 Posted January 18, 2022 Share Posted January 18, 2022 Perhaps we could deal him to a team with the compensation being similar to what was used in the Carson Wentz trade last year. Basically, a 2nd round pick that could become a 1st round pick. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BWG VIKE Posted January 18, 2022 Share Posted January 18, 2022 (edited) 23 minutes ago, SteelKing728 said: Perhaps we could deal him to a team with the compensation being similar to what was used in the Carson Wentz trade last year. Basically, a 2nd round pick that could become a 1st round pick. Or start off at the Stafford frame work. Both Cousins and Stafford have similar skills set and career path aside from Stafford being a 1st rd pick. Edited January 18, 2022 by BWG VIKE 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SemperFeist Posted January 18, 2022 Share Posted January 18, 2022 3 years, $75M extension. It’s an extension that’s not long enough to tie the GM and HC to Cousins, yet it gives the team a top 10ish QB while the team is able to build up the roster and take their time with finding “their guy” at QB. $75M plus his $45M cap hit would allow the team to reduce his cap number to $30M per season. That would make Cousins the 10th/11th highest paid QB, and it would free up $15M+ in cap space for 2022. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Purplexing Posted January 18, 2022 Share Posted January 18, 2022 18 minutes ago, Uncle Buck said: If I were the Wilfs, I'd take the opportunity this off-season to blow it up and start (almost) completely over with the new GM and head coach. Trade the older defensive players while they still have some value and roll into the future with just the talented young players you have on the roster. Kirk would be one of the players I would trade. As others have said, there is no reason to consider just letting him walk. There will be teams out there who want a quarterback badly enough to give you some assets for him. I know this is supposedly not a good draft for QB's, but even if you had get a guy like Gardner Minshew for 2022, it's better than spending huge money on a QB in a rebuilding year. Take some lumps with a lousy season this year, get a nice high draft pick in 2023, and get your franchise QB in 2023. I would also consider trading for Deshaun Watson while his value is low. If you could get him for a couple of first round picks, that would be a good deal from a football standpoint. If you don't want anything to do with him, I can understand that too, though. 'Blowing it up' is only used when everyone is under-performing. The O did well with the current players. The D did poorly. STs did fairly well. Coaching failed. Scouting, drafting, and contract negotiations had mixed results, depending on the observers philosophy and attitude toward winning a SB every year. Trading Cousins creates a hole to fill. Why do that? Re-stocking has uncertainties. How many wiffs have the Vikings made on QBs until they got the production they have from Cousins { Jefferson, Thielen, and to a lesser extent, Osborn }? Favre; 1 year out of 2. Who else in the Wilfs Ownership Era? How certain are you that a 2023 draft QB will succeed ... relatively soon? Forecasting the 'readiness' of a 2023 Draft QB in May 2022 is a fools task. Would the new GM want to disrupt the offense and risk running out of time to deliver on their promise to the owners to turn the ship around? IMO, the Vikings don't need to make a 180 degree turn, but rather, some slight course corrections on the OL {FA signing?} and one very good player for each of the D units; DL, LB, CB in FA or the draft. The course corrections mentioned above will require 'cap space capital', which can be achieved via contract cancellations or extensions. Those are the key questions that should be posed to the GM candidates now being screened virtually for visits to Winter Park. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uncle Buck Posted January 18, 2022 Share Posted January 18, 2022 3 minutes ago, Purplexing said: 'Blowing it up' is only used when everyone is under-performing. The O did well with the current players. The D did poorly. STs did fairly well. Coaching failed. Scouting, drafting, and contract negotiations had mixed results, depending on the observers philosophy and attitude toward winning a SB every year. Trading Cousins creates a hole to fill. Why do that? Re-stocking has uncertainties. How many wiffs have the Vikings made on QBs until they got the production they have from Cousins { Jefferson, Thielen, and to a lesser extent, Osborn }? Favre; 1 year out of 2. Who else in the Wilfs Ownership Era? How certain are you that a 2023 draft QB will succeed ... relatively soon? Forecasting the 'readiness' of a 2023 Draft QB in May 2022 is a fools task. Would the new GM want to disrupt the offense and risk running out of time to deliver on their promise to the owners to turn the ship around? IMO, the Vikings don't need to make a 180 degree turn, but rather, some slight course corrections on the OL {FA signing?} and one very good player for each of the D units; DL, LB, CB in FA or the draft. The course corrections mentioned above will require 'cap space capital', which can be achieved via contract cancellations or extensions. Those are the key questions that should be posed to the GM candidates now being screened virtually for visits to Winter Park. IMO, there is already a hole to fill with Kirk as the QB. I don't mean to bash the guy, but I just don't think Kirk has what it takes to ever win a Super Bowl. He can rise above the pressure to win a game here and there, but to get through three very tough games under playoff pressure, I don't see him rising to the occasion. If you want a QB who will give you fantasy stats, he is great. If you want to win a Super Bowl, then the Vikings have a $35M hole at the QB position. I'd keep the O'Neil, Darrisaw, Jefferson, Hunter, and then be open to trading pretty much everybody else. That doesn't mean you have to get rid of everybody and totally gut the roster, but I just think it's time for a new start for the Vikings, and that would require taking a step back before taking two steps forward. That's just what I would do. I know some people may disagree and I can understand and respect that too. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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