Vikings Extend Cousins Through 2023

[Cearbhall]

6 hours ago, SteelKing728 said:

This is true, but Kirk Cousins is pretty similar to Matt Stafford when ranking QBs. You can win with him, but he needs a lot of help.

How much were the Rams paying Staffford when they won the Super Bowl?  How does that compare to what Cousins has been costing the Vikings?

Cousins played at a high level this last year, but I am not sure that his level of play has yet outpaced his level of compensation.

[SemperFeist]

29 minutes ago, Cearbhall said:

How much were the Rams paying Staffford when they won the Super Bowl?  How does that compare to what Cousins has been costing the Vikings?

Cousins played at a high level this last year, but I am not sure that his level of play has yet outpaced his level of compensation.

$20M

The Rams sold their soul on Stafford. 

[battle2heaven]

I think I would only be comfortable extending Kirk though his age 37 season; anything beyond that makes me uncomfortable from a Father Time, loss of arm strength lens. So that would be through 2025 season.

[swede700]

1 hour ago, Cearbhall said:

How much were the Rams paying Staffford when they won the Super Bowl?  How does that compare to what Cousins has been costing the Vikings?

Cousins played at a high level this last year, but I am not sure that his level of play has yet outpaced his level of compensation.

Stafford made around the same money as Kirk.  HIs cap number was a little lower on the Rams than Kirk's was because it was split between the Rams and Lions because of the trade.  Stafford, this year, made more money than any other player in the NFL.  

[CriminalMind]

Potential Dialogue between Cousins agent and KAM:

January - "Kirk loves Minnesota, he loves the fans, he is so ready to compete again"

February - "Kirk had a great year, Kirk looking forward to next year"

March - "Kirk had his best season of his career. He was a top 5 statistical QB. He is looking for a 3 year guaranteed extension with the same NTC, because top/healthy QBs don't play on the final year of a contract"

KAM is going to have to evaluate if he is comfortable negotiating that down to 2 additional years (+1 the current 2023 season), or look at other options. The longer KAM attaches himself to Kirk, his is risking his own viability in his own GM position, as he was only given 4 years total.

Edited January 19, 2023 by CriminalMind

[Captain Relax]

16 minutes ago, CriminalMind said:

Potential Dialogue between Cousins agent and KAM:

January - "Kirk loves Minnesota, he loves the fans, he is so ready to compete again"

February - "Kirk had a great year, Kirk looking forward to next year"

March - "Kirk had his best season of his career. He was a top 5 statistical QB. He is looking for a 3 year guaranteed extension with the same NTC, because top/healthy QBs don't play on the final year of a contract"

KAM is going to have to evaluate if he is comfortable negotiating that down to 2 additional years (+1 the current 2023 season), or look at other options. The longer KAM attaches himself to Kirk, his is risking his own viability in his own GM position, as he was only given 4 years total.

Ok.  But, what other viable options are there at this point?  I think finding a franchise QB in this years draft to replace Kirk in 2024 is highly unlikely.  I could be wrong.  It seems the Vikings are almost locked into extending Kirk. The questions, as you point out, are 2 or 4 years, and how much guaranteed.

[battle2heaven]

2 minutes ago, Captain Relax said:

Ok.  But, what other viable options are there at this point?  I think finding a franchise QB in this years draft to replace Kirk in 2024 is highly unlikely.  I could be wrong.  It seems the Vikings are almost locked into extending Kirk. The questions, as you point out, are 2 or 4 years, and how much guaranteed.

Unless the Vikings are planning on trading up into the top 10, I agree with this. 

[Captain Relax]

5 minutes ago, Captain Relax said:

Ok.  But, what other viable options are there at this point?  I think finding a franchise QB in this years draft to replace Kirk in 2024 is highly unlikely.  I could be wrong.  It seems the Vikings are almost locked into extending Kirk. The questions, as you point out, are 2 or 3 years, and how much guaranteed.

I meant 3 years in my original post.

Edited January 19, 2023 by Captain Relax

[swede700]

I think the most likely scenario will be once again a "3" year deal, but 2 of those years will be void years, so in essence, it'll be a 1-yr extension again.  Theoretically though, based on the article I provided yesterday, they don't really have to do anything as they have so many other pieces on the roster that they could do things with before they even get to him.  They could just ride through the final year of his deal.  Here's the quote from it:

Quote

 

Let’s say we want to extend Cousins, just for the sake of argument. You could structure it much the same as his extension from last offseason, but longer. We’ll convert Cousins’ $20 million roster bonus to a signing bonus and extend Cousins through the void years in his contract. In 2025, we’ll put in another $20 million roster bonus so that we have some options when Cousins is 37 years old, and re-assess then.

Verdict: Do whatever you want, but a two-year, $63 million extension saves $23 million in 2023.

 

The Salary Cap Doomers Have Never Been More Wrong - Zone Coverage

[CriminalMind]

5 hours ago, swede700 said:

I think the most likely scenario will be once again a "3" year deal, but 2 of those years will be void years, so in essence, it'll be a 1-yr extension again.  Theoretically though, based on the article I provided yesterday, they don't really have to do anything as they have so many other pieces on the roster that they could do things with before they even get to him.  They could just ride through the final year of his deal.  Here's the quote from it:

The Salary Cap Doomers Have Never Been More Wrong - Zone Coverage

But Cousins does not do void years on his deals (right?). Kirk got the 100% guareented extra year + the NTC, during the last negotiations.  minny don’t have to do anything… true. But what if Cousins agent make noise about playing on a final year of a deal entering the FA period. Coming off “his best year” that is like the bare minimum he’ll get from Minny (should both sides come to some kind of agreement). 

[swede700]

5 minutes ago, CriminalMind said:

But Cousins does not do void years on his deals (right?). Kirk got the 100% guareented extra year + the NTC, during the last negotiations.  minny don’t have to do anything… true. But what if Cousins agent make noise about playing on a final year of a deal entering the FA period. Coming off “his best year” that is like the bare minimum he’ll get from Minny (should both sides come to some kind of agreement). 

He had 2 void years on this last deal.  His contract actually currently goes through 2025, yet both 2024 and 2025 are void years.

[wcblack34]

10 minutes ago, CriminalMind said:

But Cousins does not do void years on his deals (right?). Kirk got the 100% guareented extra year + the NTC, during the last negotiations.  minny don’t have to do anything… true. But what if Cousins agent make noise about playing on a final year of a deal entering the FA period. Coming off “his best year” that is like the bare minimum he’ll get from Minny (should both sides come to some kind of agreement). 

And he'd still be worth it compared to what's available to replace him.

[perrynoid]

6 hours ago, battle2heaven said:

Unless the Vikings are planning on trading up into the top 10, I agree with this. 

Might we be well advised to trade our 1st round pick this year for someone's second this year and a 1st next year?  In other words, what we almost had with our trade-down this past draft with Detroit?  Then we'd have two 1st round picks in the 2024 draft, perhaps enough to trade up in the 1st round and get a QBOTF?

[battle2heaven]

25 minutes ago, perrynoid said:

Might we be well advised to trade our 1st round pick this year for someone's second this year and a 1st next year?  In other words, what we almost had with our trade-down this past draft with Detroit?  Then we'd have two 1st round picks in the 2024 draft, perhaps enough to trade up in the 1st round and get a QBOTF?

You would have to trade pretty far back into the second round to get a 2024 first for doing business. 

[vikingsrule]

5 hours ago, perrynoid said:

Might we be well advised to trade our 1st round pick this year for someone's second this year and a 1st next year?  In other words, what we almost had with our trade-down this past draft with Detroit?  Then we'd have two 1st round picks in the 2024 draft, perhaps enough to trade up in the 1st round and get a QBOTF?

Wouldn’t be opposed to this approach but the defense is in such poor shape I don’t think the Vikes can afford to again use high picks on defensive players to not see them contribute day one.