The Vikings’ desire so as to add competition for quarterback J.J. McCarthy may lead them back to old friend Kirk Cousins. With the Falcons expected to release Cousins in the following few weeks, he may very well be free to sign anywhere soon.
There may be “growing sentiment” amongst NFL executives within the QB market that Cousins will rejoin the Vikings, Jason La Canfora of SportsBoom reports. The move would reunite the 37-year-old with head coach Kevin O’Connell, who had success with Cousins prior to now.
In 2022, the Vikings’ first season under O’Connell, Cousins threw for 4,547 yards and 29 touchdowns on his way his fourth and most up-to-date Pro Bowl nod. The Vikings went 13-4 and won the NFC North, but a 9-7-1 Giants team upended them within the wild-card round.
Statistically, Cousins got off to a good higher start in 2023. Nonetheless, a Week 8 Achilles tear wound up ending his Vikings tenure.
With Cousins hitting free agency throughout the ensuing offseason, the Vikings tried but did not re-sign him. They were unwilling to provide Cousins full guarantees through 2025. That wasn’t going to fly for Cousins, who went on to simply accept the Falcons’ Godfather offer of 4 years, $180MM and $100MM in guarantees.
A month and a half after adding Cousins, Falcons general manager Terry Fontenot took one other enormous gamble in drafting former Indiana and Washington signal-caller Michael Penix Jr. eighth overall. It got here as a serious surprise, and Cousins later revealed he can have re-signed with the Vikings had he known the Falcons would draft Penix.
“It felt like I had been a bit bit misled or actually if I had had the knowledge around free agency, it might have affected my decision,” Cousins said last summer. “I had no reason to go away Minnesota, as much as we loved it there, if each teams were drafting a quarterback high.”
Despite Fontenot’s efforts, the Falcons still don’t have a transparent answer at QB. Cousins struggled to regain form in the primary yr of his contract, leading head coach Raheem Morris to bench him for Penix ahead of Week 16. The Falcons were 7-7 and fighting for a playoff spot when Morris made the change. They finished 1-2 under Penix and missed the postseason for the seventh straight yr.
Penix remained Atlanta’s starter entering last season, nevertheless it proved to be one other rough season for the club. The Falcons went 8-9 again, and the oft-injured Penix was inconsistent before suffering a partially torn ACL in Week 11. The Falcons were 3-7 on the time. Cousins quarterbacked them to a 5-2 mark to wrap up the season, nevertheless it wasn’t enough to avoid wasting Fontenot or Morris. Owner Arthur Blank fired the pair and replaced them with a brand new regime of president of football Matt Ryan, GM Ian Cunningham and head coach Kevin Stefanski.
A pair days after ousting Fontenot and Morris, the Falcons reworked Cousins’ contract, which signaled a forthcoming release. If Cousins continues to be a Falcon on the third day of the league yr, he’ll earn a guaranteed $67.9MM for 2027. The restructuring also includes an $80MM poison pill for March 13, in keeping with La Canfora. Considering the language in his deal, he’s pretty much as good as gone. The Falcons would tackle a $35MM dead cap charge in designating Cousins a post-June 1 release, but they’d spread that over two seasons ($22.5MM in 2026, $12.5MM in ’27). The team would also save $2.1MM in cap room next season.
As is the case with the Falcons and Penix, the Vikings don’t know in the event that they have the answer in their very own 2024 first-round passer. Two picks after Penix got here off the board, the Vikings chosen McCarthy tenth overall.
A yr after winning the national championship at Michigan, McCarthy missed his entire rookie campaign with a torn meniscus. The Vikings didn’t miss a beat without McCarthy, though, as veteran Sam Darnold revived his profession during a 14-win outburst.
After their season ended with an unpleasant wild-card round loss to the Rams, the Vikings didn’t retain Darnold. Additionally they couldn’t prevent late-season backup acquisition Daniel Jones from leaving for a likelihood to start out in Indianapolis. Darnold walked in free agency for the Seahawks’ three-year, $100.5MM offer. One season later, Darnold and the Seahawks are Super Bowl champions. Jones had a terrific yr in his own right before it ended with a torn Achilles in Week 14.
Meanwhile, the Vikings are coming off a nine-win season wherein poor QB play torpedoed their possibilities of earning a playoff berth. McCarthy posted subpar numbers over 10 starts, and three injuries – a high ankle sprain, a concussion and a hairline fracture in his right hand – kept him out of seven games. The Vikings have since fired Kwesi Adofo-Mensah, the GM who drafted McCarthy.
“They’ll say what they need publicly, but they’ve some serious questions on McCarthy,” one GM told La Canfora.
Vikings executive vp Rob Brzezinski is now their interim GM, but O’Connell wields loads of decision-making power. If he regards Cousins as a perfect veteran to put within the QB room with McCarthy, a reunion may very well be in store.