So it’s come to this. Wentz to Minnesota in 2021?

If there is any team in the NFL that is single handedly responsible for the fact that Kirk Cousins signed with the Minnesota Vikings in 2018, it’s the Philadelphia Eagles. The Vikings (in)famously were blown out by the back-up quarterbacked Philadelphia Eagles in the 2017 NFC Championship game, and the thought then was that once they had Carson Wentz back under center in 2018, they’d be nigh unstoppable so the Vikings needed to upgrade their offense fast if they wanted to continue to contend.

It’s funny how things change.

Neither the Vikings nor the Eagles will make the post-season this year, a season after both played in January. Wentz has never been the MVP-level guy he was in 2017, and has been benched for rookie Jalen Hurts in a move that may be permanent.

The Eagles can’t cut Wentz, as the dead cap money would be too severe. However, they could trade Wentz to a team like, theoretically, the Vikings (a team that also has a quarterback that would be due a franchise killing amount of dead cap space if cut) if they felt so inclined.

That’s something that the Viking Age’s Adam Patrick batted around today. As he correctly states, perhaps a third team would need to be involved as the Eagles wouldn’t need a quarterback as they would be committed to Hurts.

https://thevikingage.com/2020/12/22/minnesota-vikings-interest-philadelphia-eagles-carson-wentz/

The money would work for the Vikings (long term) though, as Patrick explains:

“Despite just signing that massive extension last summer, Wentz would actually cost the Vikings less money than Cousins. Since Philadelphia has already given Wentz a bunch of money from his extension, his average salary would only be around $25 million per year for any team that acquires him in a trade”

Cousins is due a guaranteed $45 million in 2022, the last year of his contract with the Vikings. That amount could change if the purple decide to extend Cousins beyond that, which is a strong possibility considering how well Cousins has played post-bye (and the upcoming COVID cap potentially forcing their hand).

Wentz is due more money the next couple seasons, though, as you’ll see from Sportrac.com:

Cousins’ contract:

Wentz’s deal:

Strictly from a performance level, though, this move makes little sense as Cousins has been lethally efficient running Zimmer’s risk averse offense. The Vikings need someone of Cousins’ ilk, as they don’t have a ton of red zone opportunities by design (with long, methodical, boring and predictable drives being Zimmer’s favorite thing in the world outside of codeine eye drops).

That is unless the 49ers, under Kyle Shanahan, make a Diggs-ian offer the Vikings couldn’t refuse for Cousins. Shanahan coached Cousins in DC and has long been rumored to be enamored with Kirk.

Again, though, that would require the Vikings to basically admit that their rebuild is still years away from fruition, a feeling even the most pessimistic of us don’t have. This Vikings team was this close this season despite the youth, inexperience, and injury on the defensive side of the ball. So, it isn’t homer-ish to think that with Barr/Kendricks/Hunter and Pierce returning in 2021 that the Vikings could be right back into the thick of things.

Thick in the warm!

Add a good left guard on the offensive line and you’ve got yourself a team that is capable of making a deep playoff run. The other part of this is that Wentz doesn’t appear to be very good, so trading for him wouldn’t make a whole lot of sense outside of the financial aspect.

On a scale of 1-to-100 in terms of feasibility? I give this a 5.

Share: