Vikings/Cousins Agree to 2-Year Extension

  |  
Mar 16, 2020
article featured image

Update: Our managing editor, Sean Borman, reported the following. Which means that Cousins did in fact take one for the team in 2020, which may have kept S Harris in Minny! Keep in mind they reportedly can cut Cousins after 2021 before your head explodes when you see that cap hit:

What a strange week.

Days after it was announced by Courtney Cronin of ESPN that Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins had turned down “Multiple team-friendly” extensions from the Vikings, as he was looking to wait to see how free agency affected the market and his potential future payouts, it was just announced by Adam Schefter that the Vikings and Cousins have actually agreed to an extension.

Mike McCartney is Cousins’ agent and it appears that the terms of the extension are as follows [according to SportsIllustrated.com]:

”The contract extension is worth $66 million over those two years, according to Rapoport. Overall, his deal is worth $96 million over three years. “

This is a massive turn-around, again, from the previous report that Cousins was going to wait a while before signing any deal. That, to me, made it seem like Cousins was going to be looking for more money (and the same in 2020), not less.

His 2020 cap hit is $31 million, and it was hoped by the team (and it’s fans, and this guy) that Cousins’ extension would allow the team to lower that cap hit this season. This deal averages out to $33 million per season, and if the $96 million includes 2020, Cousins may have decreased his 2020 cap hit by $1 million (which’d increase his per season cap hat (again on average) to $33.5 million).

However, I guess I don’t need to explain why turning down deals that were reported as “team friendly” lead me to essentially have a breakdown over the state of the quarterback position and franchise as a whole. This is one of the only few rays of sunshine that has come out of Eagan this off-season thus far (or, if you’re the other half of the fan base, just further bad news), as it was thought by some that Cousins would ride out his final year in Minny and then head to San Francisco to reunite with Kyle Shanahan.

Perhaps with the reports that the Niners were sticking with Jimmy Garoppolo (over the rumored Tom Brady), Cousins saw the writing on the wall in that regard (since it’s against tampering rules for Cousins or his agent to chat with the Niners). Or, perhaps the Niners wanted Cousins’ contract solidified before they worked out a Cousins-for-Garoppolo deal.

I doubt that’s the case, though.

The Vikings haven’t had a franchise quarterback or consistency in my entire life as a Vikings fan, and I’m 35 years old. In fact, the franchise hasn’t had the same QB play back-to-back 16 game seasons since 1978, well before my birth year of 1984. So, regardless of what you think about Cousins, this is encouraging as it’ll give the offense something to build upon not only in 2020, but in 2021 and 2022.

With Gary Kubiak and his team in charge of the offense now, it’s hard not to get a bit excited when you think about what Cousins could do with the Kubs calling plays, especially if they’re able to move the offensive line somewhere from 27th in the league in terms of pass blocking (as they were in 2019) to even somewhere in the mid-teens.

When Cousins had or created time in 2019 he was able to not only knock down a lot of the negative narratives that some “fans” like to post in all caps on Twitter, so much so that he actually mirrored the output of 2018 MVP Patrick Mahomes for over half the season in 2019.

Stay tuned to VikingsTerritory.com/purplePTSD.com for the terms of Cousins’ deal and more reaction to this and all Minnesota Vikings off-season moves! Want to stay at least 3-feet away from other Vikings fans and discuss COusins’ extension?

Click Here to do just that on our new message board/community!

Click Here to Join!