ESPN Floats Unthinkable Prediction for Kirk Cousins’ Next Team
A not-so-secret teaser, Minnesota Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins is scheduled to become a free agent in March.
The 35-year-old has quarterbacked the Vikings for six seasons, although the current campaign was interrupted by an Achilles injury in Week 8, and Cousins will miss the season’s remainder.
ESPN Floats Unthinkable Prediction for Kirk Cousins’ Next Team
In Cousins’ stead, Minnesota traded for interstellar quarterback Josh Dobbs from the Arizona Cardinals, and through two games with the journeyman at the helm, the Vikings are 2-0. What a world.
Dobbs’ performance the rest of the way in 2023 may or may not impact Cousins’ impending free agency, but if Cousins indeed departs for a new team this spring, ESPN has a wild theory.
One of its pundits believes Cousins could land in Green Bay with the rival Packers.
ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler and Dan Graziano published a roundtable article this week about NFL buzz and rumors, and Cousins to the Packers was one of the keynote theories. Graziano explained, “My sleeper is Green Bay. Jordan Love doesn’t look like the answer, and while the Packers are as patient as any team in the league, they’re also used to winning. Cousins knows the Packers’ offense because it’s a derivative of Kyle Shanahan’s scheme from their time together in Washington, and Cousins and Green Bay coach Matt LaFleur could work well together.”
A first-of-its-kind rumor, Cousins in Green Bay would be as stunning as it was unspeakable. In 2009, Brett Favre joined the Vikings after 16 seasons in Green Bay and one in New York with the Jets, so Cousins in a cheesy uniform would be a form of payback. Or something of the sort. Perhaps Karma.
“I recognize this is out of left field and completely different from any way the Packers usually operate. But Love’s ‘extension’ includes a palatable $5.5 million in guaranteed salary in 2024 and nothing thereafter. If they get to the end of this season and decide Love isn’t the guy moving forward, the Packers might not feel like drafting another guy and waiting for him to develop. And even if they do that, Cousins could be the solution in the meantime for a team with a promising young wide receiver group,” Graziano added.
Fowler responded to Graziano’s theory, “Yeah, these last eight games are crucial for Love. He is a really good thrower of the football with a bit of that gunslinger mentality that makes him turnover-prone. Operating more cleanly down the stretch could help chart a path in 2024 with Green Bay.”
Before the Packers nugget, Fowler suggested that Cousins could end up in Atlanta, a relationship that makes a little more sense than the veteran signal-caller firing up an NFC North turncoat mission.
Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell told reporters on Halloween, two days following Cousins’ injury, “Kirk Cousins is going to be healthy again. I know he’s going to be a free agent after this season, but Kirk knows how I feel about him, and that will be something, you know, that hopefully will work itself out.”
It sure sounded like O’Connell wanted Cousins back in the immediacy of his injury, but if that sentiment was premature or ESPN is correct, the longtime Viking could theoretically pull off the unthinkable.
Cousins will turn 36 next summer.
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Dustin Baker is a political scientist who graduated from the University of Minnesota in 2007. Subscribe to his daily YouTube Channel, VikesNow. He hosts a podcast with Bryant McKinnie, which airs every Wednesday with Raun Sawh and Sal Spice. His Vikings obsession dates back to 1996. Listed guilty pleasures: Peanut Butter Ice Cream, ‘The Sopranos,’ Basset Hounds, and The Doors (the band).
All statistics provided by Pro Football Reference / Stathead; all contractual information provided by OverTheCap.com.
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