NFL Insider Reveals Interesting Kirk Cousins Update for 2024
Some Minnesota Vikings fans are beginning to become convinced that rocket scientist quarterback Josh Dobbs could be in the club’s plan beyond 2023.
That theory certainly isn’t silly, but the other guy, Kirk Cousins, cannot be ruled out of 2024 plans.
NFL Insider Reveals Interesting Kirk Cousins Update for 2024
That’s the word from Bleacher Report’s Jordan Schultz, anyway, as Cousins is scheduled to hit free agency in four months. The 35-year-old tore his Achilles two and a half weeks ago during a Vikings win over the Green Bay Packers and hit injured reserve thereafter. Cousins is reportedly targeting a May-or-so return date.
The Vikings leaders sounded like they wanted Cousins back even with the expiring contract in the immediate wake of his injury. That could still be true, but the pro-Cousins commentary dribbled out before Dobbs took over and started winning games as QB1.
“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,” head coach Kevin O’Connell told reporters on Halloween, two days following Cousins’ injury.
Then this week, the aforementioned Schultz struck a similar tone about Cousins’ future in purple. “It’s my understanding that given what’s transpired now with Cousins, both he and the Vikings are much more receptive to a return in 2024. That could potentially mean a one-year contract, I’m told. But the relationship that Cousins has built not only with Kevin O’Connell but with the Vikings staff, the players, the brass — he’s so well respected inside that locker room and really in that city.”
Before the injury, Cousins had performed at a Top 10 quarterback clip this season according to most metrics.
“For a guy that looked to be well on his way out to a long-term contract potentially somewhere else, it seems that Cousins and the Vikings could — I don’t even wanna say repair that marriage because there really wasn’t anything to repair, but I would say rekindle would be the right word. Sources have told me that given the relationship they have, the history they have, how comfortable Kirk is with that organization, within that city, that fan base, that SKOL nation, [the Vikings] could very well potentially have Kirk Cousins back, at least in 2024, as opposed to him moving on somewhere else,” Schultz added.
The front-and-center issue with Cousins — as always — will be money. He and his agent are shrewd businessmen and habitually find methods to fetch large and guaranteed contracts. Minnesota must pay Justin Jefferson, Christian Darrisaw, and Danielle Hunter this offseason, casting Cousins’ eventual request for $40+ million annually into doubt.
But per Schultz, the Vikings front office will evidently find a way to keep Cousins around, mathematical monetary gymnastics be damned.
Cousins will turn 36 next August.
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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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