Radio Personality Floats Rich Trade Proposal for Kirk Cousins

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Would you accept a juicy trade proposal for Kirk Cousins, sending the 34-year-old to the San Francisco 49ers to contend for a Super Bowl?

Many Minnesota Vikings fans would in a heartbeat, and an idea advanced by CBS Sports Radio’s Andrew Perloff could be hard to decline.

Radio Personality Floats Rich Trade Proposal for Kirk Cousins

Cousins has one more year left on his contract with the Vikings, and the franchise is determining at the moment whether to let the deal play out or add multiple years onto the agreement. The situation could truly break either way as of March 1st.

Radio Personality Floats
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Minnesota has a large sample size with Cousins in the saddle — five years — and reached the postseason twice, in 2019 and 2022. Cousins would be a shoo-in to visit the playoffs annually if acquired by the 49ers, a proposition often discussed by Vikings fans and media around this time of year.

Perloff tweeted the hypothetical Vikings-49ers idea Thursday, “How about 49ers trade Minnesota native Trey Lance, a good defensive player and a future first to Vikings for Kirk Cousins?

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Cousins turns 35 in August, and with San Francisco encountering unthinkable injury woes at quarterback in 2022, stealing Cousins and his state-of-the-art durability from the Vikings might resonate. Plus, he’s accountable for 4,000+ passing yards and 30+ touchdowns per season like clockwork.

It’s unclear if 49ers general manager would trade three substantial assets for an aging quarterback, but strangers things have happened. There’s also the element of Kyle Shanhan’s affinity for Cousins. The two worked together in Washington, and Shanahan utterly adores the Vikings signal-caller.

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“To say that my prototypical guy is someone like Kirk Cousins. I mean, that’s just, everyone knows my history with Kirk. We drafted him in the 4th round in Washington,” Shanahan said in 2021.

“I got to coach him for three games. And then, we were fired, I left, I thought we’d have a chance to get him [in San Francisco] in free agency, and I would have loved to have him in free agency until Jimmy came along the year before. Because I thought we could have won with him, just like Minnesota has,” Shanahan opined two years ago.

Of course, there are no real signals or hints that Minnesota will trade Cousins this offseason — a no-trade clause complicates such dealings — but Vikings general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah would be silly to ignore proposals.

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Predictably, Perloff’s tweet was lambasted as not everyone has a glowing opinion of Cousins. NFL Network’s Rich Eisen replied to the tweet, “To say this is against the grain is an insult to grain.”

Twitter user @itsgoatie retweeted, “Put the drugs down. Nobody wants Kirk Cousins.”

Seth Hebrink commented, “If Vikings offer him to 49ers for Lance, a 3rd this year, and a 1st or 2nd next year, I would think that is fair. Matt Ryan and Wentz both got a lot of decent picks, and Cousins is better than both.”

The Perloff theory would send Trey Lance to the Vikings at QB1, a Minnesotan whose resume includes five starts at the position since the end of 2019 between North Dakota State and San Francisco.


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,’ and The Doors (the band).

All statistics provided by Pro Football Reference / Stathead; all contractual information provided by OverTheCap.com.

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