Purple Rumor Mill: Kirk Cousins’ Plans, Marcus Davenport Status, the Other Josh Allen
Dustin Baker
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VikingsTerritory’s Purple Rumor Mill is a two-day chronicle each week. All the week’s rumors are lassoed and plopped in two spots — articles on Saturday and Sunday — for review. Today is the November 19th edition.
Purple Rumor Mill: Kirk Cousins’ Plans, Marcus Davenport Status, the Other Josh Allen
Remember — rumors are rumors. What you read on weekends in these pieces is what the world is talking about pertaining to the Vikings, not necessarily items that will come to fruition.
Here’s the second batch of the week. Yesterday’s can be read here.
Rumor: If the decision is up to Kirk Cousins, he will not leave the Vikings after this season.
On Friday, just two days before the Vikings take on the Denver Broncos in Week 11, Kirk Cousins made it abundantly clear regarding his intentions for free agency. In short, he doesn’t even want to sniff the open market.
“My desire is to be a Viking, retire a Viking, and finish my career here,” Cousins told the Minneapolis radio station KFAN.
That message is sharply on-brand for the 35-year-old, as Cousins has stated for a few years this exact plan. Whenever the topic of his next contract or a trade surfaces, he remains faithful to retiring with the Vikings if the decision is up to him and is even irked a bit at any notion he could be traded.
Now, the question is: Do the Vikings want him back at his typical expensive pricetag?
Rumor: Marcus Davenport is eligible to return from IR, but it won’t happen soon.
ESPN’s Kevin Seifert tweeted Monday, “LB Marcus Davenport ended up having the ‘tightrope’ procedure on his ankle sprain and is not ready to return from IR, per Kevin O’Connell. Still hope that he could get back by the end of the season, O’Connell said.”
On paper, Davenport is eligible to return from injured reserve as early as now, but that obviously won’t happen before the Vikings take on the Broncos, and a more realistic recovery timeline probably bleeds into December.
Thankfully for the Vikings’ sake, Davenport’s teammate, D.J. Wonnum, has stepped up in his absence, filling the void and then some. Wonnum, a four-year veteran, was used mostly as a reservist pass rusher before 2023 but has turned the corner in the last month into a bonafide starter.
Don’t expect Davenport back anytime soon, instead slapped with the “sometime by the end of the season” label.
Rumor: Minnesota could pursue Josh Allen in free agency — the EDGE rusher Josh Allen.
NFL free agency is less than four months away, so ESPN is already peeking ahead.
Josh Allen, the defender, is expected to be one of the market’s top names, and ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler connected Allen’s free agency to the Vikings.
“Allen finally has the sack production to match the enormous upside as a top-10 pick. The franchise tag could be on the table here. The Jaguars will likely make efforts to re-sign him, either before free agency or at the July deadline for franchise-tagged players (should they go that route). But if the Vikings lose Danielle Hunter, Allen could also make sense as a replacement in Brian Flores’ 3-4 scheme,” Fowler wrote.
The Vikings will probably just retain Hunter, but if that plan falls through, yes, Allen would become a wise contingency.
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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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