Kirk Cousins’ Exit Feels Like It Has Reached Point of No Return
Dustin Baker
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Kirk Cousins has absolutely dominated the Minnesota Vikings’ offseason plans and dominoes, a predictable outcome after the purple team didn’t extend the man last offseason.
Kirk Cousins’ Exit Feels Like It Has Reached Point of No Return
Sportsbooks claim the Atlanta Falcons are the odds-on favorites to grab Cousins in free agency, and based on the general sentiment among the NFL and Vikings community, his departure feels like it has reached a point of no return.
Follow the evidence. For starters, Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio put the Falcons front and center for Cousins on Monday night, the first major tipping to signal Cousins’ exit. Soon after the PFT reporting, the Vegas moneylines regarding Cousins swung Atlanta to the top spot.
PFT’s Mike Florio wrote, “We can’t get into the specifics, for now. But we’re getting very credible indications that Cousins is seriously considering moving his family to Atlanta. Which would mean, obviously, that he’d be signing with the Falcons. The Falcons have always been the top alternative to the Vikings for Cousins, who becomes an unrestricted free agent next Wednesday.”
But that certainly wasn’t all, not by a long shot.
ESPN’s Kevin Seifert echoed the PFT reporting and explained in an article on Tuesday, “If history is a reliable guide, Kirk Cousins is down to his final days as the Minnesota Vikings’ quarterback. It’s not difficult to connect the dots of conventional wisdom at this point, and the only realistic factor to the contrary is the possibility — however remote it might be — that Cousins will make the type of decision he has never made before.”
Cousins hasn’t seen the open market since 2018 and is considered the NFL’s top prize in free agency, arguably next to Kansas City Chiefs defender Chris Jones.
“A strong argument could be made for parting ways with an aging quarterback who is working his way back from the first major injury of his career. Bidding farewell to Cousins would free the Vikings from the six-year strain of having his deal on their books, but it would also expose their lack of a succession plan and raise the very real possibility that he will be replaced by someone who performs worse than he will in Atlanta or elsewhere in the coming seasons,” Seifert added.
Also on Tuesday, long-time NFL analyst and fantasy football extraordinaire Paul Charchian joined VikesNow. When asked if he believed Cousins would leave the Vikings, he responded, “I do. This is what I’ve been saying all offseason. There’s just too much demand from middle-tier teams that aren’t in the position to take [a quarterback].”
On the same show the following day, former Vikings linebacker Ben Leber replied when asked if Cousins would bolt in free agency, “Where there is smoke, there usually is fire … There’s too many credible people out there nationally that all think this Kirk Cousins to Atlanta Falcons deal is going to get done or seems like it’s already done, and that steam has turned into smoke, and where there’s smoke, there’s fire.”
Verifying the Cousins smoke, as described by Leber, might boil down to a simple test or question — wouldn’t the Vikings have already extended Cousins by now? The franchise could’ve done so last season but did not, and now the passer is a year older with a bad Achilles.
Perhaps everyone is wrong, and the Vikings surprise the masses, but for the first time in, well, forever, Cousins’ exit feels imminent.
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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