Jared Allen Has Weird Choice for Vikings QB in 2024
Less Kirk Cousins. More Jake Browning.
That’s the suggestion from former Minnesota Vikings defensive end Jared Allen, a man up for Hall of Fame consideration this cycle.
Jared Allen Has Weird Choice for Vikings QB in 2024
The Vikings have about two months to decide if Kirk Cousins is in the team’s plans for 2024 and beyond. If he’s not, Cousins will hit free agency for the first time since 2018. And if the choice were up to Allen, he would let Cousins join another team while signing a more affordable alternative like Jake Browning, a former Vikings quarterback now employed by the Cincinnati Bengals.
“You look at the kid in Cincinnati who played his ass off this year and you could probably go get him at a relatively cheap price,” Allen told The 33rd Team‘s Trey Wingo this week.
Browning started seven games for the Bengals in 2023 after Joe Burrow was lost for the season, tabulating 12 touchdowns, 7 interceptions, and 215 passing yards per game. He was particularly effective down the stretch of a Week 15 game when Cincinnati chipped off Minnesota at Paycor Stadium. His hero ball worked that afternoon.
Allen continued his opinion about letting Cousins walk, “It was nothing personal, but I just don’t know. It would be one thing if we were coming off an insanely-good season. Right now, the Packers are looking like they’re coming on strong with a young team, the Bears are managing to be .500 with inaccurate play at that quarterback position. We have so many moving parts. I don’t know how you can sit there and pay a veteran quarterback, pay (Justin) Jefferson, you got (Danielle) Hunter, you got a laundry list of guys that are going to have to get taken care of.”
The beloved ex-Viking basically told Kay Adams the same thing about Cousins in November.
Allen concluded by telling Wingo, “We’re at that pivotal point to where you just gotta find who’s going to be the future and go all in on that and go that route. That’s what I would like to see them go. I just think money could be better spent around the board, and we could prepare for the future.”
The Vikings are unlikely to sign Browning or any other QB2 reclamation project, instead expected to draft a quarterback this April if Cousins is not re-signed. Signing Browning, not extending Cousins, and then opting against a rookie passer in the draft would draft fans’ ire.
NFL free agency begins on March 11th with “legal tampering,” a defacto deadline for a decision on Cousins’ future.
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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