The Minnesota Vikings were surging behind Kirk Cousins. After a turnover-plaged 1-4 start, the Vikes embarked on a three-game winning streak that included victories over the San Francisco 49ers and their arch rival Green Bay Packers. At 4-4, Minnesota has a puncher’s chance of rising to a playoff spot in a disheveled NFC.
But it’ll have to happen without Cousins. The veteran quarterback, in the midst of a Pro Bowl campaign, will reportedly miss the rest of the 2023 NFL season thanks to a torn Achilles tendon. It’s a brutal blow for the player who ranked among the league’s top five when it came to passing yards, touchdown passes and quarterback rating.
Kirk Cousins tore his Achilles today, per source. An MRI will be taken to confirm.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) October 29, 2023
It’s just as damaging for a team attempting to reclaim the glory of 2022’s NFC North title. Cousins had thrived even without top wideout Justin Jefferson, who hit the injured list after Week 5 due to a hamstring strain. He helped rookie wideout Jordan Addison look like a star while throwing for 378 yards and a pair of touchdowns against the 49ers’ brutal defense. In Week 8, he carved up the Packers for 274 yards and a pair of scores before exiting.
That leaves Minnesota to replace a top-10 quarterback with a player who might not even be top 40. The only backup on the active roster is rookie Jaren Hall, who completed three of four passes in low-impact mop-up duty but also fumbled deep in his own territory. Veteran Sean Mannion is on the practice squad, but he’s 0-3 as a starter in his long journeyman career and hasn’t thrown an NFL pass since 2021.
Fortunately for the Vikings, they have options. Not good ones, mind you, but Cousins’ injury happened two days before the league’s trading deadline, allowing an extra avenue to find a competent passer. The pickings, whether already on the depth chart or through a new addition, are slim. But Minnesota needs to make the best of a bad situation.
Here’s where they could turn.
The incumbent: Jaren Hall (or Sean Mannion)
Hall didn’t impress in his first NFL action, though he wasn’t really set up for success after being thrown into a game with little notice (and few opportunities to do anything with the ball.
OUR BALL!
Taking over in enemy territory.#MINvsGB | #GoPackGo
📺: FOX pic.twitter.com/GHd8zjrhEX
— Green Bay Packers (@packers) October 29, 2023
While Minnesota would love Hall to be its analog to Brock Purdy, it’s unlikely to happen. The success rate of Day 3 NFL draft picks at quarterback is low. While the 49ers quarterback and Washington Commanders starter Sam Howell have exceeded expectations, the odds are much more likely you’re getting a Sam Ehlinger or Kyle Lauletta at the position than a future starter.
Hall broke out at BYU after Zach Wilson’s departure, which was impressive but not exactly a harbinger of future Sunday success.
He’s a viable dual-threat weapon with a soft touch downfield, but questions remain about whether he has the arm strength to make the sideline throws he nailed in college at the next level. If he’s the guy, he’ll probably consist on a diet of play-action passing that might not work wonders considering his offense gained just 2.0 yards per carry against the Packers’ deficient rush defense. But he’ll also have his learning curve softened by Addison, T.J. Hockenson and, once healthy, Jefferson.
Simply put, he’s got a lot to prove before the Vikings can trust him. And they’ve got two days to make a decision before the trade deadline which is not ideal.
Mannion is tall. His 6-foot-6 frame appears to be his main selling point as an NFL quarterback. He’s started three games as a pro and thrown one touchdown pass. He is the answer to the question “what if Brock Osweiler were worse?”
The trade target that might happen: Andy Dalton, Carolina Panthers
There’s no panacea on the free agent or trade markets for Minnesota. This team cannot replace Cousins’ production. But it can hope to find a turnover-averse, efficient veteran who can capitalize on the opprotunities afforded by Brian Flores’ bonkers, blitz-heavy defense.
The Panthers have employed Dalton as a veteran mentor for rookie Bryce Young and, when needed, a substitute body for quarterback sneaks. But Young had a solid performance against the Houston Texans Sunday to win the team’s first game of 2023. And after trading away a fortune for the right to draft their franchise quarterback, Carolina badly needs to refresh its war chest.
Dalton is unexciting. Since leaving the Cincinnati Bengals he’s bounced around as a low-level QB1/high-level QB with the Dallas Cowboys, Chicago Bears, New Orleans Saints and Panthers. He has a 13-17 record in that stretch and his 87.4 passer rating is roughly what you’d expect from post-Cincinnati Andy Dalton. 39 quarterbacks have played at least 600 snaps in that stretch and his 0.040 expected points added (EPA) per play ranks 29th among them.
But the thing about the 28 guys ahead of him in those rankings is that they are, for the most part, unavailable. Dalton isn’t as good as Cousins, but he’s able to identify his open windows downfield and let his wideouts carry him. That’s not a bad deal when you’ve got Jefferson, Addison and Hockeson in the lineup.
The other viable, potentially better trade target: Jacoby Brissett, Washington Commanders
One name ahead of Dalton on that list of quarterbacks from the past four years is Brissett, whose services may or may not be needed in Washington. The Commanders have seen uneven performances from starter Sam Howell, but he’s recorded a positive EPA in four of seven games this season and is coming off a 397-yard, four touchdown performance in a loss to the Philadelphia Eagles in Week 8.
That could cement his place as the team’s starter throughout 2023 and lessen the need for Brissett. The Commanders are nearing a rebuild point and could stand to pick up extra draft assets, particularly if this is Ron Rivera’s last year as head coach and a deep cleaning is coming under new team owner Josh Harris. Brissett, under contract until the end of the season and that’s it, wouldn’t bring back much in a trade but his value may have increased thanks to Minnesota’s need.
When we last saw the journeyman backup, he was proving to be the best quarterback in the Cleveland Browns’ locker room, roundly outplaying Deshaun Watson in 11 starts while the QB1 sat out a league suspension following more than 20 accusations of sexual misconduct and what the NFL itself described as “predatory behavior.” While he played poorly in crunch time of close games, Brissett was efficient and effective for the bulk of his Browns tenure.
Brissett’s 62.0 QBR ranked eighth among all qualified quarterbacks last season, as did his 1.6 percent interception rate. While his deep game has always been more potential that production, he’s solid in the intermediate range where the Vikings’ targets thrive. With Howell steady enough to finish the season as Washington’s starter, he’s a found lottery ticket for the Commanders. Here’s where they could cash him in.
The trade target that probably won't happen: Teddy Bridgewater, Detroit Lions
It would be poetic. The Vikings, in need of a hero once more, turn to a familiar name; the man they drafted 32nd overall nearly a decade ago. The franchise quarterback whose career was forever altered by a horrific knee injury, but who returned to extend his career as one of the league’s best backups (and roughly a league-average starter).
Bridgewater was a bit looser with the ball in Mike McDaniel’s Miami offense last season than we’d grown accustomed to (a career-worst 5.1 percent interception rate, but also a career-best 5.1 percent touchdown rate). At heart, he remains an efficient, low-risk quarterback capable of putting his team in position to succeed. He is, at his core, a player who can spam targets in the short and intermediate ranges and occasionally connect on deep balls, all while completing roughly two-thirds of his pass attempts.
That’s valuable and, for the Vikings, viable!
But Bridgewater’s contract is currently held by the Detroit Lions, who are in no position to help their division rival and the only real threat to their first NFC North title … ever. Landing the high-value backup to Jared Goff would likely require an overpay with no guarantee of being a better fit than less expensive trade targets or a free agent pickup that wouldn’t cost Minnesota any future draft compensation.
But Bridgewater could be on the market. David Blough has plenty of experience as the team’s backup (with Mannion-esque results, but still) and rookie Hendon Hooker could return from the non-football injury list once recovered from the torn ACL suffered last winter. It may not be Minnesota who makes the call, but it seems likely someone will be inquiring about the trustworthy veteran passer in Motown.
Bridgewater’s return to purple is likely a pipe dream. But it’s not completely off the table if two divisional enemies are willing to negotiate.
The less-than-ideal free agent: Carson Wentz
The one-time MVP candidate is a favorite for general managers who look at a broken quarterback and think: I can fix him.
This is incorrect.
Wentz once had all the qualities of a franchise quarterback and was thrive swapped for considerable draft considerations. But he was a disaster for the Indianapolis Colts in 2021 and even worse for the Commanders last fall, eventually losing his starting job to Taylor Heinicke. He’s been a free agent ever since, working out in a mishmash of team gear that paints him as the league’s version of Frankenstein’s monster.
He’s only 30 years old and there may be some juice left to be squeezed here. But over the last three-plus years he’s been a soundly below average quarterback who has produced diminishing returns, especially when unable to rely on an upper-crust run game. Maybe he’s worth a flier as a veteran depth option. Or maybe the Vikings aren’t that desperate yet.
The other less-than-ideal free agent: Colt McCoy
McCoy’s an interesting case; the Arizona Cardinals released him this offseason in order to turn to Joshua Dobbs, a move that made sense from a competitive standpoint after a better-than-expected start but now seems like a blatant decision to tank in the wake of four-straight double-digit losses. He’s gone unsigned in the months since, and it’s possible the 37-year-old quarterback is content to have his Sundays back and enter a phase of his life that doesn’t hinge on constant abuse.
McCoy was a viable starter in relief duty for the Cardinals, completing more than 70 percent of his passes the last two seasons but also rarely stretching the field with challenging throws. He attempted just 13 deep balls in 12 games as the team’s backup, which wouldn’t jive with Minnesota’s glut of playmakers downfield.
Would the Vikings want him as a higher value emergency option than Mannion? That would likely be his ceiling in Minnesota, but his presence would be valuable. No one wants to have to rely on Colt McCoy, but if things get that bad, well, you could do a lot worse in that situation.
