Everybody else is playing checkers, while Kirk Cousins continues to play chess at the negotiating table.
The Athletic’s Chad Graff is reporting the early indications are that the Minnesota Vikings quarterback “isn’t going to offer any sort of hometown discount to stay with the Vikings.”
Yikes!
Honestly, though, this really isn’t a surprise considering the Washington Commanders went through the same thing with Cousins before he ultimately walked out the door and into the awaiting arms of the Vikings.
The team placed back-to-back franchise tags on him, and he happily went to the bank playing on lucrative prove-it deals. He has always been a player seeking to maximize his value in contract negotiations.
No, it doesn’t help the team get better, and it isn’t going to excite fans hoping to see them put together a championship contender. That isn’t to say first-year general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah can’t MacGyver his way to a championship roster with Cousins’ bloated contract tacked on.
But it won’t be easy.
Cousins’ $45 million salary cap hit is the third-highest among NFL quarterbacks, and the team is still working its way out of a $15 million hole.
There would definitely be interest on the open market for a 33-year-old quarterback that just threw for 4,221 yards, 33 touchdowns and seven interceptions. Cousins knows his value, and he’s consistently willing to bet on himself to get every last dime.
The leaves Adofo-Mensah with a franchise-altering decision heading into free agency.
He likely didn’t want to rock the boat this early in his tenure as Vikings general manager, but from the looks of it, Cousins may give him no choice.
