The Minnesota Vikings and quarterback Kirk Cousins couldn’t come to terms on a contract extension this offseason and that led to the Vikings restructuring his contract to free up cap space.
The initial reporting was that the Vikings were willing to guarantee 2024 and the camp of Cousins wanted 2025 guaranteed as well.
According to The Star Tribune’s Andrew Krammer, it wasn’t quite that simple. Cousins had also asked for less than what Jones had gotten from the Giants, which would have been a discount based on the market.
“I had also heard that he wasn’t asking for $40 [million],” said Krammer. “He wasn’t asking for that much, in terms of what Daniel Jones got, who is obviously much younger but much less accomplished. Cousins’ camp was kind of surprised I guess, from what I heard, at the Vikings not jumping or at least accepting what they were asking for.”
That is new information and it speaks volumes about the Vikings truly wanting flexibility, something that fully guaranteeing 2024 and 2025 doesn’t give them. It also is another signal that the Vikings are invested in the idea of potentially bringing in a rookie quarterback and gaining that cap space. In 2023 and 2024, they would have a hefty amount committed to the quarterback position, but 2025 and 2026 would have in the neighborhood of $8-10 million on the salary cap, plus what you would pay a backup.
That’s the “cheat code” that recent teams making the Super Bowl have used to load up the roster for a potential title run.
