The Minnesota Vikings are faced with another quarterback conundrum involving Kirk Cousins. We seem to have this conversation every season and a lot of it has to do with the short-term nature of his contracts.
Throughout the entirety of his career, Cousins has not wanted to sign a long-term contract to maximize his potential earnings output. Who can blame him? I would want to maximize my limited earning potential as well.
From a team-building perspective, this presents some major challenges. On Tuesday when meeting with team beat reporters, general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah had some pointed comments about it.
“Obviously from their side, they want it as certain as possible, and from our side, we want flexibility,” Adofo-Mensah said. “You’re always trying to be solutions-oriented and find a way that works for both people. … He has as much importance to this organization and maybe more than I do, so we all have to be on the same page and make sure that relationship works.”
What does this all mean? There is a good amount that you can gather from this, but it doesn’t mean that things can’t evolve with more conversations.
The main thing here is that Adofo-Mensah confirms the Tom Pelissero report that Cousins wants a long-term deal and the Vikings want a short-term one so they can keep flexibility with the salary cap. With Cousins entering his age 35 season, a long-term deal doesn’t make nearly as much sense as it did in years prior.
Currently, Cousins has a combination of $30 million in base salary and roster bonuses totaling a cap hit of $36.25 million. There are only two ways to lessen the cap hit currently: an extension or turning some of the $30 million cap hit into a signing bonus and pushing it off into his void years of 2024 and 2025.
Regardless of how they do it or don’t, the Cousins contract conundrum will be the story of the offseason.
