The story that won’t die is the one about Kirk Cousins someday playing for Kyle Shanahan.
While it may be a nothing more than a fairytale, the idea rises from the ashes every time there is quarterback drama with the San Francisco 49ers – the latest of which was sparked by 49ers general manager John Lynch at the NFL Combine on Tuesday.
“We may have to look at the quarterback market, in addition to Brock (Purdy) and Trey (Lance) to insulate ourselves from whatever may happen,” Lynch said.
Purdy may not play at all in 2023 after suffering torn ligaments in his throwing arm, and Lance is unproven after suffering a broken foot in his second career start. Whether they’re in the market for a starter-level quarterback or a veteran who could be a reliable backup to Lance is what nobody knows.
The 49ers’ QB situation comes as Minnesota’s prepares to make a decision on Kirk Cousins. Will Minnesota let Cousins play out the final year of his contract or give him a long-term contract extension, be it three, four or five years? Vikings GM Kwesi Adofo-Mensah said Tuesday that Cousins is “good enough” but they’re currently trying to decide how long they think he can play at a starter-level threshold.
“We talk about necessary and sufficient conditions in math. A necessary condition is having a starter-level QB. A quarterback of above certain threshold,” Adofo-Mensah said. “Having a good, level quarterback is a necessary condition. [Kirk Cousins] meets that threshold, so we know that.”
“OK, now how do you build the rest of the team around him to make sure you can win in that way?” he continued. “Different quarterbacks require different things around them, but we know that for sure [Cousins] meets that threshold. How long does he meet that threshold? Those are things we gotta answer. Is there a chance to add somebody maybe with different skillsets? Those are all questions we gotta answer, so there’s not one right way. But I do know one thing: I know he is good enough. He meets that first threshold and that’s a question that a lot of people can’t answer with a yes, so we gotta make sure that we treat that in the proper importance that it is.”
Purple Insiders Matthew Coller made it pretty clear a month ago that Cousins to the 49ers doesn’t make sense unless the Vikings are planning to tank in 2023. And San Francisco doesn’t have any first- or second-round picks in this year’s draft to give Minnesota.
Once again we can travel back to 2018, when 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan, according to SI’s Albert Breer, admitted that he and Lynch were keen on trading for Cousins before they ultimately got Jimmy Garoppolo from the Patriots.
Lynch then told an ESPN radio affiliate that Shanahan was “mourning” because “I think everybody knows his master plan was to have Kirk Cousins come in eventually.”
And in 2020, just six days before Cousins signed his first extension with the Vikings, ESPN’s Diana Russini said she’s “never seen somebody want a quarterback as bad as Kyle Shanahan” wanted Cousins.
So here we are, the Vikings at a crossroads and the 49ers a quarterback away from being a Super Bowl contender. We’d be crazy to not bring up the idea, but in the end, Cousins not being in purple next season is probably a fairytale.
