With Kirk Cousins in the final year of his contract, the Minnesota Vikings’ quarterback situation is uncertain beyond 2023. After Cousins tore his Achilles in last week’s win against the Green Bay Packers, the rumors of what the Vikings could do have intensified and one mock draft is already citing a potential deal for Kyler Murray.
Rotoballer’s Kyle Lindermann was the first analyst to jump in front of the “Murray-to-Minnesota” rumors as he projected a blockbuster trade in his latest mock draft.
In the theoretical deal, the Vikings would give up their 2024 first-round pick – which is currently projected by Tankathon to be the 20th overall pick – and a conditional 2025 third-round pick that could become a second-round pick in exchange for Murray.
“The Vikings are ready to win now and likely don’t want to put Justin Jefferson through the growing pains of a rookie quarterback,” Lindermann wrote. “…Cousins is better than he gets credit for but he’s a free agent heading into 2024 and it’s anyone’s guess how [Cousins] will look coming off the Achilles injury. All signs coming out of Minnesota this year has been that the front office wants to turn the page.”
The path for Murray to come to Minnesota is a simple one if Cousins can’t reach a new contract with the Vikings. Cousins has a cap hit of $20.25 million in the final year of his deal but still has $28.5 million tied up in a void year for next season and three more years of dead cap through 2027.
Despite the dead money, the Vikings have $51.7 million in cap space for next season according to Over The Cap. If he is traded, Murray has a $38.8 million cap hit for 2024, which would leave $12.8 million in cap space after a trade but would also hamstring a team that has several needs on defense.
But the move could pay off down the road as the Vikings currently have a projected $128.8 million in cap space in 2025 and $208 million in cap space in 2026 according to OTC’s cap calculator. Some of that money will be used to extend Jefferson and Christian Darrisaw in the next couple of years but with Murray signed through 2028, the Vikings would at least have an answer at quarterback for the foreseeable future.
Still, there’s a chance the Vikings go a different path. This year’s quarterback class is loaded with names outside of franchise prospects Caleb Williams and Drake Maye, and the Vikings could take a flier on Oregon’s Bo Nix, Washington’s Michael Penix Jr. or Michigan’s J.J. McCarthy to develop behind a bridge quarterback.
The Vikings also acquired Josh Dobbs from the Cardinals at the trade deadline last week Although he is also a pending free agent, he could also be brought back to start while they develop a bridge quarterback in 2024.
Then there’s the possibility of a Cousins return after head coach Kevin O’Connell and general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah both said he was playing the best football of his career before suffering his injury.
But Adofo-Mensah also offered an interesting quote that could decide Cousins’s future with the Vikings.
“My want for Kirk to come back isn’t just a me thing,” Adofo-Mensah said. “It’s a negotiation. You come together at a table and try to see if everything works together. We’ll have that dialogue when the time comes.”
Whatever the Vikings decide to do, it should lead up to an interesting spring that determines their long-term future.
