Because the Minnesota Vikings have yet to give Kirk Cousins a contract extension and they’ve already restructured his deal to push dead money into the future in order to save $16 million on the 2023 salary cap, the idea that this will be his last season with the team is a very real possibility, if not a likelihood.
The situation begs the question: When and who will be Cousins’s successor?
It would make sense to hope for a quarterback in the NFL Draft in April or wait to draft a future starter in what appears to be a pretty strong quarterback class in 2024.
What about free agency next spring? Good luck hoping Jalen Hurts, Joe Burrow or Justin Herbert wind up listening to offers as free agents. It would be a shock if their current teams allow them to get to free agency, meaning the top free agent in 2024 might be … Kirk Cousins.
“It does look like in 2024 they will ultimately move on from Kirk Cousins,” said Matthew Coller on one of his latest Purple Insider live shows. “The way that this contract is set up, is for them to have a $28 million dead cap hit in 2024 and then be rid of that dead cap hit after that and go on to a rookie quarterback contract.”
If Coller is correct, that means a QB needs to be drafted this year or next.
Are the Vikings in love with a player like Stanford’s Tanner McKee, who by all accounts will be available with the 23rd overall pick and probably fall into the second or third round? Do the Vikings have the moxie and firepower to trade up if Bryce Young, C.J. Stroud, Anthony Richardson or Will Levis slide outside the top 10? It’s possible that one of them falls into their lap at 23, but that’s not something they can count on.
Coller asked CBS Sports draft analyst Chris Trapasso specifically about the idea of trading up for Levis, who isn’t shy about saying he has a cannon for an arm and wowed during his throwing session at the NFL Combine.
“I love the Will Levis idea,” Trapasso said. “As of right now, five or six weeks from the draft, Will Levis has the least amount of buzz of any of those quarterbacks. So, it wouldn’t be crazy to me if he gets within striking distance where they could trade up.”
He added: “I would really like that for the Vikings. That would not be super sexy for this season but the long term future I would really like it.”
If this isn’t the year where finding a QB in the draft works out, it would almost certainly have to happen next year unless the Vikings shock the world and trade or sign one of the league’s premiere talents. But like we said before, good luck hoping a Burrow or Herbert gets to free agency. With that in mind, Trapasso says next year’s draft class might be better than this year’s.
“It does look maybe better than this year. With Caleb Willaims, Drake Maye, who had a fantastic sophomore season at UNC – kinda looks like Justin Herbert – Spencer Rattler’s returning, Bo Nix had a great season at Oregon. There’s just more names already established at the collegiate level that don’t need to breakout out of nowhere,” said Trapasso.
“Now will all of those quarterbacks be amazing and jockeying to be the No. 1 overall pick next year? Probably not, but when you go in with even Spencer Rattler, who had an amazing end of the season at South Carolina, who was the presumed No. 1 overall pick in this year’s draft before the season, there’s four or five names right there, along with Caleb Williams, who won the Heisman. It does, right now, seem like it’s going to be a better class.”
And the X-factor of it all is the 2023 Vikings. What if the Vikings are good in 2023 and don’t have a great draft position? There’s a lot going into the decisions the Vikings are making and what they do to address future QB concerns will be critical to the direction of the franchise in 2024 and beyond.
