Minnesota Vikings a potential landing spot for Kirk Cousins in 2018
ESPN lists the Minnesota Vikings as a potential landing spot for Kirk Cousins in 2018.
In the grand history of the Minnesota Vikings, the team hasn’t had too many stretches of time with one quarterback at the helm. In recent years, the team has went from stopgap to stopgap with the occasional draft pick thrown in. Now there might be some buzz that current Washington quarterback Kirk Cousins might be wearing purple in 2018.
NFL fans on Monday found out that Kirk Cousins and Washington did not come to a contract agreement and that the QB would once again be playing on the franchise tag. Washington was offering Cousins less money than the tag’s worth, $24 million, so it was kind of inevitable for this to happen. It also sets up Cousins as a free agent next offseason.
ESPN gave a label to Cousins that I think is quite accurate: Cousins is going to be the ‘Loch Ness Monster’ of the league. ESPN claims that Cousins will be the first fully healthy QB in their prime to hit free agency’s open market since the creation of the franchise tag. This all means that Cousins will be paid handsomely.
All really good QBs that have been signed recently have been on contract extensions. That essentially means that the player’s own current team is the only team bidding. Cousins will have a nice chunk of the NFL bidding for his services. That alone will significantly drive up his price since he will have teams to leverage against each other.
ESPN’s Dan Graziano lists the Vikings as one of the top ten teams that might be in the running to get Cousins next season. Here is what he wrote on the Vikings and Cousins:
"“It’s a fluid and murky quarterback situation in Minnesota, where Teddy Bridgewater’s health remains a mystery and Sam Bradford only has one year left on his contract. Odds are, one of those guys will be Minnesota’s quarterback in 2018. But health and market factors could mess with the plans and leave the Vikings shopping for QB help. They would come to the table with more than $55 million in cap space.”"
The Vikings quarterback situation is a quarterback situation that really only the Vikings can find themselves in. At some points it looks like the Vikings have two potential quarterbacks. It is also quite possible to think that neither of them will be viable options going into 2018.
Sam Bradford is heading into the last year of his contract and it doesn’t look like the Vikings are in any hurry to give him a contract extension. If Bradford does not meet expectations in 2017, there is a good chance that he will not be the Vikings quarterback in 2018.
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Teddy Bridgewater looks like he’s getting closer to being back on the field, but there’s been a crazy amount of radio silence on the entire Bridgewater situation since his injury last preseason. It appears the Vikings will try to not play him in 2017 at all. It’s possible Bridgewater never plays for the Vikings again. We just simply don’t know.
With all that in mind, there’s still a greater chance of Cousins staying in Washington than coming to Minnesota. Then again, a year ago we didn’t think that the Vikings would have Sam Bradford as their current starting quarterback. Crazier things have happened than Cousins potentially being a Viking. Plus, we all know that there’s a lot worse options out there.
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