Minnesota’s additional time win over the Saints within the 2019 wild-card spherical unlocked new contracts for a number of key members of the group. The best paid of the bunch — quarterback Kirk Cousins — seemingly gained’t be going anyplace any time quickly, with out forsaking a major money and cap burden.

The 2-year extension signed by Cousins gave him $30 million up entrance together with 2020 and 2021 salaries of $9.5 million and $21 million assured for damage, ability, and cap. And right here’s the kicker: Cousins’ $35 million wage for 2022 turns into assured for damage, ability, and cap on the third day of the 2021 league yr.

Because of this, to keep away from owing Cousins $35 million in 2022, the Vikings should unload Cousins earlier than the center of March 2021. They’d nonetheless owe him $21 million for 2021, a yr through which the cap could also be as little as $175 million. Additionally they would have paid him $61 million for one season below his new deal.

Their solely hope to keep away from the additional $35 million in monetary obligations and to scale back the one-year funding to $40 million comes from a possible commerce. Their finest hope in that regard could be to get a cellphone name from the 49ers, in the event that they resolve to maneuver on from Jimmy Garoppolo and purchase the quarterback whom 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan had deliberate to signal as a free agent in 2018, however for the commerce that introduced Garoppolo to city.

So would the 49ers tackle a two-year, $56 million obligation to Cousins? At $28 million per yr, that’s a discount in gentle of the present market — even with a decreased cap in 2021 because of the pandemic. If, after all, Shanahan nonetheless desires Cousins to be the 49ers’ quarterback.

Many will say it’s untimely for the Vikings to be occupied with their choices with Cousins. Others will say that Cousins’ performances within the crew’s first two video games are sufficiently abysmal to place the query on the desk.

Passer score of 61.9. Two touchdowns in opposition to 4 interceptions. A pair of safeties prompted by his deer-in-the-headlights response to a nook blitz (vs. the Packers) and a quickly-collapsing pocket (on the Colts).

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That continues to be the largest flaw in Cousins’ recreation. He can run the play that’s known as, so long as he has time to run it. When the safety falls aside or a defender in any other case springs free, Cousins can’t pivot to an unscripted play, like a few of the finest quarterbacks within the league can, and do. Whether or not it’s a scarcity of mobility or an incapability to improvise, Cousins merely can’t whip up an on-the-fly batch of hen salad.

Whether or not the Vikings preserve Cousins past 2020 in the end could hinge on how deep the underside goes. With upcoming video games in opposition to the Titans, Texans, and Seahawks, 0-2 appears destined to change into 0-5 (barring a dramatic turnaround from Week One and Week Two). The query then would change into whether or not the Vikings can maintain serve in an empty residence stadium in opposition to the Falcons within the final recreation earlier than Minnesota’s bye to keep away from taking 0-6 into their annual week off.

If the worst-case state of affairs occurs, there gained’t be a lot the Vikings can do about it, due to the assorted monetary rewards handed out after the 2019 season. Nonetheless, at that time loads of Vikings followers will start clamoring for the crew to let what rapidly has change into a scholarship yr run its full course, in an effort to give the crew a shot at Trevor Lawrence.

The Vikings are seemingly caught with Kirk Cousins by means of 2022 initially appeared on Professional Soccer Discuss