Kirk Cousins, Vikings Agree to Reported 1-Year, $35M Contract Extension Through 2023

Stephen Maturen/Getty Images

The Minnesota Vikings are keeping Kirk Cousins under center through at least 2023.

Minnesota announced Sunday that the two sides had agreed to an extension, with NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero reporting the NFC North team signed him to a one-year, $35 million fully guaranteed extension. Cousins also reportedly landed a no-trade clause in the extension.

Minnesota hired a new head coach (Kevin O’Connell) and general manager (Kwesi Adofo-Mensah) this offseason after having tried and failed for the last five years to win a Super Bowl.

Despite this decision, nobody has better symbolized the Vikings’ inability to get over the hump than Cousins.

He was supposed to be the final piece for a squad that won 13 games and reached the conference championship in 2017. Instead, the three-time Pro Bowler has presided over just one trip to the postseason since.

The version of Cousins in Washington and him in Minnesota are almost mirror images:

• Washington: 62 games, 16,206 passing yards, 99 touchdowns, 55 interceptions, 65.5 percent completion rate, 93.7 QB rating
• Minnesota: 63 games, 16,387 passing yards, 124 touchdowns, 36 interceptions, 68.3 percent completion rate, 103.5 QB rating

The 33-year-old failed to make meaningful improvement with the Vikings despite having a supporting cast that included Adam Thielen, Dalvin Cook, Stefon Diggs and then Justin Jefferson in Diggs’ place.

Over the last four years, here’s where the team finished in offensive efficiency at Football Outsiders: 18th, 10th, eighth and 16th. That’s not good enough for a unit that had the talent at Minnesota’s disposal.

After succeeding Mike Zimmer as coach, O’Connell said all the right things about Cousins and his short-term future, per ESPN’s Courtney Cronin:

“Well, I know he’s under contract and I’m excited to coach him. We’ve already started thinking about how we’re going to build those systems for him and our other quarterbacks and really the tremendous skill group that we have, our guys up front. It takes all 11 to move the football on offense, to run it, to throw it, to score points in the red zone. But I’m anticipating Kirk being a part of what we do.”

NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport reported Feb. 18 that the Vikings were approaching the offseason with the idea that Cousins would be the starter:

There was also the $45 million question about whether any other team would be prepared to assume his sizable salary-cap hit for 2022. Only Matt Ryan ($48.7 million) and Aaron Rodgers ($46.7 million) were slated to count for more against the cap.

Much like with Jimmy Garoppolo, the problem with Cousins isn’t that he’s a bad quarterback. He threw for 4,221 yards, 33 touchdowns and seven interceptions in 2021.

But when you’re attempting to contend for a title, Cousins—as with Garoppolo—might limit your ceiling or shrink your margin for error.

Still, the Vikings apparently have not seen enough of him even though they selected Kellen Mond in the third round of the 2021 draft in what seemed to be a sign the previous regime was wavering on Cousins long-term.

Granted, Zimmer’s comments on Mond in January indicated either he hadn’t been on board with the decision to select the former Texas A&M star or that Mond wasn’t the player the Vikings thought they were getting.

That means Cousins will be under center once again as the Vikings look to parlay some of that talent into a deep playoff run.