The Vikings' QB situation, which seems layered and complicated when factoring in their overall roster, new decision makers and Kirk Cousins' $45 million cap number, might actually be pretty simple in the eyes of the decision makers who really matter.
Is Super Bowl champion Matthew Stafford a reason for Vikings to keep Kirk Cousins?
The two QBs are pretty similar in a lot of ways.
February 14, 2022 at 4:55PM
If GM Kwesi Adofo-Mensah wants input, he can ask 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan or Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski — the former a huge Cousins fan, the latter the one who had the most success with Cousins in Minnesota, winning a playoff game as offensive coordinator in 2019.
When it comes time to make the decision, he can turn to his hand-picked head coach, Kevin O'Connell, who worked with Cousins in 2017 — and who, perhaps more importantly, just won a Super Bowl as the Rams offensive coordinator with Matthew Stafford as his quarterback.
Stafford, frankly, isn't the type of QB who is supposed to win Super Bowls. He's an expensive veteran outside the top tier of passers. But he came into the ideal situation with a great supporting cast and won it all Sunday, doing exactly what the Vikings hoped they would do when they signed Cousins in 2018.
As Patrick Reusse and I talked about on Monday's Daily Delivery podcast, it has to be tempting for O'Connell to look at what just happened and try to re-create it in Minnesota.
That would mean extending Cousins' contract and keeping him — something I would still argue isn't the best long-term idea but is a defensible position nonetheless.
Wherever you place Stafford and Cousins on the NFL QB hierarchy, an honest assessment says they are very similar. Since Cousins became a starter in 2014, they have produced strikingly interchangeable numbers while being durable. The knock on both, until this year, has been a mediocre won-loss record and a lack of playoff success.
Stafford was flawed throughout the regular season (tied for the league lead with 17 interceptions) and was mediocre in the Super Bowl until he engineered a critical final drive with the help of Cooper Kupp. But he has a ring now, and he certainly contributed to it more than he detracted from it.
The Rams have a superior supporting cast to the Vikings, including a once-in-a-generation player on defense in Aaron Donald. But their all-in model, copied from last year's Super Bowl champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers, has some merit.
What if the Vikings went on a veteran spending spree this offseason with the help of a Cousins extension and endured some some future cap pain to maximize whatever is left of their competitive window? Is that any less bold than trading Cousins and starting over?
I'm not necessarily talking myself into this, given that we have four years of evidence with Cousins in Minnesota as a counterweight suggesting that even with a better supporting cast than he had in 2021 the ceiling wasn't all that high.
But I am trying to see it through the eyes of a brand new GM and head coach.
After a lot of collaboration, the decision might come down to this: If Stafford can do it, why couldn't Cousins?
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