Thank you for submitting questions for this week's Vikings mailbag. You can always send questions to @Andrew_Krammer on Twitter or andrew.krammer@startribune.com, and find answers here or during the Access Vikings podcast. Let's get to it.
Q: Feels like it's a big year for Kirk Cousins, but with two years left on his contract. If he has another up and down year in 2021 and Kellen Mond looks serviceable, what are the chances they can move Kirk next offseason? – Joe
AK: Unlike Cousins' first contract in Minnesota, he does not have a no-trade clause in his current Vikings deal. This allows the Vikings to seek a trade partner at any point. Should they try to move Cousins after this season, general manager Rick Spielman would have to find a team willing to take on what would effectively be a one-year, $35 million deal – with $10 million in a prorated signing bonus staying on the Vikings' books – or a team in which Cousins would be open to reworking that contract. He's an expensive one-year rental (at 34 years old at the start of the 2022 season) for someone else if he's not willing to renegotiate a new deal.
Among the factors to consider is Cousins' play; if he plays erratically enough to want to trade him, how many suitors would he really have? And would Mond, a third-round pick, really develop that quickly to leave the Vikings coaching staff feeling comfortable in moving on from their established starter? Conversely, the quarterback landscape is considered barren – really barren – in 2022. Jameis Winston, Teddy Bridgewater, and Ben Roethlisberger are the top scheduled free agents. The 2022 rookie class currently looks poor. That could theoretically make Cousins an appealing bridge to a team like, let's say, Denver.
Other routes: Cousins plays out the final two years on his deal, giving the Vikings a couple seasons to evaluate Mond and his readiness to take the reins, while Cousins becomes a free agent in 2023. Or the Vikings rework his deal, likely adding a year or two to smooth out the financial burden, while maintaining the flexibility to trade him. That might not be easy considering Cousins has proven a shrewd businessman in maximizing his money. For all he went through in Washington, and generally how NFL teams break commitments to players left and right, who can blame him?
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Q: What are the skill/scheme fits that the Vikings like about Kellen Mond? It seems like they really liked him, so they must think he fits the Kubiak scheme and also check some internal boxes in what they look for in a quarterback. — @JoelStegman
AK: Mond has credited Jimbo Fisher's offense at Texas A&M, which featured more pro-style concepts than former coach Kevin Sumlin's spread-it-out, air raid schemes, for helping prepare him for the NFL transition. Hear it from Mond: "[Fisher] gives the quarterback everything at the line of scrimmage from mike [linebacker] calls, different run plays, and getting in and out of pass or runs. He wants the quarterback to be the leader and pretty much the offensive coordinator on the field." At the Aggies' pro day in March, Mond said he even scripted his own throwing sessions, putting himself under center as opposed to the shotgun, where almost every college quarterback feels more comfortable. That showed a willingness to step outside of his comfort zone and improve.
