The Vikings don't know who will play quarterback for them on Sunday in the finale of this season of multiple derailments, but they do know this: The options are increasingly bleak, and none of Jaren Hall, Nick Mullens or Joshua Dobbs look like a viable choice as a 2024 starter.
The Vikings' QB conundrum, and the false choice of Kirk Cousins
Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins has shown his value in both his play and his absence in 2023. But assuming he's the right choice for 2024 is wrong.
January 2, 2024 at 5:07PM
Minnesota's quarterback carousel — a difficult situation handled poorly by head coach Kevin O'Connell in recent weeks — has made it fashionable to pine for the injured free-agent-to-be Kirk Cousins, who was on a hot streak that had helped the Vikings even their record at 4-4 after an 0-3 start at the time he was lost for the season.
The affection perhaps reached a fever pitch Sunday, when a shirtless Cousins got the U.S. Bank fired up right before Hall quieted them down in a 33-10 loss to Green Bay.
But as Patrick Reusse and I talked about on Tuesday's Daily Delivery podcast, thinking Cousins is the only — or even the best — option in 2024 is a conclusion that might be reached rationally.
It more likely would be reached as the product of a false choice.
If the Vikings and Cousins get together this offseason and agree to a new deal, it almost certainly would have to include multiple years of guaranteed starting QB money. The exact figure is subject to salary cap gymnastics, but let's imagine it's somewhere in the neighborhood of $35-40 million per year.
The Vikings had five seasons of a healthy and younger Cousins and won exactly one playoff game. Imagining he can lift a roster in need of a major talent infusion — which simultaneously has salary cap issues — any higher than a fringe playoff team is wishful thinking.
The counter-argument: We saw what happened this year without Cousins. Why not take the sure thing?
The counter-counter-argument and the crux of the false choice: The plan next season would be dramatically different without Cousins. It wouldn't be the rotating cast of two career backups and a fifth-round rookie.
The top two quarterbacks almost certainly would be a first-round draft pick and a stop-gap caliber veteran. There would be more risk in that, given that young quarterbacks often fail, but the reward of potentially higher upside at QB and lower long-term cost would also be greater.
Ultimately, the Vikings and Cousins could still decide they are better together than apart. But the Vikings better not arrive at that decision out of frustration with this year's alternatives.
Here are four more things to know today:
*Andrew Krammer and I will review the film from Sunday's 33-10 Vikings loss to the Packers on Wednesday's podcast.
*The Timberwolves are 7-4 during a withering stretch of 16 tough games, and at 24-8 overall they still have the best record in the West. File some of their recent issues under "nitpicking," I suppose, but there have been troubling signs emerging.
*Taylor Landfair's decision to transfer to Nebraska will hurt the Gophers volleyball program, but her honest departing message could hurt even more: "The answer for my decision to leave Minnesota is simple; it is no longer the right fit for me."
*It's still wild to me that Bill Belichick might get fired.
When he was hired after the disastrous 2016 season to reshape the Twins, Derek Falvey brought a reputation for identifying and developing pitching talent. It took a while, but the pipeline we were promised is now materializing.
