Zulgad: Clutch move: Kirk Cousins' departure paying off in a big way for Vikings
The veteran's decision to sign with Atlanta was a big reason Minnesota was able to improve its defense last offseason, and has put the team in a better place at the QB position for the future.
The last time we saw Kirk Cousins at U.S. Bank Stadium he was shirtless and wearing a gold chain as he sounded the Gjallahorn and led fans in the pregame “SKOL” chant before the Vikings played the Packers last New Year’s Eve. Cousins, who was accompanied by his son Cooper, received thunderous applause.
Nearly a year later, Cousins will return on Sunday as a member of the Atlanta Falcons. It’s anyone’s guess what the reaction of fans will be this time, but one could make a case that the 36-year-old quarterback should be received as enthusiastically as he was last Dec. 31.
Not for anything he did as the Vikings’ starting quarterback from 2018 to 2023, but for deciding to again take the money and run when the Falcons offered him a four-year, $180 million contract last March that included $100 million in guarantees and a $50 million signing bonus.
Cousins will be remembered as a good, not great, NFL quarterback, but if the Pro Football Hall of Fame ever dedicates a wing to the best contract negotiators of all-time, Cousins and his agent, Mike McCartney, should be inducted on the first ballot.
Cousins’ negotiating genius has been his ability to get large amounts of guaranteed money, including his three-year, $84 million contract with the Vikings in 2018. That made him the first quarterback to sign a multi-year contract that was fully guaranteed and came when Rick Spielman was the team’s general manager.
We can debate which members of the Vikings current front office and coaching staff did or didn’t want Cousins to return after he became a free agent last March, but what isn’t up for debate is the favor that Cousins did for coach Kevin O’Connell and the organization when he found a team willing to pay him a figure the Vikings weren’t.
Cousins remains on the Vikings’ books for a dead salary-cap charge of $28.5 million this season — the team’s largest cap charge of the year. He is part of the $70.6 million in dead money that remains on the Vikings’ books. That is the third-most in the NFL, according to the Over The Cap website.
That financial drain finally will end in 2025, in large part because of Cousins’ departure.
Over The Cap has the Vikings current dead money at only $3.4 million for next season and the team’s effective cap space at $63.2 million, the fifth-most in the NFL. That freedom enabled the Vikings to sign the best free-agent class in franchise history last offseason and push much of that money into the future.
The class included edge rushers Jonathan Greenard and Andrew Van Ginkel, linebacker Blake Cashman, defensive tackle Jerry Tillery, cornerbacks Shaq Griffin and Stephon Gilmore and running back Aaron Jones.
It’s a safe bet that the Vikings wouldn’t be among the NFC’s elite, if they hadn’t used some of that newfound financial freedom to upgrade their defense.
Oh, and there was one other pretty important guy that also was added. Sam Darnold was signed to a one-year, $10 million contract to replace Cousins as the starter and keep the seat warm for a draft pick that turned out to be J.J. McCarthy. The most important thing is Darnold came cheap, and McCarthy only will be entering the second season of his five-year rookie contract when he returns from a knee injury in 2025.
Darnold, 27, has acquitted himself better than anyone outside the Vikings’ organization expected. Minnesota will take a 10-2 record into Sunday’s game against the 6-6 Falcons, who are in first place in the NFC South because of a tie-breaker over Tampa Bay (6-6) and because they play in a horrendous division.