Vikings Message Board.Com

Pondering Her Percy wrote: ↑Tue Mar 24, 2020 8:20 pm This is exactly why I’ve been saying cousins contract isn’t nearly as bad as everyone made it out to be. If anyone, including myself thought that he would be raking in $31million in 2021 and $45 million in 2022, we’d be crazy. Those just aren’t realistic numbers for a QB outside of guys like Mahomes. I mean we’ve been paying him close to $30 million a year on his last deal. $45 million is absurd. The main reason for the extension was to drastically lower this years cap hit to get us somewhat out of a hole. I believe I explained that in my mock offseason when I knew there were guys that wanted nothing to do with an extension.

Bottom line was, we were on the hook this coming year with his previous contract no matter what. The only ways of getting out of that $30+ million cap hit was to either have him take a pay cut or extend him. He wasn’t going to take a pay cut. So the only option was to extend him so we could change the cap hit this year. In my mock I had the extension saving us $7 million. Instead it saved us $10. The extension was a must unless we wanted to soak $31 million which would’ve lost us out on keeping Harris. I feel like guys thought I wanted to extend cousins because I think he’s some great QB. That was never the case, extending him was just the logical move

StumpHunter wrote: ↑Tue Mar 24, 2020 9:16 pm

Pondering Her Percy wrote: ↑Tue Mar 24, 2020 8:20 pm This is exactly why I’ve been saying cousins contract isn’t nearly as bad as everyone made it out to be. If anyone, including myself thought that he would be raking in $31million in 2021 and $45 million in 2022, we’d be crazy. Those just aren’t realistic numbers for a QB outside of guys like Mahomes. I mean we’ve been paying him close to $30 million a year on his last deal. $45 million is absurd. The main reason for the extension was to drastically lower this years cap hit to get us somewhat out of a hole. I believe I explained that in my mock offseason when I knew there were guys that wanted nothing to do with an extension.

Bottom line was, we were on the hook this coming year with his previous contract no matter what. The only ways of getting out of that $30+ million cap hit was to either have him take a pay cut or extend him. He wasn’t going to take a pay cut. So the only option was to extend him so we could change the cap hit this year. In my mock I had the extension saving us $7 million. Instead it saved us $10. The extension was a must unless we wanted to soak $31 million which would’ve lost us out on keeping Harris. I feel like guys thought I wanted to extend cousins because I think he’s some great QB. That was never the case, extending him was just the logical move

There were a lot of other ways to make room for Harris without an extension of Cousins and I really don't think that was the reason the Vikings chose to extend him. Too many risks involved with extending him compared to doing what they did with Hunter to Barr and Kendricks.

What this did was ensure the Vikings get something in return if they decide to move on from him after the 2020 season, as well as make sure they have an option if they don't like someone in the draft. Now if they don't decide to do trade him, we are screwed, but we can worry about that predicament when we get there. There is also the chance Cousins completely goes off the rails next year and no team has any interest in trading for him. Lawrence sure would ease the pain of eating 41 million though, so even there we have a bright side.