Yeah I don't have an issue with the signing, franchise QB's in their prime simply don't hit free agency very often so this was a unique circumstance and the risk/reward is right.mansquatch wrote:Yeah the fact his contract is 100% guaranteed says a lot. But... we see it every year that teams with elite QB play go the distance. Cousins was the best overall player AVAILABLE at that position and IMO was a clear upgrade over everything we had at the position on the roster. The market in the NFL is what it is. Cousins got paid. Next year, someone else will get paid. So on and so on.S197 wrote:I don't mean to pee in your Cheerios but I don't really buy this. Maybe the Jets offered him $90M, I can see that, so we got him at ~6.5% less. But we still had to offer a very ridiculously player friendly contract. Fully guaranteed, no trade clause, no transition tag. He basically holds all the cards at the end of year 3.J. Kapp 11 wrote:The top FA on the market signed with the Vikings without even considering another team. He passed up much larger offers to be in Minnesota. Think about what that implies.
I believe this was his first choice and the team, culture, etc., made a very big impact but I don't see this as an implication that the Vikings can pick and choose. They may get a slight discount and preference as a contender but at the end of the day it's still about the money with free agents. Maybe if we get Richardson or Tyrann at some crazy below market price I'll revise but right now I think we put up a competitive bid and were aggressive in the market.
I just don't buy the whole, "I want to raise my kids here" spiel. I think Kirk and his agent are very savvy and negotiated a good deal with a good team. I don't see transactions as a zero sum game, both sides can come out winners and hopefully that's the case but there's also a degree of #### going on. It's not like he came here and signed a 5yr contract @ $20M, he definitely got his.