"I ended up signing with Atlanta and was pretty excited about the chance to get down there and start fresh. And then, I was pretty surprised when the NFL draft happened," Cousins said. "I wasn't expecting us to take a quarterback so high. At the time, it felt like I had been a little bit misled, or certainly if I had the information around free agency, it certainly would've affected my decision. I had no reason to leave Minnesota with how much we loved it there if both teams are going to be drafting a quarterback that high. But I've also learned in 12 years in this league that you're not entitled to anything. It's all about being able to earn your spot and prove yourself."
"My expectation before getting hurt was that we're gonna play in such a way that I'll be a Viking for a long time. But once I tore my Achilles, all that was up in the air," Cousins said.
Cousins relayed that the Vikings only offered a short-term contract and didn't budge after Atlanta made their four-year offer worth at least $100 million in guarantees.
"I didn't want to leave Minnesota," he said. "There was nothing about anywhere that made me want to leave Minnesota. We wanted to be in Minnesota, but it became clear that we were gonna be there year to year. And that's what we didn't want. At that point, we said, 'We need to look elsewhere. If that's our only option, then we'll be back.' And when we said, 'Well, we looked around and there's an opportunity that'd be a longer commitment. Would you be interested in giving us that longer commitment?' They said, 'Nope, we're good with our offer.' And I said, "OK, you made my decision really easy.'"
I personally don't think the Vikings' short term deal had a ton to do with his injury. He was already going to be on the older side and it was pretty obvious at the time KOC prefers to allow rookie QBs to either completely earn their spot or sit for a year or even two. Kirk was only ever going to be signed for 2 to 3 years and it not be fully guaranteed.
The Vikings front office not caving and taking the "safe route" by matching Atlanta's offer was one of the best moves they made. Rick Spielman panicking after the loss to the Eagles and signing Cousins set the Vikings back for years. It destroyed Zimmer's layout for constructing a team:
Mike Zimmer wrote:"[We were] averaging 10 wins a year playing really good defense with some other quarterbacks who weren’t as talented as Kirk. Then we paid Kirk a lot of money and ended up having to get rid of some guys on defense and weren’t able to get ones we needed."
And ultimately got both Zimmer and Spielman fired as a result.
Kirk was (maybe still is?) a talented QB but the amount he demanded didn't line up with how much he brought the team in terms of winning games.
Cliff wrote: ↑Tue Jul 08, 2025 11:04 am
I personally don't think the Vikings' short term deal had a ton to do with his injury. He was already going to be on the older side and it was pretty obvious at the time KOC prefers to allow rookie QBs to either completely earn their spot or sit for a year or even two. Kirk was only ever going to be signed for 2 to 3 years and it not be fully guaranteed.
The Vikings front office not caving and taking the "safe route" by matching Atlanta's offer was one of the best moves they made. Rick Spielman panicking after the loss to the Eagles and signing Cousins set the Vikings back for years. It destroyed Zimmer's layout for constructing a team:
Mike Zimmer wrote:"[We were] averaging 10 wins a year playing really good defense with some other quarterbacks who weren’t as talented as Kirk. Then we paid Kirk a lot of money and ended up having to get rid of some guys on defense and weren’t able to get ones we needed."
And ultimately got both Zimmer and Spielman fired as a result.
Kirk was (maybe still is?) a talented QB but the amount he demanded didn't line up with how much he brought the team in terms of winning games.
KAM/KOC made the right choice and now have their guy in place to lead the team. IMO our major problem has been bad drafting for a long time. Spielman lost his touch and so far KAM hasn't shown that he has the touch. KAM has been able to hide this flaw by signing a bunch of FA. Spielman couldn't do that because of no cap which went further than one player. Others were overpaid for the value added. Zim and KOC have very good regular season records. Playoffs are a different story for both. Anyway good to hear from you and it will be great when the season gets rolling. We have a vet team so we should be able to make the playoffs and give a battle to a team. Another beat down won't be good but KAM/KOC have already been given more rope so the pressure isn't great.
CharVike wrote: ↑Wed Jul 09, 2025 11:48 amKAM/KOC made the right choice and now have their guy in place to lead the team. IMO our major problem has been bad drafting for a long time. Spielman lost his touch and so far KAM hasn't shown that he has the touch. KAM has been able to hide this flaw by signing a bunch of FA. Spielman couldn't do that because of no cap which went further than one player. Others were overpaid for the value added. Zim and KOC have very good regular season records. Playoffs are a different story for both. Anyway good to hear from you and it will be great when the season gets rolling. We have a vet team so we should be able to make the playoffs and give a battle to a team. Another beat down won't be good but KAM/KOC have already been given more rope so the pressure isn't great.
Yeah, the KAM/KOC team has been pretty bad at drafting so far too. Though if Dallas Turner and JJM end up being stars it'll go a long way to erasing those black marks.
Spielman's cap issues went farther than one player but not a ton further. Specifically that player being QB on a team that was built as defense first with a defensive head coach. It was a move specifically intended to take advantage of the window that was opened in 2017 with no eye for the future beyond 2018. A truly "all in" move that backfired hard.
Whether or not they do anything in the playoffs will have a lot to do with how JJM works out. If he can't stay healthy or bombs it's going to be a long season.
Good to hear from you too. The off season has been pretty slow and I try to refrain from making posts just for the sake of making them but I have missed activity on the board.
I keep wondering if Cousins was really misled by the Falcons or the Falcons saw something in Cousins after they acquired him that made them interested in taking a QB high in the draft. It seems very unlikely that the Falcons would have offered Cousins the contract they offered him if they knew they would target a QB with their first pick.
The only other explanation that seems plausible is that while they liked Cousins a lot they thought so highly of Penix that they couldn't pass on him (sorry for the pun...). Kind of like when the Packers took Rodgers in the 1st despite having an established Favre, or took Love in the 1st despite having an established Rodgers. It doesn't happen often but some teams do it even if they don't have an immediate need at the position.
Either way, I just don't buy that anyone misled Cousins about his situation. He just wasn't good last year. Maybe it was age, maybe lingering effects of the injury, maybe the change of scenery hurt him. Whatever it was, he played poorly and got replaced, and lucky for the Falcons they had a young, promising talent they just drafted to replace him.
On top of what you guys said above, he could have signed the offer the team gave him. That option was there if he truly wanted to stay.
In reality he wanted to stay only up to a certain financial tipping point. And thats fine. Everyone has a number and they will jump jobs. He said himself in that quote minny was only if no other options. This framing as poor me and my injury is misleading imho. As Cliff said, i dont think they were offering him long term even without the injury.
