{"id":80546,"date":"2024-01-15T01:17:27","date_gmt":"2024-01-15T01:17:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aweu.info\/?p=80546"},"modified":"2024-01-15T01:17:27","modified_gmt":"2024-01-15T01:17:27","slug":"kirk-cousins-put-on-notice-by-vikings-ahead-of-contract-dispute-kieu-linh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aweu.info\/kirk-cousins-put-on-notice-by-vikings-ahead-of-contract-dispute-kieu-linh\/","title":{"rendered":"Kirk Cousins Put on Notice by Vikings Ahead of Contract Dispute"},"content":{"rendered":"

The\u00a0Minnesota Vikings\u00a0are open to all possibilities at quarterback next season, including moving on from\u00a0Kirk Cousins.<\/p>\n

\"Kirk<\/p>\n

In his\u00a0end-of-season news conference, general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah was held to the fire by local media who sought to find insight into how the Vikings will handle one of the most important offseasons in recent memory.<\/p>\n

Despite a public narrative that Vikings ownership is unwilling to rip off the band-aid \u2014 eat\u00a0$28 million in dead cap\u00a0to let Cousins walk \u2014 Adofo-Mensah said that he has received no mandates from above and that he is open to looking at moves that improve the team\u2019s short- and long-term windows.<\/p>\n

Adofo-Mensah continued, unprompted, offering his personal opinion that the idea of taking a step back \u2014 the biggest step being a change at quarterback \u2014 is irrelevant if the team is not ready to contend.<\/p>\n

\u201cTaking a step back in the short term isn\u2019t a big deal if you don\u2019t think you\u2019re actually close,\u201d Adofo-Mensah said, per\u00a0The Athletic.<\/p>\n

While Adofo-Mensah has maintained a desire to bring Cousins back, it comes under the terms of a contract that gives the Vikings financial flexibility \u2014 an offer\u00a0Cousins did not accept\u00a0in negotiations last offseason.<\/p>\n

Unshaken by the idea of taking a step back, Adofo-Mensah likely won\u2019t budge in contract talks with Cousins\u2019 camp ahead of free agency in March.<\/p>\n

Vikings GM Kwesi Adofo-Mensah Says Roster is Not Up to Championship Standard<\/h2>\n
\n
\n
\"Kwesi<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

For years, Cousins has carried the Vikings to competitive seasons that have ended prematurely outside of the NFC Conference Championship \u2014 the very game the Vikings made in 2018 that prompted his arrival to Minnesota just months later.<\/p>\n

The roster was ready to compete then, boasting the NFL\u2019s No. 1-ranked defense from the 2017 season, but all the Vikings could muster with Cousins was a wild-card win over the\u00a0New Orleans Saints\u00a0in the 2019 postseason before being rolled by the\u00a0San Francisco 49ers\u00a0in the divisional round.<\/p>\n

San Francisco is a team that has weathered losing their starting quarterback, hemorrhaged their future by trading three first-round picks for Trey Lance, and still persevered to be a conference frontrunner. Adofo-Mensah was in the 49ers front office from 2013 to 2019, helping build the NFC juggernaut that could make its fourth conference championship in five seasons this year.<\/p>\n

Asked if he thinks the Vikings, whose roster has atrophied before his arrival, are close to contending, Adofo-Mensah said that his team did not rise above adversity and injuries this season \u2014 something he\u2019s seen the 49ers have had the depth to overcome.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think at different times this year \u2014 we\u2019ve shown it in the last two years in fact \u2014 but I think you want to get to that place in your program where it\u2019s consistent year in and year out [and] you can overcome adversity,\u201d Adofo-Mensah said. \u201cWe\u2019re not there to that standard yet, but we\u2019ve made the playoffs, we\u2019ve got in playoff contention for a lot of this year through a lot of things. So, I think we\u2019re pointed in the right direction.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vikings\u2019 \u2018Big Offseason\u2019 Decision on Kirk Cousins Will Define Next Decade<\/h2>\n

\"Justin<\/h2>\n

Adofo-Mensah admitted his answer of whether the Vikings are a contender was a winding road, but he added that his intention this offseason is to make that answer simple by 2025.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s going to take a big offseason for me to answer that question a little bit more in short order next time,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

With Cousins on a veteran quarterback contract, the Vikings have had little funds to fill roster holes with free agents that could compensate for years of poor drafting. Some of that falls on Adofo-Mensah \u2014 whose 2022 draft class has produced just one starting caliber player \u2014 but the previous regime\u2019s final two drafts bear equal scrutiny.<\/p>\n

The bill is due for\u00a0Justin Jefferson,\u00a0Danielle Hunter\u00a0and Cousins this season \u2014 and the Vikings cannot re-sign everyone while also acquiring valuable free agents in an all-in move.<\/p>\n

The market rate for a veteran quarterback of Cousins\u2019 caliber exceeds $40 million a season, making the roster-building advantages of a quarterback on a rookie-scale deal even more enticing.<\/p>\n

If the Vikings use their first-round pick on quarterback at No. 11 in the draft, the rookie quarterback\u2019s entire\u00a0four-year contract would cost $23 million \u2014 an average cap hit of $5.8 million a year through the 2027 season.<\/p>\n

The Vikings are on the hook for $28 million whether Cousins is under contract or not next season. That dead cap will be a drain on their ability to build a roster in 2024.<\/p>\n

But Adofo-Mensah\u2019s comments on taking a step back show he\u2019s more than willing to take on that dead cap if it means having a rookie-scale deal at quarterback to free up significant cap space for the future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The\u00a0Minnesota Vikings\u00a0are open to all possibilities at quarterback next season, including moving on from\u00a0Kirk Cousins. In his\u00a0end-of-season news conference, general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah was held to the… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-80546","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nfl"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/aweu.info\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80546","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/aweu.info\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/aweu.info\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aweu.info\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aweu.info\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=80546"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/aweu.info\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80546\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/aweu.info\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80546"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aweu.info\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80546"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aweu.info\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80546"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}