If Kirk Cousins hasn’t taken Minnesota to the Super Bowl, which the team expected when it made him, briefly, the highest-paid quarterback in NFL history, he has been a consistently productive passer.
Since arriving as a free agent in 2018, Cousins has averaged 4,448 yards and 33 touchdowns against 11 interceptions in five seasons. And if he has only one playoff victory on his resume, he showed last season that, at age 34, he can win games with his arm.
In his first season in coach Kevin O’Connell’s offense, Cousins led the Vikings to 13 victories — including the biggest comeback in NFL history — and an NFC North championship.
But the Vikings are planning ahead. They have to. Signed through 2024, Cousins will be 35 on Aug. 19 and has become prohibitively expensive — $30 million guaranteed in 2023 with, because of consistent restructuring, a lot of dead money against the cap through 2024.
“Quarterbacks are the most important position in our sport. These aren’t things you can’t just decide (on something) in the moment,” Vikings general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah said Thursday. “You have to have plans, you have to have a strategy, you have to have different ways of getting to that answer.
“We’ve had these conversations. They are ongoing. There are a lot of different avenues in terms of addressing that position.”
At 6-foot-4, 205 pounds, Cousins is the prototype old-time quarterback, a big, accurate pocket passer who runs only when he absolutely needs to. But the NFL, if not going in an entirely different direction, has shown a willingness to break that mold with players such as Miami’s Tua Tagovailoa, Chicago’s Justin Fields and Arizona’s Kyler Murray.
Which raises the question: If Cousins has thrived in the offensive system of O’Connell, a former NFL quarterback himself, will Mensah and O’Connell want their next quarterback to be another prototype pocket passer?
“I think you have traits in your mind,” O’Connell said Thursday. “I think what makes great coaches in this league are guys that can stay true to their football philosophy but maybe reinvent some of the X’s and O’s, how you get there, and just make sure that the end product is good football that can sustain. There’s a lot of ways to do that.”
The 2023 quarterback class is considered talented but top-heavy, with a handful of early first-round picks — Alabama’s Bryce Young, Ohio State’s C.J. Stroud, Anthony Richardson of Florida or Kentucky’s Will Levis — followed by a few guys who project as projects and would be available to Minnesota, such as Tennessee’s Hendon Hooker.
Assuming Cousins’ heir apparent isn’t already on the roster — current backup Nick Mullens has been in the NFL for five years — finding one in the April 27-29 draft will be difficult. The Vikings only have five picks (they wound up with 10 last season) and don’t pick until 23rd overall.
On the other hand, last season’s best rookie quarterback was San Francisco’s Brock Purdy, selected last overall in the 2022 draft.
The assumption of many is that Minnesota will draft a quarterback they like and let him learn under Cousins until the veteran either retires or signs elsewhere. Adofo-Mensah acknowledged that’s something the team’s brain trust talks about “all the time.”
“I don’t know if there is one right answer, to be honest,” the GM added, “Ideally, you would want to have a year to have the person in the building or something like that, but I don’t know if that is necessary. It just depends on the player, depends on all those things.”
Ultimately, Adofo-Mensah said, the most important thing is for the team to do its due diligence and find the right player, a young quarterback they believe in.
Are there any available in this year’s draft?
“I think we’re still working through that process collectively as a group,” O’Connell said. “Going back every year that you’ve studied the draft, I’ve been right on guys and I’ve been wrong on guys. Sometimes, the key is about your process and truly figuring out what matters most to you or to us as an organization. I do think there is a lot to like about this year’s class with a lot of names that are being discussed as potential high picks, and I think there’s good options to add depth to your room after the draft, as well.”
At the moment, those potential high picks seem out of Minnesota’s reach. The Vikings appear to be trying to move running back Dalvin Cook and rush end Za’Darius Smith, but it’s unlikely those veterans — coming off injuries in 2022 — would fetch a high draft pick. Still, there could be a package that gets the Vikings where they want to be.
“I use every year as a real process to go back and say, ‘Hey man, I was wrong on this one, right on this one,’ ” O’Connell said, “and really try to figure out the why, and how, collectively, can we build some of those hits and misses into our process moving forward to try and go ahead and identify that guy we do have that belief in.”
TOP 2023 QB PROSPECTS
The top quarterback prospects available in the April 27-29 NFL Draft, according to Pro Football Focus:
1. BRYCE YOUNG, ALABAMA
Best playmaker at the quarterback position in the draft class is projected to go No. 1 overall. Small but smart and accurate.
2. WILL LEVIS, KENTUCKY
Considered the most NFL-ready prospect because he played under two former NFL coordinators at Kentucky, including former Rams coordinator Liam Coen in 2021.
3. C.J. STROUD, OHIO STATE
Off-the-charts accuracy and a big game in the NCAA title game against champion Georgia has teams excited.
4. ANTHONY RICHARDSON, FLORIDA
Has ability to space but started only one season with the Gators and is considered a project.
5. TANNER MCKEE, STANFORD
One of the most accurate quarterbacks in the class with a career time to throw at Stanford of just 2.49 seconds.
6. HENDON HOOKER, TENNESSEE
A gifted runner with an NFL-caliber right arm but the graduate transfer will be a 25-year-old rookie.
