Today marks the opening of the franchise tag window, but Kirk Cousins‘ contract is not set to expire until after the deadline for teams to apply the tag. He is therefore on track for free agency unless another Vikings agreement can be worked out.

Cousins looms as one of the key figures in the 2024 free agent class as the most accomplished passer set to reach the open market. A new Minnesota deal could be forthcoming, as a mutual interest exists for a contract to be hammered out. However, SI’s Albert Breer notes the current Vikings regime is not prepared to guarantee Cousins’ next deal in full as its previous one was.

That serves as confirmation of a report from last month which detailed the four-time Pro Bowler’s efforts to receive guaranteed compensation through 2025 during summer extension talks. Minnesota – led in the front office by general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah for the past two years – authorized a three-year, $84MM deal in 2018 under Rick Spielman as well as a $66MM extension followed by last year’s restructured pact. The latter agreement set up the team’s current situation, one which will dictate the rest of Minnesota’s offseason and represent a major domino in free agency around the league.

Both Cousins and the Vikings have expressed a desire to continue their six-year relationship on a new deal. Efforts to negotiate one will likely depend in large part on the guarantee figure, as a short-term arrangement should be expected. Cousins is entering his age-36 season and is rehabbing an Achilles tear. That injury put an stop to a promising 2023 campaign, where the former fourth-rounder posted the third highest passer rating (103.8) of his career.

The Vikings do not have an heir apparent under center, and the team has financial considerations such as a new Danielle Hunter contract and a Justin Jefferson mega-extension to take into account if free agency is used to find a Cousins replacement. Breer does add that the sides have spoken recently, and an open line of communication obviously offers the potential of a deal being struck before the new league year begins on March 13.

With the potential exception of Baker Mayfield, Cousins should be able to land the NFL’s largest QB deal amongst veterans this offseason. Minnesota will remain a team to watch closely as talks continue, but it will be interesting to see how strong of a market emerges if financial terms remain a sticking point. The upper limit of Cousins’ guarantee ask will be a key storyline in the coming weeks.

Since his franchise tag saga began during the 2010s, Kirk Cousins has been one of the NFL’s financial kingpins. The veteran quarterback’s fully guaranteed $84MM Vikings deal in 2018 remains a landmark NFL accord. He signed two more Vikings contracts, running his career earnings total past $230MM, but is now less than two months from free agency.

Cousins and the Vikings’ most recent negotiations failed, however, leading the 12-year veteran to play out the extension he agreed to in 2022. Minnesota restructured Cousins’ contract last March, adding void years to set up a showdown before the start of the 2024 league year.

Having obviously done extraordinarily well with guarantees since his first Washington tag (2016), Cousins sought multiple additional years of locked-in money during his latest Vikes talks. During the 2023 negotiations, the Pro Bowl passer wanted guarantees through the 2025 season, Ben Goessling of the Minneapolis Star Tribune notes. The Vikings, meanwhile, were only willing to offer guaranteed money into 2024. This led to the sides breaking off talks and the restructure coming to pass.

Teams often bend for quarterbacks, and Cousins almost definitely did not ask for fully guaranteed money through 2025. Given his age and performance level, that would have been a non-starter for the Vikings. But it is notable the team did not want to be tied to any Cousins guarantees beyond his age-36 season. The Vikings now must consider paying for that age-36 season; Cousins will turn 36 in August. Both team and player have said they want to complete another contract, and the Vikings face a time crunch now.

Minnesota must re-sign Cousins before the 2024 league year begins on March 13. Otherwise, $28.5MM in dead money would accelerate onto the team’s 2024 cap sheet. A new deal would still bring some dead cap for the Vikings in 2024, per Goessling, but it would be $10.5MM rather than the concerning total that would come about if no deal was agreed upon. The legal tampering period begins March 11, giving Cousins two days to officially explore non-Minnesota options. Though, the Combine regularly gives free agents an idea of their value ahead of the tampering period.

Cousins’ Achilles tear — his first major injury as a pro — will factor into his latest Minnesota negotiations. The Vikings will not having a clear QB answer if they cannot re-up Cousins would play into the financially savvy passer’s hands, but it is unlikely the organization bends on a three-year guarantee following this Achilles malady. It will be interesting to see if the Vikings want to extend this partnership through 2025. Though, that would probably be necessary, seeing as Cousins’ two Washington franchise tags make him an unrealistic tag candidate. Minnesota resides in the strange position of being unable to tag either of its top two free agents-to-be, with Danielle Hunter‘s reworked contract including a no-tag clause for 2024.

Cousins’ affinity for the Twin Cities notwithstanding, he sounds open to exploring the market. Bill Belichick is the favorite to be named the next Falcons HC, and Cousins would be interested in playing for the legendary HC. Regardless of who their next coach is, the Falcons are looking to upgrade on Desmond Ridder.

“I’m not going to turn down an opportunity to play with a future Hall of Fame coach, but we’ll have to see where March leads,” Cousins said, via Isabel Gonzalez of CBS Sports. “It’s just a lot of unknowns right now.”

Cousins has not hit free agency since 2018. He is believed to be ahead of schedule during Achilles rehab and said he wants to extend his career into at least his late 30s. The October injury may affect his market, but with Baker Mayfield stationed as the only other free agent passer who could command a higher-end starter salary, Cousins would attract attention if he truly tested the market.

Now that their season has come to an end, the Vikings can really buckle down on extension negotiations with veteran quarterback Kirk Cousins. These aren’t new conversations, as general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah made his team’s intentions known back in November, after the 35-year-old passer tore his Achilles tendon, taking him out for the year. At the time, Cousins, too, reiterated his desire to stay in Minnesota, but now that it’s time to start negotiating, the structure of the deal will apparently be an important focus moving forward, per ESPN’s Kevin Seifert.

While some may look at Cousin’s age and question why the Vikings would want to commit to someone in their late 30s, Cousins was playing some of the best football of his career before his injury. He was averaging 291.4 passing yards per game and led the NFL in both passing yards and touchdowns when he got hurt. Through eight games, Cousins was on pace to set a number of career-highs, if he kept pace. Pair that with the blossoming of rookie wide receiver Jordan Addison as a strong WR2 to pair with star Justin Jefferson and K.J. Osborn, and the prospects for Minnesota’s season could’ve projected fairly high.

Even before the injury, things were trending in the direction of Cousins remaining in Minnesota. After a 1-4 start to the season, some thought that Cousins would become a popular trade target, with some quarterback hungry teams, like the Jets, reaching out to inquire about him. Despite the early-season struggles, the Vikings made it clear that Cousins was not available.

With that being determined, though, Minnesota is now on the clock to hash out a new deal with Cousins before the start of the 2024 league year on March 14. If the Vikings are unable to extend Cousins by then, they will be forced to confront $28.5MM in dead money, a consequence of the void-year money used to spread out the cost of his current contract over time.

Even though both sides seem amenable to a deal, the structure concern is not a small one. Cousins has become the posterchild for paradigm contracts with fully guaranteed money. Interestingly, though, Cousins told reporters that “the dollars are really not what it’s about.” His focus on structure is reportedly everything else determined in the deal. While he’ll seemingly still want a respectable number sent his way, Cousins claims that he’ll be looking at the other parts of the deal (length, incentives, bonuses, etc.) more.

Currently, Cousins ranks 15th among active quarterbacks in average annual contract value with $35MM per year. It’s really hard to determine what kind of new extension offers will be floated his way based on the above information. For once in his career, though, it seems like Cousins may be accepting non-guaranteed money in a new contract.

Kirk Cousins‘ Achilles tear brought an abrupt end to his 2023 season, and accelerated questions about his post-2023 future. The pending free agent recently spoke about his upcoming rehab and his plans to continue playing in 2024 and beyond.

“You have a lot of thoughts go through your head, and one of them was: ‘Is this the last time I play football?” the veteran quarterback said, via ESPN’s Kevin Seifert. “Now a couple weeks removed I can say, ‘No, it’s not going to be.’ I’m excited to write the next chapter and see what God wants to do with it.”

Cousins’ injury will no doubt play a role in determining his free agent value this offseason. The 35-year-old had posted strong numbers (103.8 passer rating, 18:5 touchdown-to-interception ratio) prior to being sidelined, on the other hand, so another short-term deal could be beneficial for an interested team. It remains to be seen if Minnesota will commit to a third Cousins pact, but that option remains on the table as it did before the season.

Likewise, the Michigan State product confirmed in his remarks that he wishes to continue his Vikings tenure. His six-year stint with the franchise has seen him earn three of his four career Pro Bowl nods and help lead the team to the playoffs on two occasions. No long-term successor appears to be in place at the moment, and Minnesota raised eyebrows by adding only Jaren Hall at the 2023 draft. For the time being, trade acquisition Josh Dobbs has helped keep the team’s postseason hopes alive by filling in for an injured Hall and winning his first two Vikings appearances.

Given that current run of success, Cousins added that he is keeping his attention focused on the present situation rather than his contract status. It was learned well before this year’s training camp that talks on a new agreement would be put on hold until after the 2023 campaign. Cousins’ season has already come to an end, but his future will remain a key storyline for the Vikings in the coming months.

With respect to his rehab, the former fourth-rounder noted that the particulars of his Achilles tear were such that the ‘speed bridge’ procedure Aaron Rodgers underwent was not applicable. He added, however, that he would have elected for the traditional procedure in any case knowing he would not have been able to return at any point this season. While he continues with his recovery process, it will be interesting to see if the mutual interest in exploring a deal shared by both team and player in this case will produce another agreement.

The Vikings’ season took a major, unwanted turn when Kirk Cousins suffered a torn Achilles in Week 8. That injury will shut him down for the rest of the season, the final one on his current contract.

Cousins’ future has been in the air since the start of the campaign, with it becoming clear talks on a new deal would likely not take place until after the season. Given Sunday’s development, that will surely be the case as the Vikings turn their attention to rookie Jaren Hall and trade acquisition Josh Dobbs under center to close out the campaign. Cousins’ injury is not expected to change the organization’s stance on his Minnesota tenure, however.

“Like I said when we broke off talks the first time, every option was still available to Kirk,” general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah said, via ESPN’s Kevin Seifert. “And coming back was one of the really good options we had… All options are [as] open as they were before the injury.”

Both Cousins and the Vikings have expressed a desire to continue their six-year relationship, so it comes as little surprise that both Adofo-Mensah and head coach Kevin O’Connell quickly stated their continued commitment to at least seriously exploring another new contract. The former noted that Cousins’ skillset as a pocket passer could limit the impact of a major injury like an Achilles tear. Plus, as Ian Rapoport of NFL.com observes, Cousins’ surgery was conducted by Vikings team doctor Chris Coetzee, so Minnesota will have something of an inside scoop when deciding whether to pursue a new contract prior to the opening of free agency. Rapoport confirms that a Cousins re-up is indeed on the table, with Dianna Russini of The Athletic (subscription required) adding that many in the building want Cousins back.

Adofo-Mensah added that talks with Cousins, 35, on his recovery plan have led to the “hope” he will be healthy in time for OTAs this spring. By that point, Minnesota will have needed to reach agreement on a new contract – a Cousins franchise tag would be worth an untenable $52.2MM – or found a replacement at the QB spot. Cousins’ performance in 2023 drew rave reviews from inside and outside the organization, giving the Vikings confidence in their decision not to sell off multiple players during this week’s trade deadline.

With the commitment to a ‘competitive rebuild’ thus still intact, it will be interesting to see how the upcoming Cousins negotiations shape up. His market for outside teams will no doubt take a hit given his injury, but it is clear the door is still open to another, presumably, short-term, Vikings arrangement.