Stop freaking out about Kirk Cousins’ potential contract rumors

People seem to be going nuts over the amount of money the Minnesota Vikings could possibly spend to land the free-agent quarterback this year.

Many have heard the rumors regarding the potentially massive amount of money it may take for an NFL team to sign Kirk Cousins this offseason. Everything from Cousins wanting a yearly salary of $30 million to him looking for a deal that will come with $90 million guaranteed.

If the Minnesota Vikings are going to sign Cousins this offseason, it won’t be cheap. But it likely won’t be done with a franchise-crippling deal that most people are worried about.

First off, $90 million guaranteed does not necessarily mean $90 million guaranteed. Sounds simple enough, but the initial numbers that get thrown out there by reporters and agents tend to be misleading more often then not.

Take a look at the five-year, $135 million contract extension Matthew Stafford and the Detroit Lions agreed to last August.

First reports of the extension had the Lions quarterback getting $92 million guaranteed. But when examined closer, the amount of fully guaranteed money Stafford received after signing the deal is actually closer to $60 million (still an NFL record).

The fully guaranteed money the quarterback gets from the extension includes his $50 million signing bonus, his 2017 base salary ($1 million), and his 2018 base salary ($9.5 million).

If he is on Detroit’s roster on March 16 of this year, his 2019 base salary ($13.5 million) and 2019 roster bonus ($5.5 million) becomes fully guaranteed. Stafford also gets another $6 million roster bonus in 2020 if he is still a member of the Lions on the fifth day of the new league year in 2019.

After 2020, none of the money is guaranteed in the remaining two years of the quarterback’s contract even if he suffers a career-ending injury.

That’s $25 million that for some reason gets classified in the same category as the $60.5 million that was fully guaranteed when the quarterback signed the extension. Just a bit misleading.

This type of misinformation occurs with pretty much every big contract signed in the NFL these days.

The five-year, $137.5 million contract extension the San Francisco 49ers signed quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo to in February was announced with $74.1 of that being guaranteed. But in reality, only $48.7 million of Garoppolo’s deal is fully guaranteed (signing bonus, 2018 base salary, and $7.5 million of 2019 base salary).

Minnesota Vikings

Oakland Raiders quarterback Derek Carr signed a five-year, $125 million extension with the team last June and that was reported to include $70.2 million guaranteed when really only $40 million was fully guaranteed at signing.

So when rumors are thrown out there saying Cousins is looking for $90 million guaranteed, this likely is not referring to the amount that would be fully guaranteed in a prospective contract.

Stafford’s $60.5 million is the most fully guaranteed money an NFL player has ever been given and people believe that Cousins is going to get almost $30 million more than that?

Now, the Vikings could offer the free-agent quarterback a contract that has the ability for him to earn around $90 million guaranteed over the course of the entire deal. But more likely than not, the amount of fully guaranteed money Minnesota would offer to Cousins would be closer to what Stafford just got from Detroit (and possibly even less).

Next: Kirk Cousins could be what the Vikings need

So take a few deep breaths and realize that the rumored numbers for a potential Kirk Cousins contract are more a reflection of the potential total amount of money he could earn from a contract. Emphasis on the word “potential”.