According to a recent report, the Minnesota Vikings giving an extension to the quarterback is something that might not happen until after the 2020 NFL Draft.
In his second year with the Minnesota Vikings, life was much more enjoyable for Kirk Cousins. The veteran quarterback rebounded from a disappointing 2018 campaign to help lead the Vikings back to the playoffs last season.
Now with one year remaining on his current deal, many are expecting Cousins to be looking for a contract extension from Minnesota this offseason.
Some have been thinking the Vikings might try to get the quarterback to agree to an extension before free agency kicks off on March 18. With Minnesota only having around $1 million in cap space right now, they would likely be able to free up a bunch more money by giving Cousins a new deal.
However, an extension for the veteran quarterback might not be coming before free agency starts. According to ESPN’s Dan Graziano and Jeremy Fowler on Monday, the Vikings will likely give Cousins a new contract this offseason, but a deal might not get done until after this year’s NFL Draft in April.
This is a bit surprising considering Minnesota is currently desperate for cash and they have plenty of needs to fill this offseason. Even if extending Cousins freed up an extra $5 million this year, it would still help the Vikings as they head into free agency.
Minnesota must have some other moves up their sleeve to create some cap space during the next few weeks. The Vikings can free up at least $16 million if they end up releasing Xavier Rhodes and either Riley Reiff or Linval Joseph this offseason.
Letting go of Rhodes this year seems pretty much inevitable and renegotiating Reiff and Joseph’s deals to lower their 2020 cap hits seems like something that is more probable than Minnesota releasing them.
The Vikings have a number of other routes they can take to create more spending money before free agency, especially when they have a salary cap guru in Rob Brzezinski leading the way.
Free agency begins in less than three weeks, so if Minnesota is going to be making any significant moves, they will be happening sooner than later.