Extending Kirk Cousins viewed as one of the worst decisions of 2020

Among everything that has gone on during the 2020 offseason, the decision by the Minnesota Vikings to extend Kirk Cousins is being viewed as one of the worst.

When the 2020 offseason began, the Minnesota Vikings knew they had to figure out ways to create more cap space in order to fill some of the holes on their roster. One of the routes the Vikings took to free up some spending money was to give an extension to Kirk Cousins.

Minnesota extended Cousins’ deal by two more years, keeping him under contract with the team until 2023.

The Vikings have been satisfied with him as their starting quarterback and they clearly view him as their best option under center for the next few seasons. In the end, it wasn’t a very difficult decision for Minnesota to make since it also created some much-needed cap room.

Not everyone was a fan of the Vikings extending Cousins this year though (insert shocked face). Bleacher Report’s Alex Ballentine recently ranked the worst decisions made this offseason around the NFL and Minnesota giving their quarterback a two-year, $66 million extension came in at No. 6 on the list.

Ballentine believes that Cousins isn’t deserving of such a large sum of cash because he doesn’t have as much of an impact on his team’s offense like some of the league’s other top quarterbacks including Lamar Jackson, Patrick Mahomes, and Drew Brees.

This seems like a bit of stretch since Cousins was a very important part of the Vikings’ offense last season. Just go back and watch Minnesota’s playoff win over the New Orleans Saints and try to convince someone that the quarterback had nothing to do with that victory.

Also, what else were the Vikings going to do? For once during Mike Zimmer’s tenure as the team’s head coach, Minnesota was trying to maintain some stability under center and keeping Cousins around was a better option than pretty much everything else the team had to choose from this offseason.

Ballentine ranked the Cousins extension as a worse offseason decision than the Chicago Bears giving tight end Jimmy Graham a contract that will pay him an average of $8 million per year.

Graham has caught a total of five touchdowns in his last two seasons, so obviously his deal with the Bears wasn’t as bad as the Vikings extending a quarterback who posted a 107.4 rating in 2019. Not quite.