Why the Vikings (probably) won’t be trading for Deshaun Watson

At this point, don’t expect Deshaun Watson to land with the Minnesota Vikings this year.

During the 2020 campaign, Minnesota Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins threw for more than 4,200 yards for the third time in his career while also setting a new career-high for touchdown passes in a season (35) and finishing with a passer rating over 105.0 for the second year in a row.

Despite his success in 2020, some would still like the Vikings to figure out a way to move on from Cousins this offseason. These same people would then like Minnesota to do whatever they can to acquire Deshaun Watson in a trade with the Houston Texans.

While these are fun offseason scenarios for some to dream about, they’re not even close to being realistic.

The Vikings would first have to find someone willing to trade for Cousins since releasing him would cost the team $41 million. A potential suitor would need to have interest in the Minnesota quarterback, have enough cap space to afford his contract, and be able to provide the Vikings with a fair amount of compensation in return.

All of these factors combined together makes it pretty unlikely that Minnesota will be trading Cousins this year. This is just one of the multiple reasons why Watson probably won’t be suiting up for the Vikings when they hit the field for the 2021 season.