3 reasons why the trade value of Kirk Cousins has never been higher

With a lot of uncertainty at QB around the league, Kirk Cousins finds himself immensely valuable for the Minnesota Vikings.

The Minnesota Vikings have already undergone substantial changes in 2022, bringing in Kwesi Adofo-Mensah and Kevin O’Connell as their newest general manager and head coach, respectively. Next on the laundry list of offseason issues to tackle for Minnesota is the quarterback position. Will Kirk Cousins be the next Vikings player to move on?

There has been heavy chatter surrounding his name recently, most recently about the Carolina Panthers reportedly calling Minnesota about Cousins. This will certainly not be the last of these types of rumors.

Cousins signed with the Vikings in 2018 and has posted a 33-29-1 record since he arrived. He brought Minnesota to one wild-card berth in 2019 and an exhilarating playoff win in New Orleans, but it has been all disappointment outside of that.

With the Vikings set up to hit the reset button, moving on from Cousins and his current $45 million cap hit seems logical. Cousins is an extremely polarizing player, with fans coming out of the woodwork to defend his every move, and just as many jumping at every opportunity to critique him.

There will be some people who believe Cousins is good enough to garner a return the Detroit Lions got for Matthew Stafford last year at this time (he is not). On the complete opposite side are those such as former Vikings quarterback Sage Rosenfels, who believes it will take Minnesota adding additional draft capital in a trade to move on from Cousins (it will not).

The truth about Cousins’ trade value lies somewhere in the middle. However, due to some of the other variables that will play out this offseason, his trade value is higher than some might think. Let’s take a look at some of the reasons why.