Vikings Rumors: Minnesota was trying to trade Kirk Cousins at the Combine

A potentially huge Minnesota Vikings rumor about the team attempting to trade Kirk Cousins to the San Francisco 49ers was revealed recently.

During the last few offseasons, there have been plenty of Minnesota Vikings rumors that have involved both quarterback Kirk Cousins and the San Francisco 49ers.

These rumors do not appear to be close to vanishing anytime soon, especially with the 49ers‘ current uncertainty about who will end up as their starting Week 1 signal-caller for the 2023 season.

The latest rumor comes from ProFootballTalk’s Mike Florio. According to Florio, he heard that during this year’s NFL Scouting Combine, “there was some chatter, there was some noise, among people within the broader league structure, not media, but people within the league about Cousins being traded to the 49ers. That was a hot topic at one point in Indianapolis [at the Combine].”

Vikings Rumors: Could a Kirk Cousins trade to the San Francisco 49ers still happen?

Florio went on to mention that since this “chatter” took place at the Combine, the Vikings ended up executing a cap conversion to Cousins’ current contract, and the team would be left with a cap hit of $38 million for the quarterback if they were to trade him any time soon.

However, if Minnesota was able to execute a trade involving Cousins after June 1st, the team would actually create $10 million in cap space, and be left with a dead cap amount of just $10.25 million for 2023.

Of course, Cousins still has a no-trade clause in his contract, so he would have to approve the transaction in order for it to be completed. But, given his past relationship with San Francisco head coach Kyle Shanahan, the 49ers are likely one of the few teams that the quarterback would actually be fine with getting dealt to.

So if the Vikings are still thinking about trying to trade Cousins after the upcoming 2023 NFL Draft, then any sort of deal likely won’t be completed until after June 1st.