The Minnesota Vikings are 3-0, but before they start dreaming about a reunion with Kirk Cousins, they should remember how that experiment ended the first time. Cousins had plenty of success in Minnesota, but he never proved he could be the missing piece to a championship team.
That lesson is worth remembering amid plenty of drama at quarterback. Kyler Murray is slated to start against the Miami Dolphins on Sunday. But after a rocky performance in Week 3, some fans are calling for Carson Wentz. But an even deeper corner of the internet has its eyes set on Kirk Cousins.
Cousins is off to a fast start for the Las Vegas Raiders, completing 67.4 percent of his passes for 661 yards, an NFL-high nine touchdowns, and three interceptions. At age 38, Cousins looks like the quarterback who starred for the Vikings, and with No. 1 overall pick Fernando Mendoza waiting in the wings, the Raiders could be interested in a trade if they regress from their projected preseason win total of 5.5.
That could make a reunion tempting. But before Vikings fans run to their closet to grab their No. 8 jerseys, they should remember what happened the last time Minnesota treated Cousins as the final piece of a contender.
Minnesota Vikings history shows why Kirk Cousins was never the final piece
Cousins arrived in Minnesota in 2018 with plenty of fanfare. The Vikings had just reached the NFC Championship Game in 2017, but they didn’t have a sustainable quarterback solution.
Teddy Bridgewater’s future was uncertain after suffering a severe leg injury in practice just before the 2016 season. Sam Bradford was dealing with a degenerative condition in his knee that kept him out for most of the 2017 season. Case Keenum took over, but his performance felt more like lightning in a bottle, paving the way for Cousins to sign the first fully guaranteed contract in NFL history at three years and $84 million.
With the No. 1 defense in the league a year ago, it felt like Cousins could be the quarterback to finally take the Vikings to the Super Bowl. But there were plenty of underlying problems. Offensive coordinator John DiFilippo never got on the same page as Mike Zimmer and was fired after a Week 14 loss to the Seattle Seahawks; the scheme put too much on Cousins’s plate with what was, at the time, a career-high 606 pass attempts.
The Vikings missed the playoffs because of these flaws, but it was just the beginning of the Cousins ' experience. Minnesota beat the New Orleans Saints in a playoff game in 2019, but Zimmer spent the entire second half trying to hide Cousins by leaning on Dalvin Cook. Cousins responded with a 43-yard pass to Adam Thielen and a walk-off touchdown, and it convinced the Vikings to give him a two-year, $66 million extension.
From there, Cousins became the Vikings’ most consistent quarterback since Fran Tarkenton, throwing for over 4,000 yards four times and throwing for 30 or more touchdowns three times in his six seasons in Minnesota. But it came with mind-numbing moments, including lining up under the guard during a 2021 game against the San Francisco 49ers and checking down to T.J. Hockenson on a 4th-and-8 play during the final drive of a playoff loss to the New York Giants in the 2022 Wild Card round.
Those moments have shown he’s not the type of player who can be the missing piece in a championship puzzle, even if a team like the Vikings needs quarterback help.
Those moments are why a reunion should come with plenty of caution, even if the Vikings wind up needing quarterback help.
Vikings should resist a Cousins reunion despite Kevin O'Connell history
That said, the Vikings have a strong case for trading for Cousins. While Cousins enjoyed success during Zimmer’s tenure, he hit another level under O’Connell, completing 67.1 percent of his passes for 6,878 yards, 47 touchdowns, and 19 interceptions in 25 games before tearing his Achilles during the 2023 season.
Vikings GM Nolan Teasley also said the fifth-round pick acquired in the trade that sent J.J. McCarthy to the New York Giants on Monday could help the Vikings improve at some point.
“It’s just we got to the point where the return made sense for us now to get an asset that, in all honesty, is gonna help us in the future, or it could help us in the season,” Teasley said during Monday’s press conference. “So, to have another asset that can help us continue to build, because this season’s roster is going to constantly evolve, and today’s another example of that.”
If Murray, Wentz, or Max Brosmer, who was elevated to the 53-man roster on Tuesday, don’t take hold of the job soon, rumors that the Vikings could make another move at quarterback are going to intensify. And if the Raiders struggle during an upcoming stretch that includes the Kansas City Chiefs, the New England Patriots, the Buffalo Bills, and the Los Angeles Rams, they may decide to move on from Cousins and hand the keys to Mendoza.
Still, a deal wouldn’t be cheap, and the Raiders might not want to send Mendoza to the same fate as McCarthy, who may have been thrown in too early after missing his entire rookie season with a torn meniscus.
Minnesota’s history with Cousins should temper the nostalgia. The Vikings would be better served by seeing what they have in Murray, Wentz, and Brosmer before paying the price for a familiar solution that already fell short once.
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