Vikings Picked Wrong Offseason for QB Stability

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The Minnesota Vikings waited a long time for someone like Kirk Cousins. He’s far and away their best QB in a decade, easily exceeding the play of any QB to dawn the horned purple helmet since HOF’er Brett Favre wore purple and gold in 2009-10.

You could even argue that Cousins is the best QB to play for Minnesota since Fran Tarkenton, if you factor in the ‘Randy Moss effect’ that Culpepper benefitted from.


Vikings QBGmsAttCmp %YdsTDINT
F. Tarkenton1774,56957.733,098239194
T. Kramer1283,64855.124,775159157
D. Culpepper812,60764.420,16213586
K. Cousins47156669.012,1669129
pro-football-reference.com

Greener grass?

Yet… fans across Vikings nation are spending the Super Bowl season window shopping quarterbacks. Why? There are a plethora expected to be available when the NFL calendar flips to a new year on March 17.

Deshaun Watson officially requested a trade from the Houston Texans this morning, but he’s only the tip of the iceberg. This crop of available offseason QB’s is by far the best in NFL history.




I would take the top four QB’s on this list over Kirk Cousins. Now, Aaron Rodgers won’t come available and Deshaun Watson will reportedly cost THREE 1st-round picks in a trade. Still, even Matt Stafford and Dak Prescott could be argued as better quarterbacks than Kirk.

But if you consider the price tags and the teams you could afford to build around each one, this really becomes an interesting conversation. Hell, I know plenty of Vikings fans who would take Teddy Bridgewater for the cost savings and butterflies alone.

Alas… the Vikings won’t make move

Could the Vikings technically grab one of these QB’s? Yes, trade options are available if they really wanted to ditch Kirk that badly. But, it would be messy and finding the perfect partner seems unlikely.

Plus, as I made apparent to start off this blog, Kirk Cousins is a really good quarterback and one of the best in Vikings history. He’s certainly capable of winning a Super Bowl with a good offensive line and defense to help him out. Dumping him would go against everything the organization has done and said up to this point, too.

But unlike most franchise QB’s, Cousins hasn’t captured the hearts of the Minnesota Vikings fanbase. And I’d be willing to bet all of my shorted stocks that Kirk Cousins wouldn’t have gotten his extension before last season, had Spielman seen the future of availabe QB’s in 2021.

Eric Strack | Minnesota Sports Fan

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