MN Vikings Hated Rival Confirms Interest in Kirk Cousins

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Former Minnesota Vikings quarterback, Kirk Cousins at Green Bay Packers
Credit: Jeff Hanisch-Imagn Images

Outside of the Kyler Murray signing, the Minnesota Vikings offseason has been rather slow, as we enter draft month 2026. But this week, the NFL news cycle has picked up, thanks to the league gathering in Arizona for the annual owners meetings.

Earlier this week, head coach Kevin O’Connell, acting GM Rob Brzezinski and owner Mark Wilf all met with various media representatives, via scrum style press conferences and/or 1v1 interviews.

Out of those sessions, we found out that the Vikings plan on moving Blake Brandel to center full-time and that the Wilfs will intensify/expand their GM search next month, after the draft. We also got a better idea of how QB reps will be divided during upcoming summer workouts.

Meanwhile, other teams around the league are moving and grooving, too. Among them are NFC North rival Green Bay. Unlike the Vikings, who appear to have a full QB room after signing Murray and Carson Wentz last month, the Packers are on still on the hunt for a legitimate backup behind starter Jordan Love.

Green Bay Packers interested in Kirk Cousins?

And that brings us back to the NFL owners meetings this week in Phoenix, where Packers GM Brian Gutekunst confirmed earlier reports that Minnesota’s hated division rival has been kicking the tires of Kirk Cousins.

Asked specifically whether the Packers have discussed signing free-agent quarterback Kirk Cousins, whose first quarterbacks coach in the NFL was LaFleur, Gutekunst said: “We’ve discussed a lot of those options. Obviously, that’s a guy who’s got a lot of pelts on the wall in this league, so we’ve certainly discussed all those kind of things, and we’ll see where it goes.”

The Athletic

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At the time this article is being written, the Green Bay Packers have Desmond Ridder and Kyle McCord backing up Jordan Love. If they do not upgrade their depth at the position, it would leave the 2026 Packers prone to QB disaster, should Love run into injury issues.

In fact, Green Bay’s QB room currently reminds me of the recent 2023 Vikings season. And ironically enough, the last time we saw Kirk Cousins play quarterback in purple came in Green Bay vs the Packers.

Could signing Cousins to Keep Packers from 2023 MN Vikings disaster?

If you’ll remember, 2023 Kirko Chainz was one of the only bright spots of a Vikings team that dropped four of its first five games to start that season.

Despite Cousins throwing for 2,331 yards (291.4 YPG), 18 TD, 5 INT through 9 games that season, the MN Vikings could not get out of their own way, fumbling, bumbling and stumbling to a 1-4 start.

Finally, they found their footing in week six and rattled off three-straight victories to climb back to .500, largely thanks to an MVP-caliber season for Kirk Cousins, to that point.

So, the Vikings went into Green Bay week 9 with legitimate hope, especially if they could pull out a victory.

Unfortunately, with the Minnesota Vikings up 24-10 and closing in on exactly that, Cousins was sacked by Packers DT Kenny Clark for a four-yard loss. But that wasn’t the bad news.

In the process of going down, Kirk’s achilles tendon snapped in half — a gruesome injury that you could literally see through the quarterback’s sock, when you rolled back the tape in slow motion.

Ode to 2023 Minnesota Vikings QB Kirk Cousins pre-injury

Prior to that franchise-changing moment in MN Vikings history, Kirk had been absolutely balling out that afternoon vs the Packers, tossing for a cool 274 yards (74.2% CMP), 2 touchdowns and 0 interceptions.

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Unfortunately, Minnesota had nobody in waiting behind Cousins that season. When he went out, they signed Josh Dobbs and rotated between him, Nick Mullens and then 6th round rookie draft pick, Jaren Hall (BYU) — who combined to lead the Vikings to a 3-6 finish and 7-10 final record.

Had 35-year-old Kirk Cousins had his now 38-year-old self backing him up in 2023, the Vikings would have left Green Bay with a 6-5 record, feeling good about the playoffs. Instead, the lack of depth wiped out any hope of the postseason, shortly after everyone realized Dobbs wasn’t very good.

We’ll see if the Packers are willing to take that same sort of risk in 2026, or if they will pay the piper for a better backup option, a job Cousins would fit perfectly.

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