Kirk Cousins Leaves Door Open for Vikings Return
NFL free agency is still a month out, but that hasn’t stopped league insiders from attaching the Minnesota Vikings to multiple quarterbacks, with a varying degree of upside and availability.
Early Friday, a report out of ESPN made it very clear that “all bets are off” when it comes to the Minnesota Vikings’ QB situation. If their third-year QB is going to start under center in 2026, he will have to earn it.
We don’t know yet who JJ McCarthy will have to beat out in camp, but there are a plethora of options, depending on how big the Vikings want to swing.
Believe it or not, one guy who keeps rising to the top of every list of QB possibilities in Minnesota is the one and only Kirk Cousins, who wore purple from 2018-2023.
And now, one of the greatest quarterbacks in Vikings history is scheduled to be released by the Falcons in March, following two disappointing seasons in Atlanta, where Cousins struggled to return to the QB he was for most of his time as a Viking.
Kirk’s issues as a Falcon were in large part due to his limited mobility. A season-ending achilles tear with the Vikings in 2023 turned No. 8 from a classic pocket quarterback in Minnesota to a stereotypical sitting duck in Atlanta.
Kirk Cousins back to the Minnesota Vikings?
But now fully healthy, a 37-year-old Kirk Cousins is one of the few competent QBs shopping for a new employer. And conveniently, it comes at the exact same time his old team suddenly desperate for quarterback help.
That why this week, on media row in San Francisco, ProFootballTalk’s Mike Florio (a Vikings fan) asked Cousins if a return to Minnesota might be in the works. Kirk didn’t show his cards, but he certainly didn’t rule out a reunion with the Vikings’ either.
Cousins: “I’m going to win him (Florio) over someday. I gotta play until I win him over. Just keep coming back.”
Florio: “You have! No, you have. I know it’s a good bit, but you have, man. I want you to go back to Minnesota. You’re not hearing what I’m saying, go back to Minnesota.”
Cousins: “We’ll see, we’ll see.”
ProFootballTalk (NBC Sports)
Immediately after he signed with the Falcons, they turned around and drafted his replacement, Michael Penix. Before his first season in Atlanta ended, Kirk Cousins was benched in favor of Penix, and he didn’t get his job back until week 11, 2025, after his successor suffered a season-ending injury.
During his time in Atlanta, Kirk completed 65% of his passes for 5,229 yards, 28 touchdowns and 21 interceptions, a far cry from his two seasons under Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell — 67.1% | 6,878 yards | 47 TD | 19 INT.
Cousins is a top option… if Vikings can’t land Joe Burrow
Sure, we’ve seen Minnesota floated as a possible landing spot for Joe Burrow, should the Cincinnati Bengals prove stupid enough to trade him. Of course, acquiring a high-quality quarterback like that would either shove JJ out the door or to the bench.
Realistically, Joe Burrow is a pipedream. More than likely — even if the Vikings really are determined to go big game QB hunting — they’ll have to settle on an non-MVP caliber quarterback with a lot more to prove than just his ability to stay healthy.
And when we start stacking up the more likely options available to Minnesota this offseason — like Niners backup Mac Jones, former third round pick Malik Willis, 42-year-old Aaron Rodgers and Daniel Jones off a knee injury — a Kirk Cousins reunion suddenly sounds pretty darn good.
But as our former (possibly future) QB said, “we’ll see, we’ll see.”
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