Vikings Have Not Closed Door on Kirk Cousins Extension

The Minnesota Vikings did not select a quarterback in Thursday’s first round of the NFL Draft. Will Levis (Kentucky) and Hendon Hooker (Tennessee) are somehow still on the board and the Vikings have been linked to both QBs leading up to the draft.

But after they stayed put last night, taking Jordan Addison with pick 23, Kwesi Adofo-Mensah has only four picks remaining through the next six rounds. The Vikings traded their 2nd round selection to the Lions for TJ Hockenson so their next pick isn’t until the end of the 3rd round (pick 87).

Adofo-Mensah said the “highest probability” to hit on a QB is in top 15-20. “You’ve got to bet on your ability, if you take one outside of those, to identify and develop. There’s plenty of other avenues. We have an incredibly good one right now. We’ll see what happens after that”

— Ben Goessling (@BenGoessling) April 28, 2023

No QB of the future for Vikings

Minnesota’s pick-starved reality makes it highly unlikely they’ll find a way to land either Levis or Hooker, given that both quarterbacks are expected to be off the board early on Friday evening. Sure, they will probably still grab a QB at some point tonight or on Saturday, but it’s now extremely unlikely the Vikings will draft their quarterback of the future this weekend.

What does that mean for Kirk Cousins? Well, you’d think that the Vikings might be more open to a contract extension with their current starter, right? According to Ben Goessling (Star Tribune), the answer to that question is, yes.

A trade down is certainly a possibility, and they haven’t closed the door on a deal for Cousins. https://t.co/qDCW8funOE

— Ben Goessling (@BenGoessling) April 28, 2023

Last night, about two hours before the Vikings drafted Addison at 23, the veteran Star Tribune beat writer threw an interesting tweet out onto the social media/internet world. The first sentence can be ignored, since we now know what happened a couple of hours later.

But the last part, that the Vikings “haven’t closed the door on a deal for Cousins”, is certainly worth noting. Minnesota, in all likelihood, won’t have an early-round QB investment in place to succeed Kirk entering next offseason, when he’d be due to hit free agency.

Kirk Cousins extension makes a lot of sense now.

In the past, Cousins’ extensions have all come in mid-March, before the draft. But this offseason is a bit more unique given how interested and active the Vikings were on the top QBs in this year’s draft class and Kirk’s escalating age.

But now that the draft is upon us and picking a future QB seems very unlikely, it’s almost too obvious that the Vikings and Kirk Cousins would revisit extension talks, especially if Kirk is still willing to sign something as reasonable as what was reported earlier this offseason.

Eric Strack | Minnesota Sports Fan