Peter King Proposes 3-Team Blockbuster Sending Cousins to 49ers and Landing Watson with Vikings

Legendary football writer, Peter King (NBC Sports), put out a new edition of his “Football Morning in America” article this morning and boy does it have Minnesota Vikings Twitter fired up. Just when we thought the Kirk Cousins to San Francisco AND/OR the Deshaun Watson in purple trade speculation was over, Pete found a way to stoke both fires at the same time…

This must be why Peter King is a legend. (See “coming and going” tables below King’s quote for easier breakdown.)

Peter King Proposal: The Vikings send quarterback Kirk Cousins to San Francisco. The Niners send Garoppolo to Houston, if, of course, he’d waive his no-trade. The Texans send Watson to Minnesota. In return: the Niners send their first-round pick in 2021 (12th overall) to Houston, and they’re out. (So San Francisco would be trading Garoppolo and a one to Houston and getting Cousins with two years left on his contract.) The Vikings would send linebacker Anthony Barr and running back Alexander Mattison plus their first-round picks in 2021 (14th overall) and 2023, and second-round picks in 2022 and 2023 in exchange for Watson. Houston’s haul: Garoppolo, two ones this year, a one in 2023, and two second-round picks.

Peter King – FMIA (NBC Sports)

Going Out

Coming In

Blockbuster King

Wow… talk about a blockbuster. This would be the biggest trade a Minnesota professional franchise has pulled since we brought Herschel Walker in from Dallas. (Just the pure grandeur of the deal, not the trade itself)

This Kirk Cousins mock trade proposal is utterly mouth watering given it includes Kirk, Watson, Garoppolo and the 49ers…. but still feels feasible. The Vikings would clear desperately needed cap room in 2021 by trading Anthony Barr and they would also allude the Kirk Cousins balloon payments for 2022 and 2023. Kyle Shanahan, on the SF side, gets a QB he believes can win him a Super Bowl and only has to give up one 1st-rounder to do it.

Meanwhile, Houston gets a haul they could have only dreamed of, when first being forced to list Deshaun Watson on the trade block. THREE 1st’s, TWO 2nd’s and two starters for both sides of the ball? I think that’s slightly better than what they reeled in for DeAndre Hopkins.

A tear for all those draft picks..

Losing all of those day-1 draft picks would bring a tear to my eye… and I’d have to imagine that’s the way Rick Spielman feels too. But this is the type of package it is going to take to land Deshaun Watson. He’s that good, that young and plays that position.

I appreciate the creativeness King took to get to his conclusion. It adds an extra 1st round pick to sweeten the deal for Houston, while making sure the pick doesn’t have to come from the same team. The other two teams get QB’s of the immediate future that they believe in. The whole thing is genius.

At the end of the day, I’ve already predicted that Kirk Cousins sticks around the Twin Cities for a few more years, but that it won’t be under his current deal. If the Minnesota Vikings decide to take the easy way out of the 2022 and 2023 balloon payments built into Kirk’s contract, however, then this is the best mock trade I’ve seen rigged up for them to do it.

Especially for a Zimmer/Spielman led team that needs to win now for job security purposes.

Eric Strack | Minnesota Sports Fan