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

On ESPN’s “Get Up” this morning, Dianna Russini (NFL Insider) threw a bucket of gasoline on a couple different NFL fires… that really weren’t even burning. Mike Greenberg was so worried about where Tom Brady will eventually land, that he completely rolls over a bombshell that has others around the table, doing double-takes and exaggerated blinking exercises.

Here is @diannaESPN this morning, telling us the 49ers aren't interested in Tom Brady… because they want Kirk Cousins (?️: @GetUpESPN) #Vikings pic.twitter.com/NyGuuFAIj0

— Minnesota Sports Fan (@realmnsportsfan) March 10, 2020

“I think there is another quarterback that is going to be on the market soon that the 49ers are going to want to take a look at and he’s in Minnesota right now.

I think we all know the history between Kyle Shanahan and Kirk Cousins. This is something that’s been going on for YEARS. I’ve never seen somebody want a quarterback as much as Kyle Shanahan has [wanted Kirk Cousins].”

Diana Russini – ESPN NFL Insider | On “Get Up”

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Dianna even says, the 49ers might want to look at trades for Cousins BEFORE he comes available next offseason… which makes sense in A LOT of different directions, if you get past the shock that type of blockbuster would create around the league…

To add more fuel to this new fire, Albert Breer of Sports Illustrated actually reported some very similar things yesterday (buried in a long notes column), involving our current QB and the apparent interest surrounding the San Francisco 49ers (thanks to The Viking Age for finding this).

If the greatest player of all-time wanted to play for you, wouldn’t you have to—whether he was 30 or 50—discuss it? I think that’s where the Niners are right now. What becomes of it, I don’t know. But I do know there’s been perception in league circles that Jimmy Garoppolo is on the clock, because Kirk Cousins is a free agent in 2021. (I still believe Brady landing in San Francisco is very unlikely, but maybe a significant return for Garoppolo would change the equation.)

——–

Given some of the conjecture out there over the last week, it’ll certainly be interesting to see where the Vikings’ future with Kirk Cousins goes. If I were Cousins, and I knew that the Niners could be an option next year, I’m not sure I’d sign anything right now.

Albert Breer – Sports Illustrated NFL Insider

The buzz is clearly real, when it comes to the love Kyle Shanahan has for Kirk Cousins… and that has to be weird for Jimmy Garoppolo. These are two very plugged-in NFL insiders, who only found this news because they were digging for info on Tom Brady as it relates to the Niners..

It’s pretty weird to get a, ‘nope, we’re not interested in Tom… but we are waiting for Kirk Cousins to become available… or we might even trade for him if we don’t want to wait…’

Throw in what unloading Kirk Cousins would do for the Vikings’ desperate quest for salary cap relief… A blockbuster like this to SF would open up a million possibilities.

Who would be our quarterback for 2020, if we still want to contend for a Super Bowl??? Oh, I don’t know……

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Eric Strack | Minnesota Sports Fan

On Friday’s episode of #MSFDaily – LIVE, Eric and Seth are joined by Sanka again because we are previewing Vikings vs 49ers in the divisional round of the NFC Playoffs on Saturday!

SPOILER: Don’t always trust national media.

ALSO: Sanka (a Brit) updates us on #Megxit latest to start show

Let’s SKOL!

| 49ers 27, Vikings 23 — Cody Benjamin, CBS Sports |

Alright alright alright… let me admit something before I let loose on everyone right when you’re coming to life on the biggest of Purple Fridays:

I woke up this morning at about 3 AM, finished last night’s Wild vs Calgary postgame graphic for Instagram (spoiler: they lost), and hit the Vikings @ 49ers “deep dive” for the first time, with a full pot of coffee by my side.

All week long I’ve watched from afar, as everyone (especially national reporters and personalities) got lost in Jimmy Garoppolo’s beautiful eyes, as they gazed with him into a future that lays just over 24 hours ahead of us now, and holds the NFC Divisional Round games of the National Football League Playoffs in its hands…

He’s a gorgeous human being. It’s difficult to deny that, even as a heterosexual male like myself (we think). But for those few who can peer through Jimmy’s baby blues and see his (many) deficiencies, it’s still nearly impossible to get around Kyle Shanahan’s — massive, huge, incredible, advanced, big, veiny, futuristic, but still retro — football brain. With all of those adjectives, you can clearly pick up on how intelligent he really is..

If you read or listen to anyone who knows anything, it sure seems like Shanahan Jr’s genius is ALWAYS showing… I mean the guy’s only 40 and he’s been an offensive coordinator or head coach in the league forever (11 years exactly), so numbers should back that up, right?

Well, with all of the salivating mouths dropping around the nation for Shanahan and Garoppolo, I figured I had to be misremembering recent history, because I couldn’t recall Kyle or Jimmy ever heading a team on a playoff run… or playoff victory…. or playoff game, for that matter. I also can’t remember either guy reaching elite level as a HC or QB until this year, either…

I talked about this very thought last night on MN Sports Fan Daily – LIVE, before my research was done this morning.

But, I had to be wrong because, even as a #1 seed, coaches and QB’s without past playoff experience are NEVER handed victories like the Niners have been for this entire week…. especially QB’s and HC’s who are young and unproven.

So, I took a closer look…

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Kyle Shanahan – Career Overview (via pro-football-reference.com)

Jimmy Garoppolo – 2019 Breakdown + Career Overview (via pro-football-reference.com)

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Really, I just want to go through GIPHY.com and run an endless thread of gifs to finish this blog.

How stupid is this? Kyle Shanahan has had 3 pretty good seasons and has been promoted each time, even though everything in-between is average or bad. Jimmy G hasn’t proven anything since being traded to the Niners and this season… he’s been… ok… He’s had a few games that stick out positively (green highlights above) but he’s also had some really shitty games too (red above). The San Francisco 49ers have one really good season (a season in which they were 3-2 in their last 5 games and 5-3 in their last 8) and now we are ready to dub them the NFC Champions? Is this the same league where NOBODY could trust Kirk Cousins because he’s never done anything in a big game, until last week?

Is this the same league that continually wipes out playoff newcomers, no matter how good their regular seasons were? Does nobody remember Lamar Jackson’s first year in this tournament, when the LA Chargers suddenly knew how to play defense, shutting down the budding star and holding him under 50% passing and an early 2018 exit?

Even the great Patrick Mahomes struggled in the playoffs last year, throwing for just 3 touchdowns in two games and 51% completion in the second round, when they lost to the Patriots.

Not enough proof? Remember Tom Brady…. he’s had some playoff success, right? Not much in his first two years… In Tom’s first 5 postseason games (’01, ’03 — both Super Bowl winners) he threw for 3 touchdowns, 2 interceptions, and never posted a QB Rating over 87.0. It wasn’t until his 6th postseason game (’03’ Super Bowl), that he established what would become the greatest postseason career of all-time.

But Jimmy G is just going to come out in his first postseason appearance (not riding the bench behind Brady), overcome everything the prior greats couldn’t, and lead his team (and young head coach) over a postseason veteran Vikings defense? GTFO.

You don’t just jump into the playoff scene and start beating teams, who have already been there and done that. The 49ers had a great season… but that’s where this will all end for them. Mike Zimmer and Co. are about to punch these Bay Area pussies in the mouth and I’d be surprised to see any counterpunches coming back. In fact, after my deep dive this morning, I’m confident in saying, the Vikings are a lock in this game and will win by at least 10 points.

Why? Because if history is tells us anything, it’s certainly NOT that the 49ers will win tomorrow. No, history tells us that Mike Zimmer is on the precipice of reaching the ultimate prize. In his 6th season as a head coach, with 4 playoff games under his belt through 3 different seasons (and a SB as a DC); history tells us that Mike Zimmer and his team of grizzly postseason veterans, are much more likely to bust through to glory this season, than the postseason greenhorn Niners are to even win a game. The Vikings have seen the lowest of postseason lows (2017 wide-left) and the highest of postseason highs (Minneapolis Miracle). Most of the these Niners have never seen the field for a playoff down, especially on offense.. 

30-10 is my final prediction, and the Vikings advance to the NFC Championship for the 2nd time in 3 years.

It’s time to show these young bucks where their place is, inside of the postseason NFC.

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Eric Strack | Minnesota Sports Fan