Minnesota Sports Forum

Agreed. I think need to draft a left guard in the first 3 rounds and hope he can start. This draft has some solid options. We need someone with an anchor against power that still is nimble. I am a fan of Solomon Kindley from Georgia. Mock's have him available in the third round, but I just don't see it. Cesar Ruiz would be a good option too. He is a true junior that played center for Michigan, but at 6'4" 320lbs and mobile he could play guard. Netane Muti likely will drop, but will he ever stay healthy.

Resigning Cousins article.
https://www.espn.com/blog/minnesota-vikings/post/_/id/29550/what-a-new-deal-for-kirk-cousins-would-mean-to-the-vikings

I could go either way here. The only thing that kind of sucks is we would likely be letting Cousins walk away for nothing. If I am Zimmer and Speilman I don't sign him unless we get a reasonable home town discount. 30M a year would be my cap. I would want to remove the no-trade clause and get a list of 10 teams we can't trade him too. I wonder if the Lions would be on that list. Drafting a QB in the first 3 rounds might be a good thing for Zimmer and Speilman since they would have a bridge plan for the future that they could pitch to the Wolf's to keep them around.

bleedspeed177 wrote:Resigning Cousins article.
https://www.espn.com/blog/minnesota-vikings/post/_/id/29550/what-a-new-deal-for-kirk-cousins-would-mean-to-the-vikings

I could go either way here. The only thing that kind of sucks is we would likely be letting Cousins walk away for nothing. If I am Zimmer and Speilman I don't sign him unless we get a reasonable home town discount. 30M a year would be my cap. I would want to remove the no-trade clause and get a list of 10 teams we can't trade him too. I wonder if the Lions would be on that list. Drafting a QB in the first 3 rounds might be a good thing for Zimmer and Speilman since they would have a bridge plan for the future that they could pitch to the Wolf's to keep them around.

If Cousins did leave they would get a nice comp pick for him so that wouldn't be nothing...and not paying him opens up other options. You never know who/what could be available...Heck Cousins kinda dropped into their lap a couple off seasons ago.

After reading the article (Some of these I have been wonder for quite a while) the questions in my mind are:

Is Cousins really going to try and maximize how much he makes? Will he be willing to take a nice deal and therefore help the team not be nailed to the wall in terms of building the rest of the team out?

What does a nice deal look like? 30 million a year? That honestly SOUNDS steep but is that the new 20 something million starting QBs got not that long ago? Lol with new revenue coming in via gambling will the cap really jump in a year or 2 making 30 million a year look kinda decent? 4 years 120 million...I'm a Cousins guy but if that's fully guaranteed...man I don't think I can do that unless there is some calculated future numbers that say it's a smarter move.

How does Cousins feel about the Vikings? How do the Vikings feel about him? It's pretty fascinating to think about. Like the author of the article said it seems likely we will hear something soon but who knows. Sometimes the Vikings keep things pretty quite and Cousins I don't think is looking for spotlight etc unless the Vikings are really playing hardball with him.

Honestly I'm glad I'm not having to make this decision. In theory getting a younger QB makes a lot of sense BUT that guy might suck. You also have Cousins sorta just playing for his contract and maybe that would be good but it also might not exactly be great for the team in the coming season. The Vikings are ALWAYS interesting to follow there is no debate about that.

monsterpile wrote:

bleedspeed177 wrote:Resigning Cousins article.
https://www.espn.com/blog/minnesota-vikings/post/_/id/29550/what-a-new-deal-for-kirk-cousins-would-mean-to-the-vikings

I could go either way here. The only thing that kind of sucks is we would likely be letting Cousins walk away for nothing. If I am Zimmer and Speilman I don't sign him unless we get a reasonable home town discount. 30M a year would be my cap. I would want to remove the no-trade clause and get a list of 10 teams we can't trade him too. I wonder if the Lions would be on that list. Drafting a QB in the first 3 rounds might be a good thing for Zimmer and Speilman since they would have a bridge plan for the future that they could pitch to the Wolf's to keep them around.

If Cousins did leave they would get a nice comp pick for him so that wouldn't be nothing...and not paying him opens up other options. You never know who/what could be available...Heck Cousins kinda dropped into their lap a couple off seasons ago.

After reading the article (Some of these I have been wonder for quite a while) the questions in my mind are:

Is Cousins really going to try and maximize how much he makes? Will he be willing to take a nice deal and therefore help the team not be nailed to the wall in terms of building the rest of the team out?

What does a nice deal look like? 30 million a year? That honestly SOUNDS steep but is that the new 20 something million starting QBs got not that long ago? Lol with new revenue coming in via gambling will the cap really jump in a year or 2 making 30 million a year look kinda decent? 4 years 120 million...I'm a Cousins guy but if that's fully guaranteed...man I don't think I can do that unless there is some calculated future numbers that say it's a smarter move.

How does Cousins feel about the Vikings? How do the Vikings feel about him? It's pretty fascinating to think about. Like the author of the article said it seems likely we will hear something soon but who knows. Sometimes the Vikings keep things pretty quite and Cousins I don't think is looking for spotlight etc unless the Vikings are really playing hardball with him.

Honestly I'm glad I'm not having to make this decision. In theory getting a younger QB makes a lot of sense BUT that guy might suck. You also have Cousins sorta just playing for his contract and maybe that would be good but it also might not exactly be great for the team in the coming season. The Vikings are ALWAYS interesting to follow there is no debate about that.

I would just take the 30 million in cap space and move on. There will always be questions about his play in big games until he consistently proves the doubters wrong which he hasn't since he got here. You can't be that kind of QB and be the highest paid guy on the team. That's why we see chemistry issues with Thielen and Diggs with Cousins. He's just not good enough when it counts for that price tag. We'd honestly be better off blowing it up than extend him and keep dealing with the same issues.

khans2k5 wrote:

monsterpile wrote:

bleedspeed177 wrote:Resigning Cousins article.
https://www.espn.com/blog/minnesota-vikings/post/_/id/29550/what-a-new-deal-for-kirk-cousins-would-mean-to-the-vikings

I could go either way here. The only thing that kind of sucks is we would likely be letting Cousins walk away for nothing. If I am Zimmer and Speilman I don't sign him unless we get a reasonable home town discount. 30M a year would be my cap. I would want to remove the no-trade clause and get a list of 10 teams we can't trade him too. I wonder if the Lions would be on that list. Drafting a QB in the first 3 rounds might be a good thing for Zimmer and Speilman since they would have a bridge plan for the future that they could pitch to the Wolf's to keep them around.

If Cousins did leave they would get a nice comp pick for him so that wouldn't be nothing...and not paying him opens up other options. You never know who/what could be available...Heck Cousins kinda dropped into their lap a couple off seasons ago.

After reading the article (Some of these I have been wonder for quite a while) the questions in my mind are:

Is Cousins really going to try and maximize how much he makes? Will he be willing to take a nice deal and therefore help the team not be nailed to the wall in terms of building the rest of the team out?

What does a nice deal look like? 30 million a year? That honestly SOUNDS steep but is that the new 20 something million starting QBs got not that long ago? Lol with new revenue coming in via gambling will the cap really jump in a year or 2 making 30 million a year look kinda decent? 4 years 120 million...I'm a Cousins guy but if that's fully guaranteed...man I don't think I can do that unless there is some calculated future numbers that say it's a smarter move.

How does Cousins feel about the Vikings? How do the Vikings feel about him? It's pretty fascinating to think about. Like the author of the article said it seems likely we will hear something soon but who knows. Sometimes the Vikings keep things pretty quite and Cousins I don't think is looking for spotlight etc unless the Vikings are really playing hardball with him.

Honestly I'm glad I'm not having to make this decision. In theory getting a younger QB makes a lot of sense BUT that guy might suck. You also have Cousins sorta just playing for his contract and maybe that would be good but it also might not exactly be great for the team in the coming season. The Vikings are ALWAYS interesting to follow there is no debate about that.

I would just take the 30 million in cap space and move on. There will always be questions about his play in big games until he consistently proves the doubters wrong which he hasn't since he got here. You can't be that kind of QB and be the highest paid guy on the team. That's why we see chemistry issues with Thielen and Diggs with Cousins. He's just not good enough when it counts for that price tag. We'd honestly be better off blowing it up than extend him and keep dealing with the same issues.

That's a fair take. What's the highest number you would go for Cousins?

monsterpile wrote:

khans2k5 wrote:

monsterpile wrote:

bleedspeed177 wrote:Resigning Cousins article.
https://www.espn.com/blog/minnesota-vikings/post/_/id/29550/what-a-new-deal-for-kirk-cousins-would-mean-to-the-vikings

I could go either way here. The only thing that kind of sucks is we would likely be letting Cousins walk away for nothing. If I am Zimmer and Speilman I don't sign him unless we get a reasonable home town discount. 30M a year would be my cap. I would want to remove the no-trade clause and get a list of 10 teams we can't trade him too. I wonder if the Lions would be on that list. Drafting a QB in the first 3 rounds might be a good thing for Zimmer and Speilman since they would have a bridge plan for the future that they could pitch to the Wolf's to keep them around.

If Cousins did leave they would get a nice comp pick for him so that wouldn't be nothing...and not paying him opens up other options. You never know who/what could be available...Heck Cousins kinda dropped into their lap a couple off seasons ago.

After reading the article (Some of these I have been wonder for quite a while) the questions in my mind are:

Is Cousins really going to try and maximize how much he makes? Will he be willing to take a nice deal and therefore help the team not be nailed to the wall in terms of building the rest of the team out?

What does a nice deal look like? 30 million a year? That honestly SOUNDS steep but is that the new 20 something million starting QBs got not that long ago? Lol with new revenue coming in via gambling will the cap really jump in a year or 2 making 30 million a year look kinda decent? 4 years 120 million...I'm a Cousins guy but if that's fully guaranteed...man I don't think I can do that unless there is some calculated future numbers that say it's a smarter move.

How does Cousins feel about the Vikings? How do the Vikings feel about him? It's pretty fascinating to think about. Like the author of the article said it seems likely we will hear something soon but who knows. Sometimes the Vikings keep things pretty quite and Cousins I don't think is looking for spotlight etc unless the Vikings are really playing hardball with him.

Honestly I'm glad I'm not having to make this decision. In theory getting a younger QB makes a lot of sense BUT that guy might suck. You also have Cousins sorta just playing for his contract and maybe that would be good but it also might not exactly be great for the team in the coming season. The Vikings are ALWAYS interesting to follow there is no debate about that.

I would just take the 30 million in cap space and move on. There will always be questions about his play in big games until he consistently proves the doubters wrong which he hasn't since he got here. You can't be that kind of QB and be the highest paid guy on the team. That's why we see chemistry issues with Thielen and Diggs with Cousins. He's just not good enough when it counts for that price tag. We'd honestly be better off blowing it up than extend him and keep dealing with the same issues.

That's a fair take. What's the highest number you would go for Cousins?

It's not realistic, but I'd need him to drop to 20 million so I can go add a 10 million dollar player to this line to better make it work. I'm still not sure that would be enough though. There's just so much evidence that he just doesn't have it in the important game on a consistent basis. Down in the 4th with no time to run are you confident he can lead the comeback victory? I'm not. He's just wound too tight and looks stressed out all the time. I don't have much confidence in him unless the run game is going and he's not having to win the game for us.

khans2k5 wrote:

monsterpile wrote:

khans2k5 wrote:

monsterpile wrote:

bleedspeed177 wrote:Resigning Cousins article.
https://www.espn.com/blog/minnesota-vikings/post/_/id/29550/what-a-new-deal-for-kirk-cousins-would-mean-to-the-vikings

I could go either way here. The only thing that kind of sucks is we would likely be letting Cousins walk away for nothing. If I am Zimmer and Speilman I don't sign him unless we get a reasonable home town discount. 30M a year would be my cap. I would want to remove the no-trade clause and get a list of 10 teams we can't trade him too. I wonder if the Lions would be on that list. Drafting a QB in the first 3 rounds might be a good thing for Zimmer and Speilman since they would have a bridge plan for the future that they could pitch to the Wolf's to keep them around.

If Cousins did leave they would get a nice comp pick for him so that wouldn't be nothing...and not paying him opens up other options. You never know who/what could be available...Heck Cousins kinda dropped into their lap a couple off seasons ago.

After reading the article (Some of these I have been wonder for quite a while) the questions in my mind are:

Is Cousins really going to try and maximize how much he makes? Will he be willing to take a nice deal and therefore help the team not be nailed to the wall in terms of building the rest of the team out?

What does a nice deal look like? 30 million a year? That honestly SOUNDS steep but is that the new 20 something million starting QBs got not that long ago? Lol with new revenue coming in via gambling will the cap really jump in a year or 2 making 30 million a year look kinda decent? 4 years 120 million...I'm a Cousins guy but if that's fully guaranteed...man I don't think I can do that unless there is some calculated future numbers that say it's a smarter move.

How does Cousins feel about the Vikings? How do the Vikings feel about him? It's pretty fascinating to think about. Like the author of the article said it seems likely we will hear something soon but who knows. Sometimes the Vikings keep things pretty quite and Cousins I don't think is looking for spotlight etc unless the Vikings are really playing hardball with him.

Honestly I'm glad I'm not having to make this decision. In theory getting a younger QB makes a lot of sense BUT that guy might suck. You also have Cousins sorta just playing for his contract and maybe that would be good but it also might not exactly be great for the team in the coming season. The Vikings are ALWAYS interesting to follow there is no debate about that.

I would just take the 30 million in cap space and move on. There will always be questions about his play in big games until he consistently proves the doubters wrong which he hasn't since he got here. You can't be that kind of QB and be the highest paid guy on the team. That's why we see chemistry issues with Thielen and Diggs with Cousins. He's just not good enough when it counts for that price tag. We'd honestly be better off blowing it up than extend him and keep dealing with the same issues.

That's a fair take. What's the highest number you would go for Cousins?

It's not realistic, but I'd need him to drop to 20 million so I can go add a 10 million dollar player to this line to better make it work. I'm still not sure that would be enough though. There's just so much evidence that he just doesn't have it in the important game on a consistent basis. Down in the 4th with no time to run are you confident he can lead the comeback victory? I'm not. He's just wound too tight and looks stressed out all the time. I don't have much confidence in him unless the run game is going and he's not having to win the game for us.

Thanks for responding. Again a fair take and I don't really disagree too much. I do have some faith in Cousins leading a comeback actually. Like you said it would be nice to spend a bunch of money to get that oline shored up. Sometimes it was just...so bad Cpusins hardly had a chance.

Like I said before I have heard some chatter about the cap rising a ton in a few years I'm part because of gambling money flowing in. IF....that was the case I think your 20 million would actually be more like 25 million...which is still probably too low for Cousins to accept but would be more in the ball park. There is a lot we don't know about what they salaries really could be. The Vikings do a heck of a job with that stuff so I'll trust them on that.

I think to me the question about Cousins is has he risen to the type of QB you live and die with or is he still a tier below that? I thought guys like Romo and Rivers were guys that were damn good but they would win you games and lose you games. Could Cousins get there? Idk. I don't want to make excuses for him but how many offensive coordinators has that guy had? Kubiak is another one and while the system will likely be pretty similar it's not like having the same person exactly. Can they make what they have including Cousins better or do you take a chance that you get something else that's better while realizing you may end up with something worse. Based on the comments I read from Spielman today they are sticking with Cousins. One more even average offensive lineman replacing a poor one would be pretty big for the whole offense. Hopefully they get that and Bradbury becomes kinda good.

Honestly I think Cousins is clutch. He never had more pressure on him then in the Saints game and came through impressively in overtime. The video of him in the locker room and saying "you like that" was pretty awesome when the team went crazy.

I think a lot of the stats of him "losing in primetime" were on bad teams in Washington. Not to mention winning and losing stats are not only on the QB. He's the most important player obviously but as we use to see in the Moss era (most of it), the offense can score 34 points a game, but it doesn't matter when the defense gives up 37.

I would love to see his pay either stay the same or drop slightly though so the team can sign more OLine help or resign Cook. Were going to need a better running game and pass blocking to ultimately win it all.

WolvesFan21 wrote:Honestly I think Cousins is clutch. He never had more pressure on him then in the Saints game and came through impressively in overtime. The video of him in the locker room and saying "you like that" was pretty awesome when the team went crazy.

I think a lot of the stats of him "losing in primetime" were on bad teams in Washington. Not to mention winning and losing stats are not only on the QB. He's the most important player obviously but as we use to see in the Moss era (most of it), the offense can score 34 points a game, but it doesn't matter when the defense gives up 37.

I would love to see his pay either stay the same or drop slightly though so the team can sign more OLine help or resign Cook. Were going to need a better running game and pass blocking to ultimately win it all.

Here's the thing with the prime time stats. There's lots of bad teams every season. There's lots of QB's who have been in an out of the league during this time span. He's literally the only guy who is posting W-L numbers that bad. At some point just losing over and over again can't just be chalked up to the team around him when he plays the most impactful position on the field. He's the only guy where it is that bad in prime time from a W-L perspective so I just don't know how that can't fall back on him. A good game or two here or there just don't make up for all the rest of it.

khans2k5 wrote:

WolvesFan21 wrote:Honestly I think Cousins is clutch. He never had more pressure on him then in the Saints game and came through impressively in overtime. The video of him in the locker room and saying "you like that" was pretty awesome when the team went crazy.

I think a lot of the stats of him "losing in primetime" were on bad teams in Washington. Not to mention winning and losing stats are not only on the QB. He's the most important player obviously but as we use to see in the Moss era (most of it), the offense can score 34 points a game, but it doesn't matter when the defense gives up 37.

I would love to see his pay either stay the same or drop slightly though so the team can sign more OLine help or resign Cook. Were going to need a better running game and pass blocking to ultimately win it all.

Here's the thing with the prime time stats. There's lots of bad teams every season. There's lots of QB's who have been in an out of the league during this time span. He's literally the only guy who is posting W-L numbers that bad. At some point just losing over and over again can't just be chalked up to the team around him when he plays the most impactful position on the field. He's the only guy where it is that bad in prime time from a W-L perspective so I just don't know how that can't fall back on him. A good game or two here or there just don't make up for all the rest of it.

But then in the biggest moment of his career, overtime at the Saints he leads the Vikings down the field for the winning TD pass. That game outshines any week whatever Redskin game from 4 years ago on a Sunday night.

It was just a stupid flukey stat that ended up being meaningless.

Now I'm not saying Cousins is an elite QB. I never said he was, still don't. Just that the Vikings can win with him with the right pieces around him.

Look at some guys who have won Superbowls. Eli Manning = twice, Brad Johnson, Trent Dilfer, Joe Flacco.

I think he would be smart to even take just a small pay cut. It would help with the media (no more "huge overpay for Cousins", help his off field earnings (commercials) and help with the Vikings signing another player to help the team win, more potential to earn off field as a winning QB.