Minnesota Trade Rumors: Is Kirk Cousins Leaving Vikings? $35M Worth QB Deals With Age & Achilles Tear Barriers

Kirk Cousins became one of the highest-paid quarterbacks in the league in 2022, signing a $35 million guaranteed deal with the  Minnesota Vikings. Now at the age of 35 and still recovering from an Achilles Tear, speculations are floating around about whether the quarterback will enter the free-agent space for the 2024 season with the deal reaching its end.

With his contract expiring, unless the Vikings make him a new deal, Cousins is going to the open market with many teams keeping an eye out for the talented quarterback. The conversation surrounding his shift is bringing focus to the amount he will extract from the next team, along with the hindrances occurring due to his injury and young counterparts coming into the NFL.

Where can Cousins land as a potential free agent?

With his future in Minnesota unclear, many teams might consider including Cousins as an addition to their squad. The only hesitating factor in the case of the Vikings’ player is his high market value standing at $39.3 million, according to Spotrac. To get the veteran QB, the teams would have to cough up his worth in money. This leads us to the potential future homes for Cousins.

Sports writer Mike Florio revealed that the Pittsburgh Steelers are considering getting an additional quarterback next season, and Cousins might be open to the offer. The Steelers could benefit from getting ‘Captain Kirk,’ especially since they have a comparably weak quarterback corner. He said, “The Falcons and the Steelers are the two teams that I think the Cousins camp is keeping an eye on.”

Former NFL player Daniel Kanell also feels that the Steelers seem to be the most obvious choice for Cousins’ new season, as other sides might have an outlook for the younger incoming QBs like Caleb Williams or others. Talking about the top free-agent quarterbacks available this offseason, Kanell said that the Steelers might make a “veteran move” to upgrade the team, and the list of options is quite short since “Baker Mayfield’s going to end up back with the Bucks.”

As for Cousins himself, he had expressed on the Pat McAfee show that his choice would still be the Vikings, “Honestly, I’d love to be back in Minnesota. But even Minnesota, those conversations don’t start yet. It’s more late February, early March.”

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If the Vikings don’t move towards retaining their star quarterback till the beginning of March, it is most likely that he will be becoming a free agent and looking at other teams as potential homes amidst struggling from his injury.

Achilles injury halted Cousins’ stellar season

While playing against the Green Bay Packers, Cousins suffered a leg rupture of the Achilles tendon. This forced the QB to spend the remainder of the season outside the field. Before the injury, Cousins had one of the best seasons of his career. The 35-year-old also shared an image of his injury with some humor.

On the Pat McAfee Show, Cousins had admitted to wondering if wearing longer spikes called ‘screw-ins’ during the match against the Packers was the reason for his tendon tear.

“We had a bunch of slips in the game the previous year in January so we said this year we all gotta do it, no exceptions. And [Vikings right tackle] Brian O’Neill had tore his Achilles the previous year at Lambeau wearing the screw-ins. First time he ever wore them, he tore his Achilles. So I just wonder, I just wonder, but again, I could point to 17 other things that make you wonder, too.”

Having undergone surgery, he is now on the road to recovery, but according to him, it’s going to be four long months before the QB can return to the field in full form. Despite the delay caused by his injury, the veteran player is expected to be one of the most sought-after players and get a roughly estimated $40 million deal, with a great record in his 12 years of playing football.

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