Cousins versus top 10 pass defenses is a bottom ten QB

No other top quarterback has received a 100% guaranteed contract before or since. That includes MVP and Super Bowl champions.

You say Kirk is better than Case? Who evaded the sacks and won more games? Kirk has the better arm, but his slow reads have haunted him throughout his entire career. Case may have not been the long term answer, but signing Cousins put the Vikings into cap hell.

One cannot deny that Jackson did fall to the Vikings pick. In fact, the Vikings should have taken him even after signing Cousins. Of course, not having a 100% guaranteed contract for Cousins would have made that a lot easier.

I am sure people will be playing the hindsight card, but one has to recall that I advocated taking Aaron Rodgers the season after Culpepper had arguably his best season. The Packers had a future HoF QB on the roster, and they did not have two first round picks, yet they pulled the trigger. It did not help that the Vikings wasted their first pick on a receiver that I thought would go in the late second to early third round.

I have to ask, would the Vikings rather have Cousins, Jackson, or maybe Tom Brady this season? I do notice that Brady's base contract is guaranteed for two season, so I guess Cousins is no longer the only one. That stated, Brady is getting paid less and the contract is only two seasons. His passing and game incentives are not guaranteed. With Brady, this is his last hurrah. With Cousins, this is the meat of his career. Having a fully guaranteed contract, and not having a team option at the end of those seasons, already forced the Vikings to play the renegotiation game with a poor hand.

Then wouldn't it have been more prudent for the Vikings to opt out and go to the draft?
The fact that they went this route makes a complete mockery of the whole "draft and develop" strategy we keep hearing but never see at the most important position on the football team.
It's like the whole Teddy exploding knee situation has Spielman scared to keep trying to find a QB via the draft.

I don't think it is about who the better QB is,it's more about better cap management and using Case as a short term solution for a year while you allow a rookie to learn isn't the worst thing. 

Because they believed they were ready to win now, and didn't have the time to develop a rookie QB. They also didn't expect to have any decent QB prospects still available at pick #30.

Agreed, but that wasn't the point Minniman was going for. Actually, sticking with Case and drafting a rookie QB is exactly what I had the Vikings doing in my Guide to the Offseason that year. Of course, the rookie QB I had them taking didn't turn out to be any good, but still, I would have preferred that approach.

Hmmm, Lock is still an unknown, but Cousins would have been an upgrade on their previous QBs. The Cardinals would rather have Murray, but I wonder if they spent their last two 1st rounders on non-QBs if the team would be better? Rosen was an utter waste, and then they can go Nick Bosa 1st overall in 2019.

The Jets would probably rather have Darnold, though they would screw up most any QB they get their hands on and Cousins wouldn't be an exception. The Skins also have an unknown in Haskins, but are paying Smith $25M a year to be a backup due to his unfortunate injury. Kinda like how Teddy got badly hurt, you can't say the Smith trade and deal was a terrible decision, but it will go down as a move that didn't work out.


No, I had them spending a 2nd round pick... on Luke Falk. That was before I did any draft research, but there was a time when Falk was considered a 1st round prospect, before his stock took a tumble in 2017 and fell to being a 6th round pick who couldn't even crack his team's roster.

At the time they 1st signed him I was excited about it. I liked his durability. After a couple years of watching him here against the top defenses. Not to mention our division. I was less excited about the new extension. I will leave that at that.

Remember Cousins wasn't free, so while those teams could have used the picks on someone else, they would have had less money to spend on keeping current players or signing free agents.  At best that is a push, imo.  

Objectively, I would say AZ and the Jets are better off.  Denver might be better off now, or they still might not have their QBOTF.  Washington's QB situation is the worst in the NFL.

My guess is, all but Washington's fan base would overwhelmingly prefer their current QB situation versus having signed Cousins.   Washington fans probably would be 50/50.