[OC] Let's Play Pay Kirk Cousins

I honestly don't care. Anybody who thinks next season can be a playoff year should be disregarded.

I suppose that's up to how you define "Win Now" mode. To me, it means moving draft capital for veteran players, going after top free agents even if they are older, and generally avoiding playing younger players over veterans to reduce risk. Debatably we've been in this mode since 2016. The only other mode that exists to me is "Win Later", where you prioritize developing young players, acquiring more/higher draft picks, and moving veterans for draft picks and acquiring salary space to roll into the next year.


Should a GM really care about making a good impression in Year 1 rather than building a foundation for the team to compete for years to come? GMs get plenty of rope and time to prove themselves, just look how long Rick got! Bucs GM Licht had 5 bad years in a row to start his career and didn't even get canned. KAM is going to get plenty of time and shouldn't mortgage the future to "prove he can win now".


Playing out Kirk's deal is a fine option to me... but if you're extended him and then trading him in 2023, you're going to take a very big dead cap hit to do that, which is going to hurt our payroll in 2023. Alternatively if you let him hit FA in 2023, we probably get a 3rd rounder for him and don't lose any money on the payroll.


Why is ditching our gravitational pull to .500 "suicide"? I just don't see the downside of it, is it really going to be so much worse going 7-10 with a guy like Gardner Minshew at QB rather than 9-8 with Cousins?

Depends upon what you mean by win, if you mean have a shot at the playoffs in the worst division in the NFL, maybe, if you mean have a shot at winning the Super Bowl, only if every team other than the Lions cease to exist.

If they're delusional enough to think it's the latter then they'll only end up pushing more dead money into future years, thus making it harder to compete in the future, while at best extending their current mediocrity into 2022.



Sure, the coaches and players should try to win every game they play next season, but the management should be focused on the future. Sacrificing future flexibility on this aging roster to win a couple more games in 2022 would be a perfect example of mismanagement.



It's called flexibility and it wouldn't have to be spent in 2023, but rather at the point when the roster is such that making that big splash makes sense. When your roster is ready and you have flexibility you can make trades for guys like Jared Allen, or sign guys like Pat Williams. The best they can hope for with their current cap situation is to sign 3rd rate imitations.



This team isn't a QB away, or even two or three players away from championship contention, more like needing to replace half their starters.



A middle of the pack QB at Cousins age is only going to decrease in value with each passing season at this point. He'll never be worth more than he is right now, and this roster is not set up to maximize his value, so they should move him if they can IMO.

You're entitled to your opinion, but you're wrong!

You're fired! This franchise is dead to me if they extend him again.

We're writing off next season with or without Cousins. At least without him we have a lot more money to spend on upgrades that can help us down the road, and we'll all be relieved that he's finally gone xD. Almost as relieved as I was when Special Ted was finally gone.

yeah, if you're offering 70% odds of an extension, I'm wagering a pretty significant chunk of change on him either playing out the contract or being traded. I've said before that I would not be against an extension for the right price, but that's in the 15-20M range, and Cousins has shown 0 and I mean ZERO signs of taking that kind of a pay cut. Now perhaps he's earned his money and doesn't care anymore, IDK, but I suspect he's gone, either this year or next.

I hope that's not the case.

Take the best trade offer for Kirk and start the 2022 with a different starting QB.