Extend Cousins or ... ?

Right now he is like in the top 3 in the NFC. They don’t have the draft capital to try and draft a top prospect and face it- Kirk is still better than the majority of top prospects drafted in the last 5 years so I’m not sure why they would be so quick to take a gamble when they aren’t guaranteed an improvement. Especially since the rest of the roster needs to be rebuilt as well. Keep the known quantity, build the rest of the team up and keep your options open as you do it.

And they drafted a rookie QB this year and could have kept Mond on the roster to develop so it’s not like they haven’t done anything

He might be with how weak the nfc QBs are but it was the same last season, we ended up with 0 playoff wins despite that. What if we trade cousins right now and get a 2nd rounder? Then we should have a pretty high pick and extra capital to get that qb (just one example of how to get there).

The reason to move on from Kirk is the same reason to move on from Z or Kendrick’s despite not having better immediate options. This team isn’t ready to really compete for a sb and we need to rebuild the roster and look to the future. Moving on from cousin could get us assets while clearing cap space, similar to our last trade. There is no guarantee we get better players but at least we would be making a real attempt/push for the future.

We have sat in mediocrity the last 5 years taking the approach of just keep trying with him and it keeps failing. We may not be guaranteed to be better but it’s at least worth trying instead of just being complacent with one playoff win in 5 seasons after having made the nfc championship game the year prior. The new regime seems to understand this and is finally taking those steps across the entire roster. There is no real reason to hang on to cousins just to fight for mediocrity as we rebuild the roster as you admit we need to do.

I just agreed he might be top 3 in the NFC and have often called him above average. How is that saying he sucks? It isn't me being delusional, you just created a strawman argument that I never pushed (which keeps happening over and over when he is discussed). If he can't even get a 2nd round pick it should really tell you how comical/delusional the Kirk homers have been though lol. 

We are in the process of building the team back up with a younger roster. Next year will be the 2nd wave and we should have mostly clear books 2025 and beyond with hopefully some young guys developing and a great core on offense outside of the QB. Drafting a franchise QB next offseason (or maybe the one after) is perfect for the route we seem to finally be taking. Even if we aren't ready in year 1 we can still let the QB gain experience then in 2025 we have the cap reset and hopefully have filled some of those holes with young players. With the extra cap from not hanging on to the older vets we also can make some additions in FA over these years too. It makes way more sense to aim for a QB of the future in this scenario than keep paying up for an aging vet that has just been above average and would likely be declining when the younger team was making it's push. 

A large majority of people have said the defense has been the biggest issue recently for this team (myself included). There have been hundreds and hundreds of posts about how bad the defense has been throughout many threads. I mean there have probably been a hundred posts just responding to you acknowledging it but you tend to ignore those to keep up the bit.

Also the defense was ranked 3rd in 2018 in ppd and we didn’t even make the playoffs. In 2019 it was 8th and when we made the playoffs the offense put up 10 points while struggling to move the ball with Kirk missing open guys all game. So that’s probably why the defense wasn’t being blamed as much those first couple years.

It seems like this bit is all just about defending Kirk then? It’s wild how delusional so many get about him that they constantly ignore reality and what others actually say to make things up that are easier to argue against. Here is a link to the playoff game where a massive majority blamed the defense as one of many many examples purplepainforums.com/thread/6641/vikes-fall-short-deflated-ball

Well we already have a QB we just drafted that they can develop so let’s just wait for him to do so and when he proves he is better we can move on from Kirk and all the world will finally be right.

In the meantime we have one of the best QBs in the NFC and let’s get off his back and let him do his job until someone beats him out.

I would gently point out that the "aging vet" in question just set the all time NFL comeback record, threw a pass to JJ that's already in the NFL Hall of Fame, and set yet more records with Jefferson on the way to a 13 win season.

That wasn't the part of the team that was "mediocre".