Kirk, Or A Potential First Round QB in 2024?

Wait, a player thinking of himself?  How terrible. What an ass. Players shouldn't think of themselves, they should think only of their team.  He's only planning on doing what's right for him. Nothing else.  Any smart player would.  But, here, it's thought of as negative.  Look at the bright side, maybe he goes somewhere for more money than the Vikings will pay.  Wouldn't that make almost everyone here happy?   So why complain about it?

If you can't respond to a post without making up a special meaning behind it in your head, don't bother responding.

But you forget. He's also proven what he can do with Cousins. Zippo.

Up until this past game the Vikings were averaging nearly identical PPG with Kirk as they did without him. They scored their most points in a game this season with Josh Dobbs, had their fewest yards in a game with Kirk Cousins, the most passing yards in a game with Nick Mullens, the most yards per attempt passing since 2017, double the number of #1 QBR games without Kirk, and had a plethora of turnovers no matter who the QB was.

We were 16th in scoring when Kirk went down with arguably the best receiving group in the NFL and a top 10 pass blocking Oline. It is fine if you have the opinion that it was KOC who was the problem and not Kirk, you would be at least half wrong on that, but it is fine. Don't pretend Kirk is some sort of solution to KOC's offense though, when it didn't look all that different with 3 of the worst backups in the league.

Just like what you did with Kirk.  Put a special meaning to his tape.  To use it for leverage.   

It's nice to see PurpleFTW getting critical like this, I thought he'd be a bit more of a homer but I'm glad to be wrong.


Granted, with two shaky backups and a 5th round rookie - give him another starting-caliber QB and would he be alright? Would Brock Purdy, Jared Goff, or Derek Carr also play poorly for KOC?
I don't have any problems with that, but it conflicts with what he's said about wanting to retire as a Viking - if he gets to the point where he is talking to other teams, his dead cap hit will activate and put the Vikings in a bad spot if they try to bid with their competitors. So he likely will not retire a Viking when he gets to the point where he can talk with other teams.

At the QB position, the Vikings are at an interesting crossroads. On one hand, they can resign an established vet that is respected in the locker room and likely could ensure competitiveness assuming the vet is healthy. Obviously, this is talking about cousins. The only way he is back is if he accepts a team friendly deal. I do however think we need to define what that is because too many of us think that means in the 20 million dollar range. That's not going to happen. That's not team friendly that's giving away your services in today's market. Realistically, a team-friendly deal is between 30 and 40 million per year. That makes that pill a little bit tougher to swallow because it is still a substantial cap hit. Then factor in if he will actually be healthy or not. I'm guessing, if If you told people that you could get Kirk Cousins, back healthy, for 2 years at 30 million per year they would think it's a great deal. Some people would love it some people would hate it, but I think most people would agree that it's a good deal if he is healthy. This brings us to the other hand which is to go a different direction.

What does a different direction look like? It could be drafting a quarterback in the first round and that person coming in as a starter. It could be signing a different vet to come in and take over. It could be both, signing the vet and drafting a QB high. I think the problem with this route is that you do not have Justin Jefferson locked up to a long-term contract extension yet. So unless you are fine losing Jefferson which is a possibility regardless, you need to make sure he's on board of what you're doing. He will likely want somebody in the mold of cousins because of the success he has had. Quarterbacks like Kirk are much harder to find than a lot of people realize. It's not that he's elite, he isn't the best of the best, but the particular skills he has are not ones that are easy to find in the league anymore. Let's be honest, if cousins could run he would likely be considered one of if not the best quarterback in the league. He is not mobile. So what you are trying to find is a prospect/veteran with high-end arm talent, great play recognition, charisma, and fast processing speed. Not as easy as you think.

My answer to this is really not going to be popular, I think you have to go to Jefferson and tell him that you are moving on from Kirk (because I just don't think he takes 30 million a year, if he does, you keep him and still go get Drake Maye), that you are going to go up and get Drake Maye, and find out if he is on board or not. If he isn't, you trade him for a haul, likely even better than what Tyreek Hill got. Let's talk Drake Maye.

Obviously there'll be a price for trading up to get the guy, but I believe he is worth every penny. The size is legit. There won't be height or weight concerns with him. The athletic ability is legit, yes he can run he is not a statue. The arm talent is probably the best in the class. Scouts basically list him as a Justin Herbert clone, I don't 100% agree with that but it's definitely close. I actually think Maye is better at working through progressions. And he is still young. Why him over others? I'm going to give you four names, Williams, Penix, Daniels, and Nix. They are likely considered four of the top five QB prospects in this draft by many. They all have something in common though. They ultimately needed to transfer to find success. Penix was ok at Indiana. Daniels was ok at Arizona State, Nix was ok at Auburn. You could make a case that Williams only transferred to follow his coach. Which also makes me worry that he is completely system dependent. Williams reminds me a lot of Kyler Murray, that scares me. Out of these five the only one I really don't want is Nix, the others would probably be fine but I don't see them as franchise guys. As far as guys later in the draft, sure, there's always people that could be diamonds in the rough, but the further down you go the more it's like buying a Powerball ticket, sure the numbers might look good, but your odds of hitting get really low.

So in the end, what I would see as an ideal situation for the Vikings is to sign cousins to a two-year team friendly deal, draft Drake Maye, and allow him to develop/compete for the starting position and give it to him when he is ready. If he can beat Kirk out right away then so be it. If not let him grow before throwing him to the fire. Again, I said ideal probably not realistic.

Happy New Year to all and if people enjoyed this or it's good for conversation, I'll continue with other positions.