QB options for 2024?

On the veteran front, all eyes are on Cousins. That much was clear after my week in Indianapolis. And it’s because, even at 35 and coming off a torn Achilles, Cousins is seen as the easiest way for a team to quickly fill a quarterback hole, and keep it plugged for the next few years.

I’ll start by saying it’s my belief that the Vikings want to keep Cousins—and by that, I mean in particular the Minnesota coaching staff.

Naturally, the next question from there would be why, then, a new deal isn’t done already. And the negotiation of last offseason really tells the tale. In exploring an extension, the Vikings didn’t want to guarantee money past 2024. As Cousins saw it, he would have just been getting one extra year assured, while potentially signing the rest of the career away to the Vikings in the non-guaranteed years he’d be agreeing to.

The divide on that illustrates where the negotiation has been. Yes, Minnesota wants to keep Cousins, but it’s been made pretty clear that it won’t be on a fully-guaranteed deal for more than a couple of years. To each’s credit, that hasn’t drawn any sort of wedge between the quarterback and his team, so it’s not like there is some irreconcilable issue here if everyone can make the finances work.

Obviously, the Vikings and Cousins’s camp met at the combine in Indianapolis, so the lines of communication are open, though no price tag has been set by anyone yet.

If Cousins goes elsewhere? The Atlanta Falcons have been the team connected to him the most in league circles, with the offensive coaches putting in a system (Zac Robinson worked with Kevin O’Connell at the Rams) that he’s very familiar with. The Denver Broncos and New England Patriots are two others with offensive play-callers who, like O’Connell, want their quarterback to handle a lot at the line of scrimmage.

Regardless of who ends up bidding, history tells us that the structure of the contract will be important to Cousins, maybe more so than just the money. He’s going to want a deal he signs to reflect the commitment a team is making to him as a starter. It’s why he turned down more to go for the fully-guaranteed deal in Minnesota in 2018, along with the Vikings’ position as a contender. It could well chart the course in ’24.

Now, of course, Cousins is not the only potential starter out there. Mayfield, who’s been tied to the Patriots (he’s got connections to scouting chief Eliot Wolf and OC Alex Van Pelt), could make it to the market, too. Fields, Ryan Tannehill and Russell Wilson will also be available.

But Cousins is the best one, as most see it. And so where he signs could wind up affecting the rest of the veteran picture at the position.