Predict our off-season strategy

From fansided.com/posts/nfl-rumors-vikings-kirk-cousins-future-no-choice

I found this today. Pretty interesting that the Vikings can only sign him to an extension that is less than $42.5 million AAV, while a new team could offer him more on a new deal. That should be interesting come the combine and all the tampering that happens there.

When was Kirk's most recent contract renegotiation? Wasn't it more than 12 months ago?

Whoa, this is news to me! I had never heard of this. Seems like it could be another reason for Kirk to want to reach the tampering period to see what other teams are offering instead of being artificially limited by this rule.


The void years were added on March 14th 2023, so I don't think they can offer more than $42.5M before that point.

I think this goes to the tampering period regardless. No incentive for Kirk to take a deal without hearing offers. The tampering window and the void trigger of the new year gives a couple day window to hear offers and to figure something out with Minnesota before the void triggers.

I hadn't until this morning when I found that. I ultimately don't think it changes a lot. I believe Kwesi has a line in the sand and doesn't intend to cross it, and that the combine tampering bonanza was where it gets decided.

The way they've cleared thr books of bad contracts and essentially created a blank canvas from 2025 on leads me to believe that. For all the hay that the Kirk forever crew made about his "intention" to bring Kirk back he's saying the same things he said last year about it when you read between the lines.

He wants flexibility, Kirk wants stability, now rebranded as "structure". So they're still standing in the same place. Kwesi wants easy outs and Kirk wants guarantees for time and money.

The combine was always going to be pivotal for this decision, but that little rule seems like a poison pill, and one the Vikings did to themselves. I'm loopy from a long day at work and probably giving them too much credit for Machiavellianism, but might this have been an intentional ploy to force the move on? Structure his contract so that if Kirk doesn't agree to an extension you have a major dead cap hit that would make it impossible to sign him to a new deal after the contract voids. While simultaneously knowing that Kirk likely gets an offer on the downlow during the tampering period that you can't match on the extension.

Given the sneaky stuff teams and knowing the Vikings are capped on what they can offer on an extension what's to prevent a team from hinting at 3 years and 45 million a year just to entice Kirk to wait till Free agency?

I'm pretty sure that there are more than 5 monkeys.