With a new Collective Bargaining agreement in place, money figures to start flowing around the NFL, as teams now have a much better idea of what to expect from future salary caps.
First up, Minnesota Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins:
Vikings reached agreement on a 2-year extension with QB Kirk Cousins, per his agent.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) March 16, 2020
ESPN’s Adam Schefter reports the Vikings and Cousins are in agreement on a two-year extension to keep their starting quarterback in the fold (UPDATE: Financial details below).
Cousins was set to enter the final year of the three-year contract he signed in 2018, so the deal gives him a bit of security moving forward. I can also imagine an extension will help Minnesota from a cap-management perspective. A month ago, the Vikings were a team that was more up against the cap than the Bears were entering this offseason. But with some clever pulling of some strings with cuts and what not, Minnesota is now projected to be an estimated $15.4 million under the cap according to OverTheCap.com’s calculations. Though contractual details haven’t been announced (UPDATE: See Below), it is easy to envision the Cousins extension as a team friendly one that lowers his 2020 cap hit.
Statistically, Cousins’ two seasons with the Vikings have been superb. He has completed 69 percent of his passes, thrown for 56 touchdowns and just 16 interceptions, posted a 103.0 passer rating, and reached a Pro Bowl in 2019. But the two seasons (individually) have yielded very different results. In 2018, Cousins racked up more than 4,200 passing yards and 30 touchdowns, but failed to take his team (that was on the doorstep of making the Super Bowl the year prior) to the playoffs. Then in 2019, the Vikings reeled in Cousins, who had fewer passing attempts and yards, but threw touchdowns at a higher clip and interceptions at a lower rate and made the playoffs as a wild card team. In any case, the Vikings are happy enough with Cousins to reach out and hand him an extension.
UPDATE: That’s a lot of guaranteed money (certainly more than I expected). The QB dominoes continue to fall.
Summing up the #Vikings deal for Kirk Cousins: 2 new years worth $66M. So 3 years in all for $96M. He has $61M guaranteed at signing. An additional $35M is guaranteed for injury but converts to a fully at the beginning of the 2021 season. They won’t cut him after 1 year and $61M.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) March 16, 2020