{"id":151292,"date":"2023-10-31T13:00:25","date_gmt":"2023-10-31T17:00:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/?p=151292"},"modified":"2023-10-31T10:13:27","modified_gmt":"2023-10-31T14:13:27","slug":"vikings-quarterback-decision-kirk-cousins-torn-achilles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2023\/10\/31\/vikings-quarterback-decision-kirk-cousins-torn-achilles\/","title":{"rendered":"Vikings Quarterback Decision Should be Simple After Cousins Torn Achilles"},"content":{"rendered":"

Man, this stinks. That\u2019s the prevailing sentiment for Vikings fans after watching Kirk Cousins\u2019 torn Achilles in the fourth quarter of Sunday\u2019s win. The Vikings and Cousins were on an absolute roll<\/a> after shocking the 49ers and dominating the Packers in Lambeau. Even without All Pro receiver Justin Jefferson, Cousins was putting on a show. He was legitimately playing the best football of his career. All that momentum came to a crashing halt when it became clear that Cousins\u2019 season is over. Now Kevin O\u2019Connell<\/a> is going to be faced with the biggest obstacle he\u2019s had to deal with in his early head coaching tenure.<\/p>\n

In many ways, this was considered both a rebuilding season but also a last hurrah of sorts for this version of the Vikings. Kirk Cousins is on the last year of his deal and the Minnesota didn’t have the ability to franchise him. This was almost certainly going to be his last season in purple and gold, barring a shocking deep playoff run. The Vikings front office was bracing to move in a different direction at quarterback this offseason. Even with that inevitability, it wasn\u2019t supposed to end like this. Now the Vikings, back in the playoff picture after winning three of their last four, have to answer an enormous question and quickly. How do they go about replacing Kirk Cousins for the remainder of the season?<\/p>\n

The Aftermath of Kirk Cousins Torn Achilles<\/h2>\n

Trading for a Quarterback is not a Viable Solution\u00a0<\/strong><\/h3>\n

There are going to be plenty of pundits clamoring for the Vikings to trade for a quarterback this week. The stark reality of quarterbacks in the NFL is that there just aren\u2019t teams willing to trade good ones away, especially midseason. Looking at the best quarterbacks on the market, nobody out there would seriously move the needle on Minnesota\u2019s projections.<\/p>\n

Trade Option #1: Ryan Tannehill<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Ryan Tannehill<\/a> feels like the most readily available option on the market. After Will Levis\u2019 debut and given their record, the Titans will likely go with Levis moving forward. That leaves Tannehill without a job when he recovers from the injury that\u2019s kept him out. It likely wouldn\u2019t take much draft capital to acquire him, but Minnesota would have to pay about ~$15M in remaining salary. For a team that\u2019s already cap-strapped with a lot of dead money next season, that\u2019s probably too much money. On top of that, Tannehill just hasn\u2019t been very effective. It would likely take at least 2-3 weeks to get him healed up and knowledgeable enough of the playbook. Even then, the Vikings would still have the lesser quarterback in the majority of their remaining matchups. It just doesn\u2019t make much sense to go the journeyman route here.<\/p>\n

Trade Option #2: Kyler Murray?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Kyler Murray<\/a> is going to be the name with the most intrigue potentially on the market this week. The Cardinals curiously haven\u2019t activated him yet, despite admissions that he\u2019s fully healthy. If a team believes that Murray can be the guy, he\u2019s under contract for the foreseeable future. So this option wouldn\u2019t amount to a rental, as is the case with Tannehill. However, the money he\u2019s making is insane for a quarterback with questionable work ethic and production.<\/p>\n

It may not take much draft capital to land Murray if he is available, as the Cardinals would likely just be trying to get rid of the contract. However, it doesn\u2019t make sense for Minnesota\u2019s front office to take such a big gamble. If they swing and miss on Murray, that would likely be the end of the regime\u2019s tenure. Murray hasn\u2019t shown enough to be confident in him as a franchise quarterback.<\/p>\n

Jaren Hall isn’t Kirk Cousins, But At Least Knows the Offense<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The reality is, that even with Kirk Cousins the Vikings weren\u2019t considered serious Super Bowl contenders. So then why would they trade valuable draft assets to go get someone that\u2019s a downgrade from Cousins? Given that they will be looking at a retooling next offseason with Cousins set for free agency, giving up draft picks to maybe compete for 9-10 wins just doesn\u2019t make any sense for the organization.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not going to stir the hearts of many Vikings faithful, but Jaren Hall<\/a> is Minnesota\u2019s best option moving forward. He didn\u2019t play particularly well when he came into the game, but he showed poise in a tough situation. The fact that Hall was able to step up in the pocket and complete a big third down to Hockenson that essentially sealed the game after getting strip-sacked the previous possession, was telling. He commanded the huddle well and showed some glimpses during the preseason of solid play. At a minimum, he knows the playbook!<\/p>\n

The fact is that if Hall doesn\u2019t come in and set the NFL on fire, the Vikings season is pretty much doomed.\u00a0 Is that likely to happen? No, but there\u2019s no downside in figuring out if the kid can play. Even the slightest chance that they get lucky and find the 2024 version of Brock Purdy would outweigh the benefit of bringing in a veteran quarterback to simply cap out as a middling Wild Card team. \u00a0It doesn\u2019t sound like a great option for a team and fanbase looking for hope. The fact is, there isn\u2019t a great option out there, but Hall\u2019s development would at least be something to watch for the remainder of the season.<\/p>\n

Main Photo: Wm. Glasheen – USA Today Sports<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Kirk Cousins torn achilles kills all momentum the Vikings had after back to back wins. Where they go from here remains to be seen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4671,"featured_media":151330,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[403,4674,7753,814],"class_list":["post-151292","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-vikings","tag-kirk-cousins","tag-kyler-murray","tag-minnesota-vikings-news","tag-ryan-tannehill"],"modified_by":"David Latham, Managing Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151292","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4671"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=151292"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151292\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/151330"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=151292"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=151292"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=151292"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}