{"id":163458,"date":"2024-02-24T11:30:14","date_gmt":"2024-02-24T16:30:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/?p=163458"},"modified":"2024-02-23T18:48:56","modified_gmt":"2024-02-23T23:48:56","slug":"potential-destinations-kirk-cousins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2024\/02\/24\/potential-destinations-kirk-cousins\/","title":{"rendered":"3 Potential Destinations for Minnesota Vikings Star Quarterback"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Here are the three potential destinations for the Minnesota Vikings star quarterback, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2024\/01\/26\/the-vikings-have-a-critical-kirk-cousins-decision-to-make\/\" target=\"_self\">Kirk Cousins<\/a> as he\u2019s set to hit free agency. According to a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.startribune.com\/what-are-national-voices-saying-about-kirk-cousins-vikings-draft\/600345309\/#:~:text=*Albert%20Breer%20at%20Sports%20Illustrated,of%20course%2C%20more%20injured.%22\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">source<\/a>, the Vikings aren\u2019t willing to give Cousins a fully guaranteed contract. He always has been on guaranteed contracts since he started his tenure in Minnesota, but that\u2019s all changed now. There hasn\u2019t been any progression of contract talks and they\u2019ve only \u201ctouched base\u201d on negotiations.<\/p>\n<p>There would need to be more than touching base if they want something to work out. Cousins, 35, is still recovering from a torn Achilles tendon so Minnesota probably won\u2019t risk bringing him back. At this rate, given his age and healing, he could already be moved to a new team at the start of the market. The Vikings risk losing Cousins, which looks like it isn\u2019t a bother to them.<\/p>\n<p>Also, the Vikings can\u2019t use a franchise tag on Cousins, so he\u2019ll be free to sign where he wants. The 2023 season for the Minnesota Vikings didn\u2019t go as well after winning 13 games and the NFC North in 2022. Cousins suffered his gruesome injury in the middle of the season and had to use three different quarterbacks. None of them played up to their potential to lift the Vikings to playoff contention.<\/p>\n<p>The Vikings now face high-stakes at the most important position in the league, so it\u2019s a wonder who they will select as their next franchise quarterback. According to a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/nfl\/patriots\/news\/new-england-patriots-nfl-draft-trade-insider-names-atlanta-falcons-minnesota-vikings\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">report<\/a>, the New England Patriots are open to trading back in the NFL Draft so they may do so with the Vikings. Minnesota has a plan and that may be Jayden Daniels or Drake Maye.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Do you see Kirk Cousins returning to the Vikings? <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/T2UJguH0nx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/T2UJguH0nx<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; FOX Sports: NFL (@NFLonFOX) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/NFLonFOX\/status\/1760416580977193235?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">February 21, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2>Three Potential Destinations for Minnesota Vikings Star Quarterback Kirk Cousins<\/h2>\n<h3>New England Patriots<\/h3>\n<p>It could be smarter for the Patriots to draft their next quarterback, but since they\u2019ll likely trade back then Cousins <a href=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/sports\/new-england-patriots\/quarterback-kirk-cousins-free-agency-3\/#:~:text=That&#039;s%20the%20thinking%20at%20CBS,NFL%20Free%20Agency%20Mock%20Draft.%E2%80%9D\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">could be an option<\/a>. Despite his injury, he\u2019s a mobile veteran quarterback who has experience and that might be what Robert Kraft is thinking. However, Cousins may be hesitant about rebuilding an organization under his leadership and might want to go to a complete team. This might not matter given the history that New England has and the bolstering defense that they\u2019re building.<\/p>\n<p>The only issue is the price that Cousins will bring to the team. New England has pretty much every hole on their offense that they need to address this offseason. If they can bring back at least one of their pending free agents, Hunter Henry, they could be in line to revamp their offense. If they get Cousins, then they may look towards the draft to get star <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com.au\/nfl\/story\/_\/id\/39568366\/should-patriots-draft-qb-wr-ot-no-3-trade-drake-maye-jayden-daniels-marvin-harrison-jr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Marvin Harrison Jr. <\/a>as their next WR1.<\/p>\n<h3>Atlanta Falcons<\/h3>\n<p>Here is a team that seems l<a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2024\/02\/23\/sports\/kirk-cousins-next-team-odds-falcons-emerging-as-threat-to-vikings\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">ikely the destination <\/a>for Cousins. He could elevate Atlanta\u2019s offense which features running back Bijan Robinson, wide receiver <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/L\/LondDr00.htm\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Drake London<\/a> and tight end Kyle Pitts. If they land Cousins, they could arguably be the favorites to win the NFC South, especially under their stout defense. The Falcons have $25 million in cap space to enter the sweepstakes so they could still offer him a pretty good deal.<\/p>\n<h3>Las Vegas Raiders<\/h3>\n<p>The Raiders could be aggressive in reaching out to Kirk Cousins because, unlike Atlanta, they don\u2019t have a top-10 draft pick. They could lure the four-time Pro Bowler a deal he can\u2019t turn down. His pairing with Davante Adams would make sense since he gave the Vikings\u2019 quarterback a lot of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/fannation\/bringmethesports\/vikings\/davante-adams-praises-kirk-cousins-acknowledges-his-availability#:~:text=It&#039;s%20a%20couple%20quarterbacks%20I,is%20a%20really%20good%20quarterback.\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">praise as a signal-caller<\/a>. The Raiders have $35.2 million in cap space, so they could be the team to offer him the highest bid.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Here are three potential destinations for Minnesota Vikings star quarterback, Kirk Cousins after the team won&#8217;t give him guaranteed money. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4795,"featured_media":163480,"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":[36,27,17,26,5],"tags":[1039,9034,796,403,9801],"class_list":["post-163458","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nfl-news","category-falcons","category-raiders","category-vikings","category-patriots","tag-davante-adams","tag-drake-london","tag-hunter-henry","tag-kirk-cousins","tag-marvin-harrison-jr"],"modified_by":"Anthony Palacios","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163458","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\/4795"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=163458"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163458\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/163480"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=163458"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=163458"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=163458"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}