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Kirk Cousins has a lot of advantage now. He’ll have even more later – and that’s when he apparently plans to use it.
On a recent visit to PFT PM, Cousins made two things clear about his future with the Vikings. First, he wants to end his career in Minnesota. Second, he is content to fulfill the remaining two years of his contract. This necessarily makes their status uncertain after 2022 with the Vikings.
“I want to stay with the Vikings as long as they accept me and as long as I can play football,” said Cousins. “As long as I play, it is a lot year after year. We saw so many changes happen in this league when you look back a year ago. I’m sure that a year from now it will be no different. Tom Brady, Drew Brees set the bar so high when they reached 40. I don’t know if I want to play that long, but I think that in order to be able to play until my late thirties and play long enough for my two children, I have two boys, Cooper and Turner. They are only three and almost two. I would like to play long enough that they could practice, watch me play, and really remember and appreciate it. I have a few more years to be able to do that. “
Even so, Cousins currently has only two years of contract. Given that a base salary of $ 35 million for 2022 will be fully guaranteed on March 19, it may make sense to extend the contract now. It makes a lot more sense next year. Cousins appears to be unwilling to make a new deal in either season.
“Honestly, I just signed the extension in the off-season and it’s not really going to start next year,” said Cousins. “It is a two-year contract. These two years start in 2021 … . I think it’s more about going there next season and the next year and playing at a level high enough to justify being able to do something other than that. That’s where my focus really is. As I said before, I would like to be a Viking for the rest of my career. I have to play well enough for that to happen ”.
The current Cousins agreement does not have an unlabeled clause. But he doesn’t need one. With a maximum number of US $ 45 million in 2022 and with the franchise brand rule guaranteeing it a 44 percent increase to 2023 (the two applications of the franchise brand by Washington are transferred for the purpose of triggering the ultra-fast brand of the third franchise), it would cost Vikings $ 64.8 million to apply the franchise brand after their contract expires.
In other words, Cousins - who maximized his leverage by playing year-on-year in 2015, 2016 and 2017 in Washington – seems willing to win $ 56 million over the next two years and then hit the open market, or negotiate his next contract with the Vikings knowing that he has a guaranteed path to the open market if the Vikings don’t offer what he wants.
This mentality gives Vikings even more reason to consider changing it, frankly. However, coach Mike Zimmer needs Cousins, because without Cousins the Vikings would likely take the kind of step back that would increase the likelihood that Zimmer would not last beyond 2021.