When a starting quarterback on a team with Super Bowl aspirations goes down with a season-ending injury, discussions about trading for a quarterback is bound to happen. It happened with the Minnesota Vikings back in 2016.
Teddy Bridgewater went down with a tragic knee injury that nearly cost him his leg and they traded for Sam Bradford just two days later. That theory is being floated around by many after New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers tore his Achilles tendon just four plays into his 2023 season.
The Jets are firmly Super Bowl contenders with Rodgers in the fold, as they have a top-five defense with the reigning offensive and defensive rookies of the year.
That has led to a wide discussion on social media about Kirk Cousins and if he would be a viable trade candidate for the Jets.
Theoretically, he absolutely he makes sense. Last year of his contract and a veteran passer that can come in and be significantly above replacement level with really good weapons and a running game.
Will it happen? Absolutely not.
There are multiple reasons that it won’t happen. First off, general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah has actively said that he won’t tank and spoke to not wanting to take a step back at the most important position in football.
“I’ll be frank,” Adofo-Mensah told USA Today’s Jori Epstein. “The one asset where you get nervous about not burning it down is quarterback.”
The competitive rebuild is about trying to win with what you have while also setting up the franchise to succeed in the future. That theory worked well in 2022 when the Vikings won the NFC North with a 13-4 record.
Along with that, Cousins has a no-trade clause. That allows him to control where he ends up going if the Vikings did decide to try and trade him. That gives him ultimate control and he can just say no, I’m going to stay here.
The only way that the Vikings would entertain a trade for Cousins would be something insane like an 0-7 start and season-ending injury to Justin Jefferson at the trade deadline. That could cause Adofo-Mensah to sell at the deadline like a team does in Major League Baseball, but it’s incredibly unlikely.
Right now, it’s time to put those ideas away. The Vikings are not going to be trading Cousins to the Jets. Besides, they still can’t move their first or second-round pick in 2024 unless they negotiate with the Green Bay Packers.[lawrence-related id=82964,82925,82912,82909,82899,82886]