After six years with the Minnesota Vikings, quarterback Kirk Cousins has made a decision to play elsewhere.
According to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, Cousins has decided that he will sign with the Atlanta Falcons for the 2024 season on a four-year contract. Details were not disclosed. It signals a massive shift for both franchises, as the Vikings are looking to move on and the Falcons are hoping to strike gold the Vikings never did with the same strategy they used in 2018.
The legacy that Cousins leaves is complicated. On one hand, he is a contract negotiating legend. From his three-year, fully guaranteed $84 million contract and his functionally fully guaranteed two-year, $66 million extension to his one-year extension that lasted through the 2023 season, getting every dollar essentially guaranteed, Cousins always won at the negotiating table.
On the other, he never lived up to why he was signed: being the hired gun to take the Vikings to their first Super Bowl win. Despite having two top-10 defenses with a loaded roster at the beginning of his run, it didn’t happen nor did it happen in the following four years.
The future is a little murky for the Vikings, but the unknown isn’t something to fear, but rather be hopeful. Here’s to the new era of Vikings football.