Kirk Cousins returns to face an improved Vikings team, with questions about his future

EAGAN, Minn. — From the moment the NFL released its schedule, Week 14 seemed like a referendum for Kirk Cousins and the Minnesota Vikings. Cousins would be returning to U.S. Bank Stadium, where he played six seasons as the Vikings’ quarterback, but this time with a new team. The homecoming would give everyone the platform to ask and answer some big questions.

Did Cousins make the right call in turning down an offer to re-sign with the Vikings in March, likely for one more season, to sign a four-year contract with the Atlanta Falcons worth $100 million in full guarantees? And would the Vikings regret letting him depart without having a potential successor on the roster?

The answers seem clear even before the game is played.

The Vikings are 10-2 behind quarterback Sam Darnold, who has produced a career-best year while playing under a one-year contract worth $10 million. Mathematically, the Vikings’ record wouldn’t be much better — if at all — had Cousins returned. Cousins, who will be paid $62.5 million this season alone, has been inconsistent enough to generate questions about the potential ascension of rookie Michael Penix Jr. to jump-start a 6-6 team.

Vikings receiver Justin Jefferson, who said last year that Cousins returning to Minnesota would be perfect, said this week he thinks Cousins remains excited to be in Atlanta.

“But on this end,” Jefferson said. “We’re 10-2 and we have a new quarterback that we’re confident in and somebody that is a leader and can fill that spot. So I feel like it’s worked out both ways.”

Through Week 13, Darnold ranks No. 4 in the NFL with 23 touchdown passes, No. 5 in yards per attempt (8.2) and No. 10 in total passing yards (2,952). His 14 turnovers led the league as recently as two weeks ago, but that title now sits with Cousins (15), who threw four interceptions in a 17-13 loss last week to the Los Angeles Chargers and hasn’t tossed a touchdown pass in his past three games.

ESPN reported in August that Cousins would have given greater consideration to the Vikings’ offer if he knew at the time that the Falcons planned to draft Penix. This week, Cousins said: “You just feel so much gratitude for those people and I think that’s really the main emotion you feel.”

Darnold, on the other hand, saved the Vikings’ season after rookie J.J. McCarthy went on injured reserve in August because of a torn meniscus in his right knee. Darnold has benefitted from an elite group of skill-position players and pass blockers, as well as some of the NFL’s best QB mentors in head coach Kevin O’Connell and quarterbacks coach Josh McCown. But his recent play in particular — 811 yards, seven total touchdowns and no interceptions in his past three games — has been among the NFL’s best at the position.

“Most of the year he’s played really good football,” O’Connell said. “I’m really proud of him. But his journey over these last two, three weeks, putting in a lot of hard work and continuing to kind of grow throughout his in-season journey this year, has been really cool to watch.”

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THE VIKINGS SIGNED Darnold, who washed out with the New York Jets and Carolina Panthers earlier in his career, to be a placeholder for the rookie they planned to draft the following month. That turned out to be McCarthy, the No. 10 pick and fifth quarterback selected in the 2024 draft. McCarthy’s transition to the pro level started slowly, but he made rapid improvement in training camp, capped by a well-received debut in the Aug. 10 preseason opener against the Las Vegas Raiders.

McCarthy wouldn’t take another snap after that, as doctors discovered the torn meniscus in his right knee that required season-ending surgery. Had he avoided serious injury, McCarthy had an outside chance of winning the starting job. Instead, the role fell to Darnold, whether he was ready or not. It didn’t take long for coaches and teammates to realize he was.

“He’s a baller,” safety Harrison Smith said. “He can make stuff happen when he needs to.

“I know the outside narrative on him, and his path and everything, but ever since he got here, I don’t know. It felt like this is what was going to happen. He’s just confirmed it.”

The value of the Vikings’ decision to transition from Cousins is evident far beyond Darnold’s on-field performance. The Vikings took a $28.5 million dead-money hit on their salary cap ledger to account for the remnants of Cousins’ previous contract, but he will disappear entirely from their 2025 books.

That allowed the Vikings to sign nearly two dozen unrestricted free agents and/or incumbents with expiring contracts during the spring and summer, in addition to giving Jefferson a $140 million contract extension and doling out another $110 million to left tackle Christian Darrisaw. Jefferson ranks second in the NFL in receiving yards (1,038), but three key members of the free agent class — linebackers Jonathan Greenard, Andrew Van Ginkel and Blake Cashman — have also played huge roles in this season’s success.

The Vikings employed accounting measures to limit the trio’s 2024 salary cap charges to a combined $12.3 million, in deference to the dead money consumed by Cousins’ contract and others. Next season, the combined salary cap numbers for Greenard, Van Ginkel and Cashman will rise to $41.5 million, but that’s nearly identical to the $40 million Cousins is scheduled to make with the Falcons in 2025.

In describing his team-building plan after Cousins’ departure, general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah said: “It’s a collection of players, people, different points in their career, and you’re trying to hit that magical craps roll where a lot of things happen together at once.”

The most likely scenario for 2025 is Darnold will parlay this season into a starting job elsewhere, while McCarthy — and his $4.97 million cap charge — will ascend to QB1 for the Vikings. If that happens, Darnold and the Vikings will have maximized their time together.

“It’s just an unbelievable place,” Darnold said. “I mean, the guys in that locker room … and then just the people here. Obviously, the people in the organization, but the people that live in Minnesota have been awesome. Everywhere I go, just very genuine, very nice, cordial people. I’m just really enjoying my time here.”

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COUSINS WAS AT Mercedes-Benz Stadium for a draft-night party on April 25. On his way back to his in-laws’ home, where he and his family were staying, Cousins got a call from offensive coordinator Zac Robinson.

To the surprise of many — Cousins included — the Falcons were about to take a quarterback with the No. 8 pick, despite obvious needs elsewhere, especially at edge rusher. Robinson phoned Cousins a few minutes before as a heads-up.

Cousins viewed Atlanta as a place where he could retire. His wife, Julie, is from Georgia, and her family, who live in the area, are diehard Falcons fans. The selection of Penix indicated Cousins might not be with the franchise for as long as he hoped.

Taking a quarterback came “out of nowhere,” Cousins said on the “Pure Athlete” podcast in June, but he remained professional and texted Penix that night. The two have forged a solid relationship.

But not only did Atlanta fail to fill a need for 2024 with the top-10 pick, it became inevitable that at some point, there would be calls for Penix to start if Cousins struggled.

Those calls have begun.

Cousins helped lead Atlanta to a 6-3 start, its best since making the Super Bowl in 2016, but he has six interceptions and no touchdown passes over the past three games — all losses. Cousins threw four interceptions, including a pick-six, against the Chargers on Sunday. The Falcons have lost what was a commanding NFC South lead over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (6-6).

Now, coming off perhaps the worst three-game stretch of his 13-year career, Cousins will be heading back to Minnesota with the pressure of calls for Penix in his ear and the fate of a once-promising season on the line. The Vikings’ defense is led by the imaginative Brian Flores and is fourth in the league with 39 sacks, and opposing QBs are averaging an 81.0 passer rating, which is fourth worst in the NFL.

Even Matt Ryan, the Falcons’ last franchise quarterback, who is currently an analyst, told CBS Sports earlier this week that Penix should play if Cousins continues to struggle.

“It’s just kind of been a deal, where this league and football and my journey is, it always kicks you down, and you got to find a way to get back up, and I find myself there again,” Cousins said Wednesday. “I wish I would say I don’t, I wish I could say I wasn’t in that spot, but I find myself there again and have to just believe that tough times don’t last, tough people do. And you just keep going and pushing, and at some point they’ll tell you that, ‘Hey, you’re not going to get another chance. Your time is up in this league.’

“But until then, I’m going to keep trying to pick myself up off the mat and get back to work.”

Falcons coach Raheem Morris has given Cousins an enthusiastic show of support, saying after the Chargers game that no one gives them a better chance to win than Cousins.

“Got to go to Minnesota and get a big-time win, and Kirk is ready to go,” Morris said. “Obviously, tough game and all those type of things, but he’s been through … a lot in his career. But realistically, man, he’s built for this and he’s ready to go.”

Morris said he has discussed the Vikings game with Cousins and its significance.

“You got to kind of talk about the elephant in the room, going back to where he’s from,” Morris said. “It’s going to be a loud environment. Obviously, the environment they created for Minnesota is absolutely outstanding.”