Kirk Cousins as a Packer in 2024? ESPN Analysts Aren’t Ruling It Out
A few weeks ago, the Minnesota Vikings lost Kirk Cousins for the 2023 season due to an Achilles tear.
With the team sitting at 4-4 following what was a three-game winning streak at the time, the injury deflated much of the newfound optimism in this purple team.
Luckily, Josh Dobbs has brought more hope for the Vikings as they’ve continued their winning ways and now sit at 6-4. However, the question remains: what will happen with Cousins in the spring?
It’s an almost annual topic in Minnesota as to whether or not the Vikings should keep Cousins around as their QB1, and those chats will inevitably amplify to never-before-heard levels when the veteran enters free agency in March. Will he stay in Minnesota? Will he go elsewhere? Could he even go so far as to sign with the cheese team across the state border?
Kirk Cousins as a Packer in 2024?
In an attempt to answer these questions and others, ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler and Dan Graziano published a roundtable article this week about NFL rumors, and Cousins to the Packers was one of the theories they discussed.
Graziano explained, “My sleeper is Green Bay. Jordan Love doesn’t look like the answer, and while the Packers are as patient as any team in the league, they’re also used to winning. Cousins knows the Packers’ offense because it’s a derivative of Kyle Shanahan’s scheme from their time together in Washington, and Cousins and Green Bay coach Matt LaFleur could work well together.”
Fowler agreed, “Yeah, these last eight games are crucial for Love. He is a really good thrower of the football with a bit of that gunslinger mentality that makes him turnover-prone. Operating more cleanly down the stretch could help chart a path in 2024 with Green Bay.”
It does seem like the Packers have put their eggs in the wrong basket by trusting Love to run their offense. Following a 2-1 start to begin the season, Green Bay has tumbled down the standings to 3-6 by losing five of their past six games. The only victory in this timeframe came against a Los Angeles Rams team that had Brett Rypien at QB rather than Matthew Stafford.
It also cannot be overlooked that Cousins was well on his way to an MVP-caliber season with how he began the year. Cousins passed for 2331 yards and 18 TDs compared to just 5 INTs over the course of 8 games before his injury.
As Graziano mentions as well, the Packers only have $5.5 million in guaranteed money committed to Love next season, and nothing after that. It wouldn’t be too painful to part ways with him or even simply move him to the backup spot if they wanted to make a run at Cousins next spring.
In the end, though, we have to remember that Kevin O’Connell has not been opposed to the idea of Cousins returning to Minnesota. Following his injury, the Vikings head coach told reporters, “Kirk Cousins is going to be healthy again. I know he’s going to be a free agent after this season, but Kirk knows how I feel about him, and that will be something, you know, that hopefully will work itself out.”
As long as he is able to fully heal from the injury, and his price tag isn’t outlandish, it makes a lot of sense for the Vikings to bring Cousins back. There is a sense of unfinished business with the QB, and O’Connell has done a great job of maximizing him over the past couple years.
In the end, though, NFL free agency is a wild time. Things often don’t go as expected, but Cousins joining the Packers (in a bit of a reversal of Brett Favre’s career), would be a truly crazy outcome.
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Josh Frey is a Class of 2020 graduate of The College of Idaho and managing editor of PurplePTSD.com. When he’s not writing about the NFL, Josh enjoys running, gaming, or rooting for the Milwaukee Brewers and Bucks. Check out his Twitter account: @Freyed_Chicken.