Kyle Shanahan Speaks. Maybe the Cousins Rumors Were Real.
Dustin Baker
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It was late January, and a non-Minnesota Vikings quarterback had just been traded elsewhere. And it was a signal-caller intimately familiar to the Vikings.
His name was Matthew Stafford, and he was sent to the Los Angeles Rams for Jared Goff. The Detroit Lions — a division foe of the Vikings — received the Rams first-round draft picks in 2022 and 2023, a third-round pick in 2021, and the aforementioned Goff.
What did Vikings fans do with this information? Speculate how the Lions will now size up against the Vikings? No — absolutely not.
Conversations immediately shifted to “what trade package would Kirk Cousins fetch” if Stafford commanded a Godfather-like deal. Cousins is not universally loved in Minnesota, so any discussion that nibbles at trading him garners a boatload of interest. The Stafford-Goff trade sent those Cousins trade rumors skyward.
The trade gossip started here with NFL analyst, Evan Massey — a day after the Lions-Rams trade.
This was the social media haymaker that started it all for 2021 Cousins trade rumors, and other pundits piggybacked. With or without merit, Cousins was officially tradebait.
Massey has a blue checkmark on his social media resume, so now it was off to the races for the theoretical Cousins Sweepstakes. The bulk of the Cousins chatter to San Francisco was derived from his relationship with Kyle Shanahan in Washington. Shanahan and Cousins worked side-by-side for two seasons – Cousins’ first and second campaigns – in 2012 and 2013. This was the Robert Griffin III era, and Shanahan was the offensive coordinator.
Yes, the two men know each other. They might even be friends. Yet, Cousins was never the breadwinner in a Washington Football Team offense with Shanahan. Cousins was the backup signal-caller to Griffin III. He was never an unabashed starting quarterback with Shanahan anywhere.
Still, this information was [evidently] enough to jolt Cousins-related trade rumors.
Nothing ever came of Massey’s confabulation as head coach Mike Zimmer and general manager Rick Spielman outwardly committed to Cousins for 2021 – and perhaps beyond.
Then, last week, the San Francisco 49ers traded with the Miami Dolphins for nine planks of the 2021 draft ladder. Miami sent the #3 pick to the 49ers in exchange for the #12 pick this year, a 1st and 3rd-Round pick in 2022, and a 1st-Round pick in 2023. Wowzers.
That transaction emphatically killed Cousins-to-49ers rumors — for good. The 49ers will now target their quarterback of the future with the third overall pick while Jimmy Garoppolo hangs out in the background.
On Monday, though, the plot thickened. Call it revisionist history.
San Francisco head coach Kyle Shanahan flat-out acknowledged that he wanted Cousins prior to 2017 when Garoppolo joined the 49ers. In all likelihood, that probably means Shanahan has been fascinated with Cousins all along. Perhaps even making the phone to Rick Spielman this offseason to ask about Cousins’ trade price tag.
While Massey’s tweet was ambitious and/or bombastic, he may not have been wrong about the 49ers interest in the 32-year-old Cousins. At least on one side of the chinwag, the 49ers likely wanted a piece of Cousins.
The Vikings just weren’t interested.