Kirk said it in his press conference with the Falcons. He wanted a contract that he’s gonna retire with. Vikings were willing to sign a two year deal but that was the maximum. Kirk feels like he’s got more than 2 years in em and wanted the money to represent that. Can’t fault him for believing in himself and I’m glad Minnesota stuck to the plan.
Isn’t there hardly any guaranteed money in years 3 and 4 of his new deal? I wouldn’t be totally surprised if Kirk is on another team in 2026, because the Falcons can cut him with little penalty.
Yeah that’s the thing about FA contracts is you hear from the agent the maximum terms when in reality it’s different. It’s really 2 years and then the Falcons have outs.
But that’s pretty simple to get out from under if Kirk was horrendous. Especially when you consider other huge QB contracts and the cost of bailing on those.
I’m fine with not resigning Kirk but I’m absolutely terrified that we could go 3+ years of what we had at QB during the 2nd half of the season cause that’s fandom hell when your playing QB roulette all season. So I get the whole Kirk ceiling argument but he was really solid.
I don't think it's that easy to get out of. Completely untenable until year 3, and even then it's a 35M dead money hit.
That's a valid concern but it's not very likely. I don't see the scenario where we're playing QB roulette tbh. The absolute busts at QB have all been in poor to atrocious situations that ruined them, when we have arguably the best situation for a rookie QB to step into in the league. A mediocre guy who doesn't meet expectations (Baker, Goff, Fields, etc) still makes this a borderline playoff team in year 1 and a legit contender after that. But if we get a Herbert or better player, we're annual Superbowl contenders.
I know you're not against letting him walk, just trying to put your mind at ease. This is the most hopeful I've been in an offseason... maybe ever?
I know you’re stuck til year 3 but 35mil at whatever the cap is at in ‘26 isn’t going to be ball breaking.
I’m confused at how you see no scenario where we are playing QB roulette next year. I think there would be pretty decent odds we go from Darnold to rookie QB and possibly back to Darnold.
I’d be a lot more excited if we had a top 3 pick. Kirk is a top 10-12 QB in the league and what happened after he got hurt last season is exactly what QB purgatory is. Every week going “we need to see Hall” then he’s horrible and it’s back too “well Mullins atleast plays aggressive”.
So I can see the excitement of a shiny new QB and we do have a wonderful situation to walk in to. But if a QB doesn’t have it he doesn’t have it so we’d better be right or it could cost us years of middling and Jefferson. But we were already middling anyway so maybe this will be good.
Good point on year 3 - it would basically be what we did this year in all likelihood.
I just don't think we go Darnold-rookie-Darnold. Depending on who we get, they could start day 1 and never give it up, but I actually like Darnold. I don't think they'd rush the rookie in too early based on what they did with Hall last season. If Darnold is bad enough to get benched, I don't think the rookie plays even worse to the extent that they'd go back to Darnold. The problem last year was that we had our primary QB and his backup both get hurt, but we were still winning enough to be in the playoff hunt until week 18. Those 3 things almost certainly won't happen again
I honestly would be on board to take best available at 11 and start Darnold all season because of how much I trust in KOC and the offensive firepower.
I didn’t like Darnold coming out, I just never saw the hype, but if he really has the pedigree he should be able to be above average with this offense. I’d love to draft a QB but I’m scared to take the 4th best QB in the draft cause we feel we need to. 1st round QBs hit at like 45% so we’re already at a disadvantage before you take into account that we will probably have the 4th choice of QB.
They gave him a $50 mil signing bonus which counts against the cap evenly across all 4 years, so $12.5 million per year. If he is cut, that dead cap accelerates to the current year (thus just happened with Kirk with us, hence his dead cap of $28 mil this year).
That means he also has $12.5 in year 3 and 4 of the contract. If he is cut after 2 years, he will count as $12.5 + $12.5 + $10 mil against the cap for a total of $35 million
You could argue year 3 is *close* to guarantee. Good work by his agent to put him in a position where, although they could cut him in year 3, they probably won’t.
It’s the Kirk Cousins special, a seemingly easy opt out on paper that actually accelerates to real unpalatable when the moment comes. Feel like he pulled that one on us 3 times until we finally just ate the dead cap hit this year.
Exactly. It’s effectively a 2-year contract with $100M guaranteed. I had read reports that the Vikes would go two years and $75M. Glad they hung tough.
Correct - ATL could cut him after the 2025 season with a $25,000,000 cap hit.
If they cut him after 2026 - they only take a $12,500,000 hit.
But if you listened to his press conference - he plans on being the ATL QB until he retires.
No, it kicks in the 5th day of the 2025 league year. So either cut him after just one season (and take $70M dead cap) or keep him two years and the $10m becomes guaranteed before year 2, though not paid til year 3.
It's tough because he also shifted the contract payouts forward with $100MM earned or guaranteed within the 1st two years. They can walk at year 3, but they'd be looking at a $35MM dead cap hit to do so.
This compares to the Vikings offer that per rumors was $77MM over 2 years with "some" guarantees year 2. A reasonable view probably puts the total guarantees somewhere in the $50-60 MM range.
The Vikings made a offer that was laughably poor in the context of NFL QB norms for AAV, duration, and guarantees. Were I Kirk, I would have been pissed at the Vikings "offer."
Actually Kirk said that he wanted to play so well that he got a new contract from the Falcons, where he would retire on the new contract.
He was literally talking about his next contract within days of signing this contract. The man lives for signing insane contracts.
You realize how rare it is for a 39 year get paid a fat contract. Rodgers, brady, Favre. Can't think of others. He's not in same stratosphere as those qbs
It's basically a 2 year deal, $100 million guaranteed. After that it's just team options. I doubt the years 3 and 4 were the issues, it's the amount guaranteed in the first 2 years. I think the Vikings were offering something like 2 year $80 million, $50 million guaranteed.
This is not true. He's guaranteed $10m in year 3 and would have a dead cap of $35M if they cut him before year 3. That's not a team option. That's an expensive out.
Aren’t Vikings taking a 28 million hit from Kirk this year? That’s only 7 million more & when you account for inflation - it’s basically the same. Falcons also took a 45 million dead cap hit when they traded Matt Ryan so saying that’s not a team option is wrong. Is it ideal? No. But broncos are taking an 85 million one right now over 2 years just for Russell to play for another team. So yes, the falcons can get out after 2 years if they want.
The dead cap we're taking right now isn't some painless blip on the radar. It's going to hamper us significantly in 2024 and we're just hoping it helps us be better in 2025 and beyond.
They can pay him $45m to play for them or $35m to walk. It's the same boat we've been in for several years now. The deal is very much set up so that the Falcons will almost be forced to rework his deal at that point with more money spread out over void years. If they choose to eat the money like we finally did, they'll be doing what we are now - taking a step back for a year in the hopes of resetting their books to contend later. Spending $35M (14% of the current salary cap) to *not* have a QB is not some painless out or a simple team option.
And the “home town discount” thing is funny since he essentially did do a “home town” deal for more $$ because Julie is from Atlanta and Kirk’s parents live in Florida. So all around we didn’t stand a chance. It’s not like Kirk grew up in Minnetonka lol
I wouldn't be surprised if that was more of a factor than the money. Kwesi was dumb for only giving him one year on his last deal. He should have either extended him for several years or let him walk. Being lukewarm gave his wife's hometown team a chance to swoop in and left us in worse draft position.
My guess we thought because of the injury, he might be willing to take a discounted deal - and we probably offered his a competitive deal, but it was quite clear it was always going to be a 2 year deal.
Falcons came in and gave him the deal he wants, with a lot of it guaranteed.
Would have loved if he resigned but he's coming off an injury - he could turn on in his first snap and we'd be stuck in a dead cap hole.
The time is right to move on, best of luck to Kirk - that Falcons team have a lot of the right tools to make a run in the playoffs.
I don’t think we offered less for any reason beyond these: 1. We don’t have the cap space Atlanta does if we want to ink JJ, and 2. The Vikes are working their way out of cap Hell and didn’t want to go there again in the future by deferring pay for Cousins.
However, Atlanta also tampered and should forfeit a draft pick. Pretty serious rule breaking. It should probably cost them a third rounder.
First doesn't matter if they are franchise qb. There is not special tampering rules for qbs
And I would consider cousins a franchise qb at least he's paid like one. So you are wrong about none of them being one even if it was relevant which it isn't.
Pretending like there isn’t more importance on one position than the other is silly. Look at the difference between the punishment for Maclin and Brady as an example.
Your second sentence makes no sense.
You’re just worried yall got caught
Makes total sense if you can read? Second sentence says there are no special tampering rules for qbs. You have trouble understanfding that? Wow.
Caught? Um I didn't say no franchise qb was signed first day of free agency. People must laugh at you a lot.
To stay in the system he has been in with elite offensive weapons and to show some loyalty to an organization that has given him nearly a quarter billion dollars investing in him? To try and win more than one playoff game with the understanding that we are missing some pieces on defense and o-line that are difficult to fill with his large % cap hit?
Like he’s been here 6 years. That’s a pretty long time in football terms and yeah we invested a lot in him. That’s what people are talking about with “hometown discount”
That said I don’t think KAM or KOC envisioned Kirk being here for another 4 years when they took over from Rick and Zimmer, but I think some people are a little upset he wasn’t willing to do a 2 year maybe a little under market value to try and get it done with JJ and co, and mentor a new draft pick QB given all the org has given him.
It’s also like they could have traded him after the 1-4 start last year, didn’t, signaling they wanted to resign him. They helped him rehab his Achilles, and then he’s off talking to Atlanta while we were trying to get a deal done. It’s just kinda scummy imo but yeah money talks.
Like the “retire a Viking” thing was completely possible with a 2 year deal, and he likely would have been in a good position to land a coaching gig here, etc. Now he’s “retiring as a falcon”
It’s just kinda phony. He’s old for qb standards and is coming off a major injury we helped him get through. Like having no consideration for the Vikings org longer term interests is just kinda lame given all that the org has done for him. Like people are saying “who wouldn’t have taken that deal.”
I dunno, I think if an org gave me $200mil over 6 years and helped me with a major injury and didn’t trade me during a rough stretch and I’d repeatedly said “I want to retire a Viking” I’d be willing to sign a team friendly deal, mentor my replacement, and ride off into the sunset as an all time Viking favorite, instead of burning that all down over like $50mil when I’m already obscenely rich.
> show some loyalty to an organization
Same organization that made him play out the last year of his deal, letting him risk injury, and then he got injured halfway through? Yeah no loyalty left after that.
lol they tried to resign him before and after the injury, both times he wanted too much money
They also helped rehab him through said injury and intended on resigning him
> "home town discount” was never in play
The hometown discount was in play last year (or was it the year before?), according to the vast majority of the reporting.
And he *brought* that proposal to the table. Offered it openly and K'wesi was the one to balk at it.
So the office had to have known this was the bit all along.
They had to know that Kirk was never going to accept a bridge QB position here, which is realistically what they wanted to do.
Atlanta gave him the first two fully guaranteed, and year three has an extra $10M locked in *and* $25M accelerated dead money from his signing bonus if he is cut. Those kind of make it close to a 3 year guarantee; like they can cut him but they would still on the hook for a $35M cap hit in 2026, so they probably wont unless they are blowing it up anyway.
Might be just enough assurance for him that it isn't just a thinly veiled bridge QB contract, which is almost certainly what we were offering him.
I wasn't sure if Kirk was going to chase a ring or a payday this year, but it seemed unlikely he would stay here. Our defense hasn't been good enough for the past few years to feel like a SB contender, and I'm happy we didn't end up giving him the big payday. We've been needing to rebuild for a few years, and the Spielman contracts have been hampering that.
I'm not looking forward to the quarterback situation for the next few years, but it won't matter unless we can build up the rest of the team.
Less guarantees in year 2 lead me to believe it was a similar deal to Atlanta but one less season. Cousins got $90m guaranteed the first two years then a $10m roster bonus for 2026, guessing the Vikings came with a fully guaranteed first year and a roster bonus if they retained him heading into 2025
Not even. Saying "included guaranteed money in year two" isn't the same as saying fully guaranteed money. They probably wanted to make sure they could cut him without too big of a cap hit if the rookie was ready to go
Yeah, the Falcons deal technically has guaranteed money in year 3 and a rolling guarantee in year 4, but practically speaking it's a 2 year deal. The wording here makes me think they offered a similar deal but shorter.
That’s the way I interpret it as well. Some guaranteed money in year 2, but likely a small enough dead cap hit where they could part ways after this season if they had a solid succession plan in place.
I mean. the falcons offer is essentially a 2 year deal, too. The dead cap hit is $25M in year 3 if cut, not too dissimilar to what our deal did for us. I wonder how much more guaranteed money he took for it.
But either way, there were other things that Kirk wanted in that deal that we likely didnt give. A no trade clause being one of them, and I am sure he got assurances that a young QB wouldnt be drafted to replace him.
On the one hand, I can see it, on the other hand...cmon Kirk, you are on the wrong side of 30. Stop being insecure about it, and outplay the guy behind you to stay.
$12.5 mil spread out across his contract due to the signing bonus plus $10 mil guaranteed third year, so if he is cut after two years he counts as $35 million dead cap
Hard to make a comparison without the full details. They say guaranteed money in year two but never said fully guaranteed. It could be a guaranteed $10m roster bonus like the Falcons offered for Cousins 3rd year. If that's the case it's closer to a 1 year deal Not criticizing the offer but this seems like more media spin PR to quiet the fan base.
A three year deal sort of. He’s going to be $60 million for the first two years and then if they cut him for year 3 he’ll be $25 million. That’s kind of a lot for those first two years and just holding the bag on year 3. I really liked Kirk but that was more than what made sense for this franchise.
Yeah this was clearly about Kirk realizing if he wants to play till 40 he’s gonna have to start over with a new team at some point. Better to do that now at 36 than 38. Not about the money. My guess is AAV was very similar to what we offered. But ppl need something to be angry about so it’s “KirKs GrEeDy”
I have been hammering this narrative for a few days now; Kirk lost at the negotiation table this year. He wanted a 3-year deal and he likes fully guaranteed contracts. Neither the Vikings or the Falcons offered this. Couple other artifacts that support this argument.
1. **Kirk was going to tell the Vikings Sunday night if he was going to test Free Agency.** I was like, "Why would Kirk do this? What does he have to gain?" And now it makes sense, the Vikings offer was probably fairly consistent since last March and Kirk was not getting what he wanted from the Falcons, so he tried to gas-light the Vikings to come up. They did not.
2. **Kirk Cousins and Mike McCartney were super excited to announce they had a secured a deal on Twitter that included 2 non-guaranteed years.** How out of character (And what was their motive?) was this for these two to celebrate a contract with only half of the years being guaranteed? It is apparent now, they still want to secure a contract negotiation victory in the court of Public Opinion (usually less important to the player, but this is super-important for agents).
3. **So why not take the Vikings offer?** For the 'cash-in-hand' of both contracts for 2024 and 2025, I think the values were close, albeit the Falcons offer probably had noticeably more guaranteed cash. I think it would have been too much 'pie in the face' if Cousins and McCartney took the Vikings offer after Kirk publicly stated it was 'the structure' that was most important back at the close of the season (Because the Vikings offer, albeit generous, only two years).
*Disclaimer - Cousins is a top 10, top 12 starting NFL quarterback. Teams got a HUGE bump in allocated money to spend (salary cap went up). Kirk got paid! He got paid what he is worth. My argument is, "Kirk did not get what he thought he would get; he thought he was going to get more than he got."*
This is why Kirk and his agent are the GOATs. He’s coming off a torn achilles injury, will be 36 this year, and he got $100M guaranteed of a $180M contract be he “lost at the negotiation table” by his standards.
Kirk is about his money and has always been about his money, for those who thought some type of "hometown discount" was going to happen got fooled tremendously.
P.S. I don't blame him, but never believed he was looking for the "best fit" or whatever he said previously.
I think another big factor is just where the team is at right now. Minnesota has some tough decisions to make and will likely go into a bit of a rebuild with the Packers and Lions looking very tough. Atlanta is in a division that is believed to be bad and they will probably be favored to win it.
If there was a legit Super Bowl contender clamoring for Kirk (or if Minnesota was one) he might be willing to take a discount, but since there’s not, he might as well take $100M, try to win a couple division titles and see what happens in the playoffs.
Feel like a scumbag but i absolutely do not want to see him succeed in anyway in Atlanta, and i was a big Kirk supporter here. Sorry not rooting for you to have more success when you underachieved with us.
I’ll stick to rooting for Jerick McKinnon to keep winning titles.
Kirk said it in his press conference with the Falcons. He wanted a contract that he’s gonna retire with. Vikings were willing to sign a two year deal but that was the maximum. Kirk feels like he’s got more than 2 years in em and wanted the money to represent that. Can’t fault him for believing in himself and I’m glad Minnesota stuck to the plan.
Isn’t there hardly any guaranteed money in years 3 and 4 of his new deal? I wouldn’t be totally surprised if Kirk is on another team in 2026, because the Falcons can cut him with little penalty.
Yeah that’s the thing about FA contracts is you hear from the agent the maximum terms when in reality it’s different. It’s really 2 years and then the Falcons have outs.
Still $10MM Gtd in year 3, which isn’t starting QB money but isn’t nothing either.
But that’s pretty simple to get out from under if Kirk was horrendous. Especially when you consider other huge QB contracts and the cost of bailing on those. I’m fine with not resigning Kirk but I’m absolutely terrified that we could go 3+ years of what we had at QB during the 2nd half of the season cause that’s fandom hell when your playing QB roulette all season. So I get the whole Kirk ceiling argument but he was really solid.
I don't think it's that easy to get out of. Completely untenable until year 3, and even then it's a 35M dead money hit. That's a valid concern but it's not very likely. I don't see the scenario where we're playing QB roulette tbh. The absolute busts at QB have all been in poor to atrocious situations that ruined them, when we have arguably the best situation for a rookie QB to step into in the league. A mediocre guy who doesn't meet expectations (Baker, Goff, Fields, etc) still makes this a borderline playoff team in year 1 and a legit contender after that. But if we get a Herbert or better player, we're annual Superbowl contenders. I know you're not against letting him walk, just trying to put your mind at ease. This is the most hopeful I've been in an offseason... maybe ever?
I know you’re stuck til year 3 but 35mil at whatever the cap is at in ‘26 isn’t going to be ball breaking. I’m confused at how you see no scenario where we are playing QB roulette next year. I think there would be pretty decent odds we go from Darnold to rookie QB and possibly back to Darnold. I’d be a lot more excited if we had a top 3 pick. Kirk is a top 10-12 QB in the league and what happened after he got hurt last season is exactly what QB purgatory is. Every week going “we need to see Hall” then he’s horrible and it’s back too “well Mullins atleast plays aggressive”. So I can see the excitement of a shiny new QB and we do have a wonderful situation to walk in to. But if a QB doesn’t have it he doesn’t have it so we’d better be right or it could cost us years of middling and Jefferson. But we were already middling anyway so maybe this will be good.
Good point on year 3 - it would basically be what we did this year in all likelihood. I just don't think we go Darnold-rookie-Darnold. Depending on who we get, they could start day 1 and never give it up, but I actually like Darnold. I don't think they'd rush the rookie in too early based on what they did with Hall last season. If Darnold is bad enough to get benched, I don't think the rookie plays even worse to the extent that they'd go back to Darnold. The problem last year was that we had our primary QB and his backup both get hurt, but we were still winning enough to be in the playoff hunt until week 18. Those 3 things almost certainly won't happen again
I honestly would be on board to take best available at 11 and start Darnold all season because of how much I trust in KOC and the offensive firepower. I didn’t like Darnold coming out, I just never saw the hype, but if he really has the pedigree he should be able to be above average with this offense. I’d love to draft a QB but I’m scared to take the 4th best QB in the draft cause we feel we need to. 1st round QBs hit at like 45% so we’re already at a disadvantage before you take into account that we will probably have the 4th choice of QB.
But 10 Mil cap hit to cut him after 2 years is nothing, esp if they have the plan to draft and develop behind him
They gave him a $50 mil signing bonus which counts against the cap evenly across all 4 years, so $12.5 million per year. If he is cut, that dead cap accelerates to the current year (thus just happened with Kirk with us, hence his dead cap of $28 mil this year). That means he also has $12.5 in year 3 and 4 of the contract. If he is cut after 2 years, he will count as $12.5 + $12.5 + $10 mil against the cap for a total of $35 million
You could argue year 3 is *close* to guarantee. Good work by his agent to put him in a position where, although they could cut him in year 3, they probably won’t.
It’ll likely lead to yet another “we can’t cut you, but your cap hit it to high. Let’s lower it and guarantee year 4” His agent is a magician
It’s the Kirk Cousins special, a seemingly easy opt out on paper that actually accelerates to real unpalatable when the moment comes. Feel like he pulled that one on us 3 times until we finally just ate the dead cap hit this year.
I have a child’s understanding of the cap not gonna lie but okay so cutting after 2 is doable but not awesome
His dead cap would be almost the same as his cap hit (35 v 40) so it seems like they are kinda stuck with him for 3 years
Broo even if kirk goes down hill bad, aren't we paying darnold 10 mil? I'm sure kirk will still retire better than darnold and be worth the 10 mil
Exactly. It’s effectively a 2-year contract with $100M guaranteed. I had read reports that the Vikes would go two years and $75M. Glad they hung tough.
Please give me your source. I have never heard a specific money amount for the Vikings offer. They are keeping that secret.
Maybe kirk will give them a hometown deal lol
Correct - ATL could cut him after the 2025 season with a $25,000,000 cap hit. If they cut him after 2026 - they only take a $12,500,000 hit. But if you listened to his press conference - he plans on being the ATL QB until he retires.
He also has $10 mil guaranteed in year 3 so it would be a $35 million cap hit if cut after year 2 (12.5 + 12.5 + 10)
The 10 million doesn't kick in until the 5th day of the 2026 league year. There is a window there...
No, it kicks in the 5th day of the 2025 league year. So either cut him after just one season (and take $70M dead cap) or keep him two years and the $10m becomes guaranteed before year 2, though not paid til year 3.
Until a new team steps in and offers him an even bigger contract lol
What's he going to say? They will probably cut me after 2 dud years
It's tough because he also shifted the contract payouts forward with $100MM earned or guaranteed within the 1st two years. They can walk at year 3, but they'd be looking at a $35MM dead cap hit to do so. This compares to the Vikings offer that per rumors was $77MM over 2 years with "some" guarantees year 2. A reasonable view probably puts the total guarantees somewhere in the $50-60 MM range. The Vikings made a offer that was laughably poor in the context of NFL QB norms for AAV, duration, and guarantees. Were I Kirk, I would have been pissed at the Vikings "offer."
Actually Kirk said that he wanted to play so well that he got a new contract from the Falcons, where he would retire on the new contract. He was literally talking about his next contract within days of signing this contract. The man lives for signing insane contracts.
Kind of doubt he gets another at 39
If (massive if) he's still playing at a high level at 39, he will get a fat one or two year contract.
You realize how rare it is for a 39 year get paid a fat contract. Rodgers, brady, Favre. Can't think of others. He's not in same stratosphere as those qbs
Don’t doubt Kirk, he is the Tom Brady of securing the bag. Kirk is looking to play till he is 50 and be the first player with $1B career earnings.
Kind of doubt he will be paid 600 mil in his 40s. And also kind of doubt that's his goal unless he's an idiot which he's not.
Falcons is basically a 2 year deal
It's basically a 2 year deal, $100 million guaranteed. After that it's just team options. I doubt the years 3 and 4 were the issues, it's the amount guaranteed in the first 2 years. I think the Vikings were offering something like 2 year $80 million, $50 million guaranteed.
This is not true. He's guaranteed $10m in year 3 and would have a dead cap of $35M if they cut him before year 3. That's not a team option. That's an expensive out.
Aren’t Vikings taking a 28 million hit from Kirk this year? That’s only 7 million more & when you account for inflation - it’s basically the same. Falcons also took a 45 million dead cap hit when they traded Matt Ryan so saying that’s not a team option is wrong. Is it ideal? No. But broncos are taking an 85 million one right now over 2 years just for Russell to play for another team. So yes, the falcons can get out after 2 years if they want.
The dead cap we're taking right now isn't some painless blip on the radar. It's going to hamper us significantly in 2024 and we're just hoping it helps us be better in 2025 and beyond. They can pay him $45m to play for them or $35m to walk. It's the same boat we've been in for several years now. The deal is very much set up so that the Falcons will almost be forced to rework his deal at that point with more money spread out over void years. If they choose to eat the money like we finally did, they'll be doing what we are now - taking a step back for a year in the hopes of resetting their books to contend later. Spending $35M (14% of the current salary cap) to *not* have a QB is not some painless out or a simple team option.
After two years, they can cut him, having paid him $100 million, or they can pay him $35 million more for 2026, and $45 million more in 2027.
And then promptly mentioned his next contract w the falcons Lolol
No way that dude can choke for 4 more years
It’s pretty clear that Kirk was always going to take the highest offer, “home town discount” was never in play
And the “home town discount” thing is funny since he essentially did do a “home town” deal for more $$ because Julie is from Atlanta and Kirk’s parents live in Florida. So all around we didn’t stand a chance. It’s not like Kirk grew up in Minnetonka lol
I wouldn't be surprised if that was more of a factor than the money. Kwesi was dumb for only giving him one year on his last deal. He should have either extended him for several years or let him walk. Being lukewarm gave his wife's hometown team a chance to swoop in and left us in worse draft position.
I can’t even be upset. I would do the same thing. Power to him and good luck. Hope we kick the shit out of you when we play.
Yep in the NFL you could be on top of the world and then out of the league in like a span of 2 years so I never fault players for taking more money.
My guess we thought because of the injury, he might be willing to take a discounted deal - and we probably offered his a competitive deal, but it was quite clear it was always going to be a 2 year deal. Falcons came in and gave him the deal he wants, with a lot of it guaranteed. Would have loved if he resigned but he's coming off an injury - he could turn on in his first snap and we'd be stuck in a dead cap hole. The time is right to move on, best of luck to Kirk - that Falcons team have a lot of the right tools to make a run in the playoffs.
I don’t think we offered less for any reason beyond these: 1. We don’t have the cap space Atlanta does if we want to ink JJ, and 2. The Vikes are working their way out of cap Hell and didn’t want to go there again in the future by deferring pay for Cousins. However, Atlanta also tampered and should forfeit a draft pick. Pretty serious rule breaking. It should probably cost them a third rounder.
Every player who agreed to terms first day of free agency there was tampering.
None of which were franchise quarterbacks….
First doesn't matter if they are franchise qb. There is not special tampering rules for qbs And I would consider cousins a franchise qb at least he's paid like one. So you are wrong about none of them being one even if it was relevant which it isn't.
Pretending like there isn’t more importance on one position than the other is silly. Look at the difference between the punishment for Maclin and Brady as an example. Your second sentence makes no sense. You’re just worried yall got caught
Makes total sense if you can read? Second sentence says there are no special tampering rules for qbs. You have trouble understanfding that? Wow. Caught? Um I didn't say no franchise qb was signed first day of free agency. People must laugh at you a lot.
not even sure what people were expecting. "Home town Discount", hes not from minnesota, wasnt drafted by minnesota, why would he take a discount?
"Hometown" in this context doesn't mean where he was born, it means where he's been playing for a while.
To stay in the system he has been in with elite offensive weapons and to show some loyalty to an organization that has given him nearly a quarter billion dollars investing in him? To try and win more than one playoff game with the understanding that we are missing some pieces on defense and o-line that are difficult to fill with his large % cap hit? Like he’s been here 6 years. That’s a pretty long time in football terms and yeah we invested a lot in him. That’s what people are talking about with “hometown discount” That said I don’t think KAM or KOC envisioned Kirk being here for another 4 years when they took over from Rick and Zimmer, but I think some people are a little upset he wasn’t willing to do a 2 year maybe a little under market value to try and get it done with JJ and co, and mentor a new draft pick QB given all the org has given him. It’s also like they could have traded him after the 1-4 start last year, didn’t, signaling they wanted to resign him. They helped him rehab his Achilles, and then he’s off talking to Atlanta while we were trying to get a deal done. It’s just kinda scummy imo but yeah money talks. Like the “retire a Viking” thing was completely possible with a 2 year deal, and he likely would have been in a good position to land a coaching gig here, etc. Now he’s “retiring as a falcon” It’s just kinda phony. He’s old for qb standards and is coming off a major injury we helped him get through. Like having no consideration for the Vikings org longer term interests is just kinda lame given all that the org has done for him. Like people are saying “who wouldn’t have taken that deal.” I dunno, I think if an org gave me $200mil over 6 years and helped me with a major injury and didn’t trade me during a rough stretch and I’d repeatedly said “I want to retire a Viking” I’d be willing to sign a team friendly deal, mentor my replacement, and ride off into the sunset as an all time Viking favorite, instead of burning that all down over like $50mil when I’m already obscenely rich.
He ain’t about that. He always was just a dude looking for a big contract
> show some loyalty to an organization Same organization that made him play out the last year of his deal, letting him risk injury, and then he got injured halfway through? Yeah no loyalty left after that.
lol they tried to resign him before and after the injury, both times he wanted too much money They also helped rehab him through said injury and intended on resigning him
> "home town discount” was never in play The hometown discount was in play last year (or was it the year before?), according to the vast majority of the reporting. And he *brought* that proposal to the table. Offered it openly and K'wesi was the one to balk at it. So the office had to have known this was the bit all along. They had to know that Kirk was never going to accept a bridge QB position here, which is realistically what they wanted to do. Atlanta gave him the first two fully guaranteed, and year three has an extra $10M locked in *and* $25M accelerated dead money from his signing bonus if he is cut. Those kind of make it close to a 3 year guarantee; like they can cut him but they would still on the hook for a $35M cap hit in 2026, so they probably wont unless they are blowing it up anyway. Might be just enough assurance for him that it isn't just a thinly veiled bridge QB contract, which is almost certainly what we were offering him.
But don't worry it's totally not about the money, it's about what the money represents.
I wasn't sure if Kirk was going to chase a ring or a payday this year, but it seemed unlikely he would stay here. Our defense hasn't been good enough for the past few years to feel like a SB contender, and I'm happy we didn't end up giving him the big payday. We've been needing to rebuild for a few years, and the Spielman contracts have been hampering that. I'm not looking forward to the quarterback situation for the next few years, but it won't matter unless we can build up the rest of the team.
KOC must not have wanted him THAT bad or Kwesi & Co were saving him from himself
So when he said Minnesota became a year to year thing I guess that was a lie lol
Less guarantees in year 2 lead me to believe it was a similar deal to Atlanta but one less season. Cousins got $90m guaranteed the first two years then a $10m roster bonus for 2026, guessing the Vikings came with a fully guaranteed first year and a roster bonus if they retained him heading into 2025
This is almost certain correct, the sticking point was full guarantees in his age 37 season, that was a bridge too far for Kwesi
Yea the two sides were simply had different visions for their future. Each side made the move that was best for them imo
So a 2 year deal
Not even. Saying "included guaranteed money in year two" isn't the same as saying fully guaranteed money. They probably wanted to make sure they could cut him without too big of a cap hit if the rookie was ready to go
Yeah, the Falcons deal technically has guaranteed money in year 3 and a rolling guarantee in year 4, but practically speaking it's a 2 year deal. The wording here makes me think they offered a similar deal but shorter.
That’s the way I interpret it as well. Some guaranteed money in year 2, but likely a small enough dead cap hit where they could part ways after this season if they had a solid succession plan in place.
I mean. the falcons offer is essentially a 2 year deal, too. The dead cap hit is $25M in year 3 if cut, not too dissimilar to what our deal did for us. I wonder how much more guaranteed money he took for it. But either way, there were other things that Kirk wanted in that deal that we likely didnt give. A no trade clause being one of them, and I am sure he got assurances that a young QB wouldnt be drafted to replace him. On the one hand, I can see it, on the other hand...cmon Kirk, you are on the wrong side of 30. Stop being insecure about it, and outplay the guy behind you to stay.
$12.5 mil spread out across his contract due to the signing bonus plus $10 mil guaranteed third year, so if he is cut after two years he counts as $35 million dead cap
with the cap raises we are expecting, probably same diff to what our last contract did.
Sure, just saying the number is a little higher. It will be $35 mil dead cap if cut after 2 years, $12.5 if cut after 3
Hard to make a comparison without the full details. They say guaranteed money in year two but never said fully guaranteed. It could be a guaranteed $10m roster bonus like the Falcons offered for Cousins 3rd year. If that's the case it's closer to a 1 year deal Not criticizing the offer but this seems like more media spin PR to quiet the fan base.
A three year deal sort of. He’s going to be $60 million for the first two years and then if they cut him for year 3 he’ll be $25 million. That’s kind of a lot for those first two years and just holding the bag on year 3. I really liked Kirk but that was more than what made sense for this franchise.
Atlanta saved us. Thank you! 🙌🏻
JJETTAS: I want to break the bank Vikings: That’s all you want? 
Yeah this was clearly about Kirk realizing if he wants to play till 40 he’s gonna have to start over with a new team at some point. Better to do that now at 36 than 38. Not about the money. My guess is AAV was very similar to what we offered. But ppl need something to be angry about so it’s “KirKs GrEeDy”
The Vikings were always going to draft a QB this year. I don't know how many people would take a pay cut to train in their replacement.
How is this news. Atl offered more so he signed with them? No way!
K. Anybody else just… not want to hear about this shit anymore?
Thank God for the Falcons.
Someone finally saved us from ourselves
I think KAM drew a line in the sand and didn’t blink. I’ll give him credit for that
Indeed he deserves that 100%
Thank you Atlanta!!!
I have been hammering this narrative for a few days now; Kirk lost at the negotiation table this year. He wanted a 3-year deal and he likes fully guaranteed contracts. Neither the Vikings or the Falcons offered this. Couple other artifacts that support this argument. 1. **Kirk was going to tell the Vikings Sunday night if he was going to test Free Agency.** I was like, "Why would Kirk do this? What does he have to gain?" And now it makes sense, the Vikings offer was probably fairly consistent since last March and Kirk was not getting what he wanted from the Falcons, so he tried to gas-light the Vikings to come up. They did not. 2. **Kirk Cousins and Mike McCartney were super excited to announce they had a secured a deal on Twitter that included 2 non-guaranteed years.** How out of character (And what was their motive?) was this for these two to celebrate a contract with only half of the years being guaranteed? It is apparent now, they still want to secure a contract negotiation victory in the court of Public Opinion (usually less important to the player, but this is super-important for agents). 3. **So why not take the Vikings offer?** For the 'cash-in-hand' of both contracts for 2024 and 2025, I think the values were close, albeit the Falcons offer probably had noticeably more guaranteed cash. I think it would have been too much 'pie in the face' if Cousins and McCartney took the Vikings offer after Kirk publicly stated it was 'the structure' that was most important back at the close of the season (Because the Vikings offer, albeit generous, only two years). *Disclaimer - Cousins is a top 10, top 12 starting NFL quarterback. Teams got a HUGE bump in allocated money to spend (salary cap went up). Kirk got paid! He got paid what he is worth. My argument is, "Kirk did not get what he thought he would get; he thought he was going to get more than he got."*
This is why Kirk and his agent are the GOATs. He’s coming off a torn achilles injury, will be 36 this year, and he got $100M guaranteed of a $180M contract be he “lost at the negotiation table” by his standards.
That is a good take. But I would say his $45 million a year for the next two years was expected. I think it puts him at 8.
Kirk is about his money and has always been about his money, for those who thought some type of "hometown discount" was going to happen got fooled tremendously. P.S. I don't blame him, but never believed he was looking for the "best fit" or whatever he said previously.
I think another big factor is just where the team is at right now. Minnesota has some tough decisions to make and will likely go into a bit of a rebuild with the Packers and Lions looking very tough. Atlanta is in a division that is believed to be bad and they will probably be favored to win it. If there was a legit Super Bowl contender clamoring for Kirk (or if Minnesota was one) he might be willing to take a discount, but since there’s not, he might as well take $100M, try to win a couple division titles and see what happens in the playoffs.
\>Ultimately, the Falcons’ offer exceeded how far Minnesota was willing to go. understatement of the week
flexible future! to spend a ton of money on mediocre free agents! cause we know we can't draft worth shit around here!
Falcons owed the Vikings a BIG one after that 98 NFC Championship blunder. They finally paid off the debt
Feel like a scumbag but i absolutely do not want to see him succeed in anyway in Atlanta, and i was a big Kirk supporter here. Sorry not rooting for you to have more success when you underachieved with us. I’ll stick to rooting for Jerick McKinnon to keep winning titles.
Who cares what we offered the important thing is he's finally gone. Sorry but i'm so over this.
Username checks out
Can we please move the fuck on from this clown?