Florio: Vikings 'playing a dangerous game of chicken' with Kirk Cousins
Lost in the abyss of post-Super Bowl madness was a very strong string of words exiting the mouth of Pro Football Talk's Mike Florio, who was adamant on his show that the Vikings are running out of time if they want to bring Kirk Cousins back in 2024.
Florio, citing conversations he had during Super Bowl week, said the Falcons and Steelers "are the two teams to watch" if Cousins doesn't re-sign with Minnesota. He then took a step further by saying Vikings owners Zygi and Mark Wilf, head coach Kevin O'Connell and general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah are "playing a dangerous game of chicken."
"If they want him they're screwing this up because if they wait to see what someone else will offer before they make their best offer, they will have waited too long," Florio said.
Florio believes the Vikings will lose Cousins to a better offer if they don't sign him before the NFL Combine starts in Indianapolis on Feb. 26.
"The Vikings are playing a dangerous game of chicken here if they want him. Maybe they don't and they're looking for a way to ease out of it. But if they want him, Zygi, Mark, Kevin, Kwesi, you're going to blow it. You need to get it done now. You definitely need to get it done before Mike McCartney, his agent, goes to Indianapolis and has all the tampering meetings that we know are going to occur," Florio said.
"Because he's going to come out of Indy knowing exactly what the Falcons will pay, exactly what anyone else will pay and it's going to be too late. I guarantee you. You got 10 days, Vikings. You got 10 days. The clock is ticking. You got 10 days. If you wait, Kirk's going to be gone. And if you don't want him, that's fine. But if you want him, you better get your asses moving."
You can watch the full segment with Florio here.
Keep in mind that Cousins has repeated many times that contract talks typically don't start until late February or early March, so take Florio's confident claim with a grain of salt.
Title: Bring Me The Sports co-owner, editor Email: joe@bringmethenews.com Twitter: @JoeBMTN Education: Southwest Minnesota State University Location: Minneapolis, Minnesota Expertise: All things Minnesota sports Nelson has covered Minnesota sports for two decades, starting his media career in sports radio. He worked at small market Minnesota stations in Marshall and St. Cloud before joining one of the nation's highest-rated sports stations, KFAN-FM 100.3 in the Twin Cities. There, he was the producer of the top-rated mid-morning sports show with Minnesota Vikings announcer Paul Allen. His radio experience helped blossom a career as a sports writer, joining Minneapolis-based Bring Me The News in 2011. Nelson and Adam Uren became co-owners of Bring Me The News in 2018 and have since more than tripled the site's traffic and launched Bring Me The Sports in cooperation with the Sports Illustrated/FanNation umbrella. Nelson has covered the Super Bowl and numerous training camps, NFL combines, the MLB All-Star Game and Minnesota playoff games, in addition to the day-to-day happenings on and off the field of play. Nelson also has extensive knowledge of non-sports subjects, including news and weather. He works closely with Bring Me The News meteorologist Sven Sundgaard to produce a bevy of weather and climate information for Minnesota readers. Nelson helped launch and manage the Bring Me The News Radio Network, which provided more than 50 radio stations around Minnesota with daily news, sports and weather reports from 2011-17.