'Mark that down': Florio says 49ers, Rams will have 'tug of war' for Kirk Cousins
Kirk Cousins is in the final year of his contract with the Minnesota Vikings and there might be a couple of his former offensive coaches waiting to fight for his services in 2024. In fact, Pro Football Talk's Mike Florio said "Mark it down" when dissecting potential suitors for Cousins come next March.
"Let's play it out to March of next year. I think you're going to see – unless the Vikings re-sign him by then and they can't use the franchise tag on him the way his contract is structured – you're going to see a potential tug of war between Kyle Shanahan and Sean McVay for Kirk Cousins next March. Mark that down," Florio said Sunday on The Rich Eisen Show.
Cousins to the 49ers makes sense on a couple of levels. For starters, the connection between Cousins and Shanahan that dates back to their days together in Washington. It also makes sense because Cousins never gets injured and the 49ers have had major issues with injuries at the quarterback position.
Brock Purdy, if health, is the presumed starter in San Francisco this season. If he's not healthy, Florio believes Sam Darnold has the edge over Trey Lance. Whomever starts for the 49ers, it'll be up to them to prove they deserve another shot in 2024. If they don't, that could be the opening for a Cousins-Shanahan reunion.
Matthew Stafford is the presumed starting quarterback for the Rams in 2023 but beyond that is a mystery even though he's signed through 2026 and his $31 million in 2024 is already fully guaranteed. Trading or cutting him won't be easy because his dead cap hits are absurdly huge so the best case scenario for the Rams in moving on would be Stafford retiring.
Meanwhile, Cousins is on record saying he'll wait until March to talk contract extension with Minnesota: "I think we'll probably talk about the contract next March. Until then, just focus on this season and the job to do right now."
Another scenario worth tracking is a in-season trade involving Cousins. What if the Vikings are faltering ahead of the November trade deadline and a contender's starting quarterback goes down with a season-ending injury. Would the Vikings consider punting on the season and getting draft capital for Cousins?
One way or another, the Cousins drama never slows down and it could very well pick up speed over the next nine months.
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.