Vikings' Leadership Comments on Kirk Cousins' Departure For First Time

The Vikings basically had a line they weren't willing to cross in negotiations with Cousins.

Three days after it was first reported that Kirk Cousins would be signing a four-year, $180 million deal with the Falcons, Vikings GM Kwesi Adofo-Mensah and head coach Kevin O'Connell spoke to the media and addressed the departure of their starting quarterback for the first time.

What they said is consistent with what we already knew about how things went down. The Vikings wanted Cousins back, but it had to be on terms that they were comfortable with. They made their offer — a multi-year offer that included guaranteed money in year two, according to The Athletic — and stuck to it. Ultimately, the Falcons came in with a better offer and lured him away. At his introductory presser in Atlanta on Wednesday, Cousins said things had become "year-to-year" with the Vikings recently, and that he believes this commitment from the Falcons will allow him to retire there if he plays the way he expects to play.

Simply put, the Vikings felt they had to stick to their plan, while the Falcons were comfortable making an offer that better aligned with what Cousins was looking for. Atlanta clearly believes that it's a position to contend for a championship with Cousins at the helm of a loaded offense.

"This sport isn't such where you can just say, on a binary basis, I want that player," Adofo-Mensah said. "I think we've been very clear since we've gotten here that we like Kirk Cousins. We've been very clear that we think we could win a Super Bowl with Kirk Cousins. But we have a sport that only gives you a certain number of draft picks, a salary cap, competition versus other teams. It's a resource-constrained thing, so we don't get the chance to just say, binary, yes or no. There has to be planning and strategy involved. 

"When I called Kirk, we joked about the uncomfortable middle (in negotiations). That's what deals should be. We weren't able to find that. And that's hard, from a basis of an appreciation for the player. But that doesn't mean we didn't compete for him. Just sometimes, it gets to a place where that uncomfortable middle isn't somewhere where you wanted to go — where a different team can go, because in their timeline of their team, they're just in a different situation."

The Vikings have known for a while that losing Cousins was a possibility. They put themselves in that position when they didn't sign him to a multi-year extension last offseason. This time around, they again declined to make a long-term commitment to Cousins, who turns 36 in August. They've been building contingency plans, which included signing Sam Darnold this week and will likely also include drafting a QB next month, no matter what Adofo-Mensah says.

On Thursday, the Vikings wanted to make it clear that they were in alignment on this decision. O'Connell has always been a big fan of Cousins — he reiterated at the combine earlier this month that he wanted him back in Minnesota — but he understands why the team went in the direction that it did.

"There was complete alignment," O'Connell said. "Not only going into the process, but how everything played out. Everybody knows how myself, Kwesi, this organization feels about Kirk. Sometimes things just don't work out. The most important thing is that alignment and the understanding that our plan's in place. Kwesi's used the (term) contingency plans, but those are all discussions and paths and avenues we can take at a very, very important position. In the end, as much as I would've maybe liked to have Kirk here, the right thing moving forward for our team is where we are today. I'm very confident in where we're going to go at that position in the future."

Jeffrey Becker-USA TODAY Sports

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