Take a look at the Vikings’ quarterbacking performance in the last two seasons since Kevin O’Connell and Kwesi Adofo-Mensah arrived in Minnesota. They have been gradually approaching the choice they will make on Thursday night ever since Adofo-Mensah and O’Connell showed up.
Because of O’Connell’s past with Kirk Cousins, the Vikings decided to start the 33-year-old quarterback for two seasons. Under O’Connell’s offense, Cousins flourished, leading the Vikings to a 13-win campaign in 2022. He then posted some of his best numbers in the first half of 2023, but his season was cut short by a torn right Achilles. The fans started to love Cousins, especially in 2023, and he and O’Connell became close personal friends. The coach also gave him leadership responsibilities. However, the Vikings never gave Cousins their all.
When the parties could not come to an agreement on a long-term contract, they offered him a one-year extension in 2022 and added two vacant years to his contract in 2023, guaranteeing he would become a free agent following the season. The Vikings wanted to re-sign Cousins for 2024, but their offers to him, like theirs in 2023, lacked the guarantee structure Cousins demanded. Upon Cousins’ free agency departure to the Falcons, the Vikings signed Sam Darnold as a stopgap player while they looked for a long-term successor.
The Vikings’ approach with Cousins was always colored by the franchise’s intrigue about selecting his successor: a young QB whom O’Connell and the Vikings’ offensive staff could develop into the kind of decade-long fixture at the position the Vikings haven’t had since Fran Tarkenton. Since Teddy Bridgewater’s knee injury led former General Manager Rick Spielman to trade a first-round pick for Sam Bradford in 2016, the Vikings have spent eight seasons paying market-rate prices for veteran QBs, with only five playoff games and two victories to show for it. Vikings ownership was also said to be allured by the short-term competitive boost that can come with a productive QB on a rookie contract, allowing teams to spend aggressively in free agency while enjoying cost control at the game’s most important position.
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