At the 1/2 way mark; KC Contract

[purplefaithful]

The Vikings are now officially halfway through the three-year, $84 million contract they gave Kirk Cousins in March 2018, when they turned the football world on its ear by making him the first quarterback to receive a fully guaranteed multiyear deal.
The pact between Cousins — who had been a lightning rod for hot takes during his two years playing on the franchise tag in Washington — and a team that had just come off an NFC Championship Game appearance was always going to invite scrutiny, especially in a market where the home team’s attempts to solve its QB problems through free agency had usually been limited to one- or two-year deals for veterans.
But as we make the turn, both on the Vikings’ season and on Cousins’ deal, two things have happened: First, the fully guaranteed nature of the contract is the only thing that makes it unique at this point. And second, Cousins is suddenly playing in a manner worthy of the money.
http://www.startribune.com/halfway-throu...563919832/

[Guest]

Signing Cousins is the kind of choice on which NFL decisionmakers stake their livelihoods, and the true outcome of the deal will be based on the kinds of tasks Cousins hasn’t frequently (or ever) accomplished to this point: winning second-half road games against three teams currently above .500, leading a team to the playoffs and performing well enough once there to engineer deep postseason runs.
“It’s going to be right there for us, and we got to go out and do it,” Cousins said Thursday night. “6-2 doesn’t mean a whole lot if you don’t turn the last eight games into something special. And we got some big-time games up ahead. These aren’t going to be easy opponents. We’re going to be playing in tough environments against really good football teams, so the work doesn’t get any easier from here.”

[Guest]

With Zimmer and General Manager Rick Spielman on deals that expire after the 2020 season, though, Cousins can deliver an awful lot of job security to the Vikings’ sprawling headquarters in Eagan by the way he plays over the next three months.

He can also set himself up well for another round of contract negotiations that aren’t that far into the future.

Cousins’ deal, which expires in 16 months, contains a provision that prohibits the Vikings from using the transition tag on him after the 2020 season, but not one that bars them from using the franchise tag. His agent, Mike McCartney, didn’t prohibit the Vikings from using the tag for a third time in Cousins’ career because of a rule change that would require a 44% bump in his salary for 2021. That’d push Cousins to $42.5 million in the first year of a new NFL collective bargaining agreement, all but guaranteeing the Vikings would want to work out a new multiyear deal on their terms before then if they deem Cousins to be their long-term QB.He will be 32 years old when his current contract expires, and could drop further down the list of the NFL’s highest-paid QBs if teams like the Chiefs and Texans opt to lock up Mahomes and DeShaun Watson with multiyear deals before they hit their fifth-year options in 2022. 
If Cousins is talking about a second deal with the Vikings by next spring or summer, the thinking goes he will have played well enough to ensure some security for those on both sides of the bargaining table. It wouldn’t be far-fetched at that point for him to pursue a longer-term deal worth more than $30 million a year, or another short pact with full guarantees.

[Guest]

If he's willing to take a team - friendly deal, we should do it. If he's going to demand to be paid like like a top QB, then I think we let the contract play out and draft a QB.  I want to believe that he cares about team and winning.  I want to believe that he's not greedy (even if the case could be made that he deserves a raise).  But if f he's just about getting as much money as he can, while he can... I'd be OK moving on without him.

[Guest]

We have too many stars elsewhere who need to be retained to afford a second contract for Kirk...not for the production we get from him...

[Guest]

While I still have a healthy skeptic streak, I think its too premature to say either way. Let it play out some and hope like heck for the best.