Forum The Longship Kirk Open To Restructuring?

Kirk Open To Restructuring?

JU
Joined Jan 2014
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Kirk Cousins on if he would take less money (he has a $45 million cap hit next year) to ensure he can stay with the Vikings:

“It’s hard to have these conversations when I haven’t given it any thought and don’t know any of those numbers. But I know that I want to be a Viking...

...and that’s kind of the foundation of it all. From there, it’s pretty easy to make those conversations happen when you want to be a Minnesota Viking.”
Get him a RG better than warm dog shit, and I think you can get him to a number that is more palatable.

Maybe throw in a conversion van too.


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#1 · Jan 9, 5:04 PM
DE
Joined Apr 2026
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@"Havoc1649" said: The recipe for success with Cousins at QB is pretty damn simple. Find a coordinator/coach who believes in passing downfield to set up the run is read of the insanity we trotted out this year and get a freaking competent defense. Even a middle of the road defense and we win 12+ games this year and would have been a legit Super Bowl contender. 
Cousins is the least of our concern other than his cap number. You can win a lot of games with a guy like that if you put together a balanced team. Zimmer is a stubborn guy and we have all paid for it. Now it’s time to bring in an up and coming coach.
Integral to the Cousins conversation is his cap number.  Almost all of his detractors say things like, “He’s good, but just not good enough to outweigh his high cap number which prevents us from signing other also good players”.  The new coach, just like the old coach, will have less resources to build the rest of the team around Cousins than we would with a cheaper QB.  You’re just hoping you get more talent on the field for your cap dollar.  And a lot of our defensive problems are due to us focusing on building up our offense (and missing on our relatively few high defensive draft picks in recent seasons).

 I think the recipe
for success with Cousins is that we really need an offensive guru.  We’re going to need someone who can better
see why some games we have good Kirk and some games we have bad Kirk and really
figure out how to shift that dramatically into the good Kirk camp.  I think you probably need a consistently
solid gameplan going into the game, as I don’t think Cousins is really the type
of guy that you can napkin sketch what the defense is doing right now and make
a new plan on the fly.  We’re probably
going to need someone who will provide youthful, confident, motivating energy.  Normally, you want your QB to be the guy that
people rally around, but Cousins just isn’t that guy, so either the HC or OC
has to have that skillset.  From a team
composition, I think you probably have to overspend on offense and underspend
on defense, so coaching on defense would also be huge.  On the offensive side of the ball, even
though I think Jefferson is great, I think Spielman did it backwards, I think we’d
have been better off investing in big uglies than skill position players.  Cousins limitations seem to show up more due
to limited pass blocking than needing guys to be wide open.  That said, not sure what you can do about it
at this point.

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#42 · Jan 10, 12:52 PM
DE
Joined Apr 2026
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@"JustinTime18™" said: So, in your world, Cousins played 17 games this season?

Cool. 

Further proof the multi verse is real.


He didn't play 17 games. He missed a Packers game and the nightmare that is Mannion played. Mannion should be fired next. 

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#43 · Jan 10, 1:03 PM
DE
Joined Apr 2026
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@"Vikergirl" said:
@"JustinTime18™" said: So, in your world, Cousins played 17 games this season?

Cool. 

Further proof the multi verse is real.


He didn't play 17 games. He missed a Packers game and the nightmare that is Mannion played. Mannion should be fired next. 


I guess Mark either blacked out during the packer game or didn't watch, which in hindsight, was a solid move.

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#44 · Jan 10, 1:33 PM
DE
Joined Apr 2026
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@"medaille" said:
@"Havoc1649" said: The recipe for success with Cousins at QB is pretty damn simple. Find a coordinator/coach who believes in passing downfield to set up the run is read of the insanity we trotted out this year and get a freaking competent defense. Even a middle of the road defense and we win 12+ games this year and would have been a legit Super Bowl contender. 
Cousins is the least of our concern other than his cap number. You can win a lot of games with a guy like that if you put together a balanced team. Zimmer is a stubborn guy and we have all paid for it. Now it’s time to bring in an up and coming coach.
Integral to the Cousins conversation is his cap number.  Almost all of his detractors say things like, “He’s good, but just not good enough to outweigh his high cap number which prevents us from signing other also good players”.  The new coach, just like the old coach, will have less resources to build the rest of the team around Cousins than we would with a cheaper QB.  You’re just hoping you get more talent on the field for your cap dollar.  And a lot of our defensive problems are due to us focusing on building up our offense (and missing on our relatively few high defensive draft picks in recent seasons).

 I think the recipe
for success with Cousins is that we really need an offensive guru.  We’re going to need someone who can better
see why some games we have good Kirk and some games we have bad Kirk and really
figure out how to shift that dramatically into the good Kirk camp.  I think you probably need a consistently
solid gameplan going into the game, as I don’t think Cousins is really the type
of guy that you can napkin sketch what the defense is doing right now and make
a new plan on the fly.  We’re probably
going to need someone who will provide youthful, confident, motivating energy.  Normally, you want your QB to be the guy that
people rally around, but Cousins just isn’t that guy, so either the HC or OC
has to have that skillset.  From a team
composition, I think you probably have to overspend on offense and underspend
on defense, so coaching on defense would also be huge.  On the offensive side of the ball, even
though I think Jefferson is great, I think Spielman did it backwards, I think we’d
have been better off investing in big uglies than skill position players.  Cousins limitations seem to show up more due
to limited pass blocking than needing guys to be wide open.  That said, not sure what you can do about it
at this point.



Bingo on both Cousins & his surrounding environment as well as capital spending.

I wanted Kirk to be the guy too, but as you illustrated, you need a lot of the right things to make him a Super Bowl winner, including having a well coached but low cost defense.  That's rare but not impossible.  It's absolutely threading the needle in regards to resources and competition for those resources.

Invest in the big uglies, develop skill position players from younger players.  A strong vet OL can make many rookies, 2nd year guys, good QBs look very good.  Look at the Pats as a current example, name one offensive threat they have, I sure as fuck can't.  

If you have some talent like Jefferson, Cook, plus a strong vet OL, you have the recipe for greatness.   I don't know how you make that happen with Cousins, I hope the next GM understands it's time to rip the band-aid off.  

Restructure if you have to and deal him, move on.

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#45 · Jan 10, 2:17 PM
DE
Joined Apr 2026
206,512 posts
Rep: 0
@"Skodin" said:
@"medaille" said:
@"Havoc1649" said: The recipe for success with Cousins at QB is pretty damn simple. Find a coordinator/coach who believes in passing downfield to set up the run is read of the insanity we trotted out this year and get a freaking competent defense. Even a middle of the road defense and we win 12+ games this year and would have been a legit Super Bowl contender. 
Cousins is the least of our concern other than his cap number. You can win a lot of games with a guy like that if you put together a balanced team. Zimmer is a stubborn guy and we have all paid for it. Now it’s time to bring in an up and coming coach.
Integral to the Cousins conversation is his cap number.  Almost all of his detractors say things like, “He’s good, but just not good enough to outweigh his high cap number which prevents us from signing other also good players”.  The new coach, just like the old coach, will have less resources to build the rest of the team around Cousins than we would with a cheaper QB.  You’re just hoping you get more talent on the field for your cap dollar.  And a lot of our defensive problems are due to us focusing on building up our offense (and missing on our relatively few high defensive draft picks in recent seasons).

 I think the recipe
for success with Cousins is that we really need an offensive guru.  We’re going to need someone who can better
see why some games we have good Kirk and some games we have bad Kirk and really
figure out how to shift that dramatically into the good Kirk camp.  I think you probably need a consistently
solid gameplan going into the game, as I don’t think Cousins is really the type
of guy that you can napkin sketch what the defense is doing right now and make
a new plan on the fly.  We’re probably
going to need someone who will provide youthful, confident, motivating energy.  Normally, you want your QB to be the guy that
people rally around, but Cousins just isn’t that guy, so either the HC or OC
has to have that skillset.  From a team
composition, I think you probably have to overspend on offense and underspend
on defense, so coaching on defense would also be huge.  On the offensive side of the ball, even
though I think Jefferson is great, I think Spielman did it backwards, I think we’d
have been better off investing in big uglies than skill position players.  Cousins limitations seem to show up more due
to limited pass blocking than needing guys to be wide open.  That said, not sure what you can do about it
at this point.



Bingo on both Cousins & his surrounding environment as well as capital spending.

I wanted Kirk to be the guy too, but as you illustrated, you need a lot of the right things to make him a Super Bowl winner, including having a well coached but low cost defense.  That's rare but not impossible.  It's absolutely threading the needle in regards to resources and competition for those resources.

Invest in the big uglies, develop skill position players from younger players.  A strong vet OL can make many rookies, 2nd year guys, good QBs look very good.  Look at the Pats as a current example, name one offensive threat they have, I sure as fuck can't.  

If you have some talent like Jefferson, Cook, plus a strong vet OL, you have the recipe for greatness.   I don't know how you make that happen with Cousins, I hope the next GM understands it's time to rip the band-aid off.  

Restructure if you have to and deal him, move on.



a top tier OL and a dominant DL can fix a lot of woes.   Average skill players on offense can look all world when they are at the second level before they are hit, have a strong 3 count on most passing plays,  or have time to make double and triple moves on a route regularly.  same goes for a defense that allows the LBs to run clean against the run,  drop into passing lanes because they dont have to try and blitz,  as well as the corners not having to worry about the QB standing tall in the pocket waiting for their third and fourth reads to come open.  

lets build our lines and our line depth,  then go looking for the rest of the team.

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#46 · Jan 10, 2:55 PM
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