Advertisement

Kirk Cousins reportedly will sign with Vikings, who offered fully guaranteed deal

It sounds like the Kirk Cousins Sweepstakes already has a winner.

Via multiple reports, Cousins is expected to sign with the Minnesota Vikings on Thursday. Minnesota has offered Cousins a three-year, $84 million contract – fully guaranteed.

If math isn’t your forte, that’s $28 million per year.

Cousins will visit with Vikings coaches and other team personnel on Wednesday night, NFL Network reported. The plan right now is for Cousins to stay in Minneapolis and visit the team’s brand-new practice facility on Thursday – so unless things go horribly, it sounds like he won’t be making visits elsewhere.

He likes that: QB Kirk Cousins will reportedly sign a three-year, fully guaranteed contract with the Minnesota Vikings. (AP)
He likes that: QB Kirk Cousins will reportedly sign a three-year, fully guaranteed contract with the Minnesota Vikings. (AP)

Cousins received the franchise tag from Washington in 2016 and 2017, and that money was fully guaranteed as well. Unlike so many other players who sign contracts that look good in headlines but get only a fraction of the money, Cousins is walking away with a robust bank account.

And other players have taken notice: Seattle receiver Doug Baldwin Jr. tweeted that Cousins is “a hero for all the young players that will follow after him. Now we need more players to bet on themselves until fully guaranteed contracts are the norm and not the exception.”

If you’re Aaron Rodgers, wouldn’t you go to the Packers and say you want fully guaranteed money too? It seems unlikely that non-quarterbacks will be getting fully guaranteed deals right away, but in a league so reliant on quarterbacks, we may be seeing a turning of the tide.

A fourth-round draft pick in 2012, Cousins has been Washington’s full-time starter for the last three years, over which time the team was 24-23-1 and went to the playoffs after the 2015 season.

Play Tourney Pick’em | Fill out your bracket | Print it | Play against Draymond Green

Cousins completed 1,132 of 1,689 passes (67 percent) for 13,176 yards with 81 touchdowns and 36 interceptions from 2015-17.

He was named a Pro Bowler in 2016.

Case Keenum, who started 14 games for the Vikings last season and led the team to the NFC championship game, where they lost to the Philadelphia Eagles, agreed to a contract with the Denver Broncos on Monday night.

Sam Bradford, the Vikings’ original starting quarterback entering last season, will sign with the Arizona Cardinals, according to a report from ESPN’s Adam Schefter.

More from Yahoo Sports:
Everything about AL MVP’s White House visit was bizarre
Woman follows NFL players, yells, ‘get off your knees’
California law causes headache for NCAA tournament team
Soccer match suspended after owner runs on field with gun