Kirk Cousins has agreed to terms on a four-year, $172 million contract with the Atlanta Falcons, and now the Minnesota Vikings are back to the most frequent and fruitless endeavor in their history: replacing Fran Tarkenton.
Tarkenton, the Vikings' first -- and, let's be honest, only -- true franchise quarterback, retired after the 1978 season and was enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame eight years later. Over the next 45 years, the team has used every method at its disposal to acquire an elite long-term player at the most important position in sports. None has provided relief. Since the start of the NFL's free agency era in 1993, 15 different quarterbacks have led the Vikings in passing during a season -- fourth most in the league over that period.
They've signed Hall of Famers nearing the end of their careers, including Warren Moon (1994) and Brett Favre (2009). They tried to sign Dan Marino in 2000. They've drafted quarterbacks in the first round, from Tommy Kramer (1977) to Daunte Culpepper (1999) to Christian Ponder (2011) to Teddy Bridgewater (2014). In 2016, they used a first-round draft pick to trade for Sam Bradford. They've put their hopes in veterans they thought could ignite otherwise talented teams, such as Jim McMahon (1993), Randall Cunningham (1998-99), Jeff George (1999) and Gus Frerotte (2008).
And then, in 2018, the Vikings conjured a new approach. They decided to set a new NFL paradigm and give Cousins, then 30 and with one playoff appearance in three seasons as a starter with Washington, the most lucrative guaranteed contract in NFL history.
That contract, originally a three-year deal worth $84 million that required two extensions and multiple restructures to maintain salary cap stability, pushed Cousins' tenure to six full seasons. In a testament to the team's volatile history at the position, he started more games in a Vikings uniform (88) than anyone other than Tarkenton (170) and Kramer (110).
This spring, however, the Vikings effectively decided Cousins' tenure was over. He turns 36 in August and is coming off the first major injury of his career, a torn right Achilles. And though he has generated one playoff victory with the Vikings in exchange for $185 million in salary, Cousins wanted a multiyear commitment to continue as the team's starter.
General manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah and coach Kevin O'Connell wanted him back for 2024 as part of their "competitive rebuild" roster retooling. It's pretty unlikely, after all, that the Vikings will replace Cousins with someone who outperforms him right away.
Adofo-Mensah said in a statement Monday that he had "significant and positive dialogue with Kirk and his representatives." But according to sources, the Vikings drew a line on pushing a firm commitment to Cousins -- via guaranteed money -- into 2025 or beyond. And he did so fully knowing that the Falcons, or perhaps another team, would be far more willing to oblige Cousins' demands.
That approach makes plenty of sense in the abstract, given Cousins' age and the long list of roster needs elsewhere. But it also put Adofo-Mensah in the same spot that all of his predecessors have stood before: Finding a new starting quarterback amid a league landscape that produces as many failures as success stories.
This edition of the Vikings' recurring history is more acute than most of the others. Adofo-Mensah does not have a quarterback heir on the roster, as the Vikings did when Moon gave way to Brad Johnson in 1996 and George gave way to Culpepper in 2000. Nor does he have a clear path to signing or drafting the next Tarkenton. The veteran free agent quarterback market is already picked over, and if they don't move up from their No. 11 overall spot in next month's draft, there will be at least three and possibly five quarterbacks off the board at that point.
But in Minnesota years, a six-season quarterback tenure is a lifetime. The Cousins Era will be remembered as good but certainly not transcendent. The Vikings finished 50-37-1 in his starts and made only two postseason appearances, with one victory, in that period. His tenure was closer to Tommy Kramer than Fran Tarkenton. On it goes.