Kirk Cousins was obviously hit with a pretty shocking situation when the Atlanta Falcons selected rookie quarterback Michael Penix Jr. in the first round just months after he signed with the team. And it sounds like the Minnesota Vikings explicitly told him they would not do that if he stayed in Minnesota instead.
During the latest episode of the Scoop City podcast, Kirk Cousins revealed that the Minnesota Vikings told him they were not planning to draft a quarterback this year if he decided to remain with the team and sign another contract.
“I don’t think they were ready to go there yet in March,” Cousins said according to The Athletic. “I think the reality is just that they wanted to give themselves that flexibility. And I remember [coach] Kevin [O’Connell]’s words, which I’m not going to hold them to, were, ‘Hey, if we sign you back, I would think it’s very unlikely that we would draft somebody.’ It was something to that effect. But I also know in the league things change.”
Even though the Falcons ultimately did select a quarterback and the Vikings said they would not, Cousins still thinks he made the right decision as his deal with Atlanta offers him more long-term security and stability than Minnesota would have.
“I just felt it had been — and was going to be — basically one year, one year, one year,” Cousins said regarding his situation in Minnesota. “I felt like, ‘Yeah, maybe I do want to play in Minnesota another five or six years, but it’s going to be on one-year contracts.’ That’s the plan they’ve chosen that they wanted to walk. I thought, ‘OK, I don’t really want to do that. I’ll do it if it’s my only option.’”
It sounds like he’s happy with his choice.
