Is the Vikings’ quarterback situation holding up Justin Jefferson’s extension?

We were hoping it would have been done by now

During Super Bowl week, Minnesota Vikings star wide receiver Justin Jefferson stated that he wanted to “break the bank” with his upcoming contract extension, and seemed to imply that it wouldn’t matter who the quarterback was, be it Kirk Cousins or somebody else. While that may be true, it appears that Jefferson is in the same boat as the rest of us as far as wanting an answer.

Numerous sources are reporting that Jefferson wants to know what the Vikings’ plan at the quarterback position is before signing what’s sure to be a record-setting contract extension to stay in Minnesota.

While Jefferson has been an advocate for Cousins in the media and the front office has publicly stated that it’s “their intention” to have Cousins back this coming season, there have been rumors and conjecture about the level of contract that Cousins is seeking all over the place. An early number suggested that he wanted a fully-guaranteed 2-year, $90 million contract, which seems a bit excessive for a guy that’s closer to 40 than 30 coming off of a significant injury.

The new league year in the NFL starts at 3:00 PM Central time exactly one month from today, 13 March, with the still-ridiculously named “legal tampering” period kicking off a couple of days before that. If the team is going to bring Cousins back, they need to have a deal worked out prior to that in order to mitigate the dead cap charges from his current deal. Working anything out after that would make almost no sense because Cousins’ dead money would count against the team’s salary cap in addition to any money he’d make on a new contract.

The Vikings have been hotly rumored to be among the teams that are interested in moving up the draft board this April to acquire their quarterback of the future. Unfortunately, that could prove to be a tough tasks with the top three teams on the board all in need of quarterbacks and numerous other teams in the top half of the draft potentially looking to bring in a young signal caller as well.

I’d be a bit surprised if Jefferson wasn’t already involved in some way with what the Vikings are doing at the quarterback position, given that he’s the face of the franchise and one of the best players in the entire league. But it’s understandable that he wants to see the process the team is going through come to fruition before he makes any sort of decision. I firmly believe that, when it’s all said and done, the place that Jefferson will be “breaking the bank” will be with the Vikings, and hopefully this is something that will come to its resolution sooner rather than later.