The speculation about Kirk Cousins’ asking price has started

And the first report is a doozy

We’re about six weeks or so away from the start of free agency in the National Football League, and the big piece of speculation for the Minnesota Vikings will be centered around the quarterback position.

The team will have to come to a conclusion on whether to bring back quarterback Kirk Cousins for the 2024 season and beyond by 13 March, when Cousins’ current contract voids and he will hit unrestricted free agency. If the team wants to prevent that, they’ll have to put together some sort of an extension that works with the numbers they’re currently dealing with.

Longtime St. Paul Pioneer Press scribe Charley Walters has a bit of speculation about what it might take to sign Cousins in his latest column and. . .hoo, boy, that’s a big number.

The buzz now is that it will take $90 million guaranteed for two years, despite that he’s still not yet fully recovered from Achilles surgery in November, to sign free agent QB Kirk Cousins. If that’s the case, he certainly won’t get that from the Vikings.

Look, folks. . .I’ve made it relatively clear that I’d like Kirk Cousins back in Minnesota to, at the very least, hold things steady while the team develops their quarterback of the future for a season or two. He was on his way to having a great season when he got injured and this team, quite frankly, would have moonwalked into the playoffs with him behind center for the entire season.

But if $45 million/year (guaranteed, at that) is the asking price for a 36-year old quarterback coming off of a significant injury? He’s probably played his last down as a member of the Minnesota Vikings.

Honestly, though. . .and with all due respect to Mr. Walters. . .I don’t think it’s going to take that much. Again, Cousins isn’t stupid, and he knows that the market for someone in his situation isn’t going to be nearly what it was when the Vikings signed him during the 2018 offseason when he was the clear best quarterback available. He might be the best quarterback available in free agency this offseason, too, but with his status still up in the air after his Achilles injury, it’s not going to be like it was then.

We’re officially into the “silly season,” so you can take reports like these with as much salt as you can handle without appreciably raising your blood pressure, but we’ll be keeping an eye out for any rumors, innuendo, conjecture, or whatever it might be between now and then about this situation and any other pending contract situations involving the Vikings.