After years of dealing with the franchise tag in Washington, the Minnesota Vikings have been more than willing to lock quarterback Kirk Cousins up well before things get to that point. Case in point: With Cousins set to enter the final year of his deal with Minnesota, the sides have agreed to a two-year contract extension worth $66 million that runs through the end of the 2022 season.
A couple of offseasons ago, the Vikings inked Cousins to a three-year, fully-guaranteed $82.5 million contract.
The new deal with Minnesota is a two-year extension, but it’s essentially a three-year contract. The final year (2020) of Cousins’ original deal will be replaced by the first year of the new pact, which results in the quarterback’s cap number getting lowered from $31 million to $21 million.
For the #Vikings and QB Kirk Cousins, it’s a 2-year deal worth $66M, source said. In all, it’s 3 years, $96M. $61M guaranteed at signing.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) March 16, 2020
From there, his cap number will return to $31 million for the 2021 season and balloon to $45 million in 2022 for the final season of the extension.
Cousins, who will turn 32 in August, has played the last two seasons in Minnesota. Before that, he spent six years in Washington after being drafted by the Redskins in the fourth round of the 2012 NFL Draft.
For his career, Cousins has thrown 155 touchdowns against 71 interceptions with a 66.9 percent completion rate.
Last season, Cousins threw for an average of 8.1 yards per completion, a mark he’s only hit one other time in his career in a year in which he recorded over 50 pass attempts. Cousins also nearly met his high mark for single-season completion percentage, which he set with the Vikings in 2011 with a 70.1 percent mark. He ended the 2019 season at 69.1 percent.
