Vikings Signing QB Kirk Cousins To Two-Year, $66M Extension

The Minnesota Vikings have agreed to a two-year extension with QB Kirk Cousins on Monday. 

• According to Ian Rapoport, Cousins’ new deal is a two-year, $66 million contract that includes an additional $35 million guaranteed for injury that converts to fully guaranteed at the beginning of the 2021 season.
• In total, Cousins will make $96 million over three years with $61 million guarnateed at signing. 

Congrats to @KirkCousins8 on agreeing to a 2 year extension with the @Vikings

— Mike McCartney (@MikeMcCartney7) March 16, 2020

Reports had said that the Vikings were expected to open extension talks with Cousins this offseason and it appears as though they were able to get an agreement in place before the start of the 2020 league year. 

The Vikings couldn’t franchise Cousins in 2021, so it appears as though they felt it was better to hammer out an extension now, as opposed to waiting another year and shifting more leverage to his side.

The other benefit of signing Cousins to an extension is that it should free up some additional cap space for them to work with this offseason. 

Cousins, 31, is a former fourth-round pick of the Redskins back in 2012. He played out the final year of his rookie contract before being franchised in back-to-back seasons by Washington. 

Cousins later departed in free agency for a three-year, $84 million contract with the Vikings. He was entering the final year of his contract and was set to make a base salary of $29.5 million for the 2020 season. 

In 2019, Cousins appeared in 15 games for the Vikings and completed 69.1 percent of his passes for 3,603 yards, 26 touchdowns and six interceptions. He also rushed for 63 yards and a touchdown. Pro Football Focus had him rated as the No. 5 quarterback out of 38 qualifying players.