Report: Kirk Cousins, Vikings Agree to 1-Year, $35M Contract Extension Through 2023

The Vikings plan to keep Kirk Cousins as their quarterback through at least 2023.

Tom Pelissero reported that he was signed to a one-year, $35 million fully guaranteed extension by the North team. A no-trade clause was added to the extension.

The Minnesota Vikings hired a new head coach and general manager after failing to win a Super Bowl in the last five years.

Nobody has better represented the inability of the Vikings to get over the hump than Cousins.

He was supposed to be the last piece of a team that won 13 games and reached the conference championship. The three-time Pro Bowler has presided over just one trip to the playoffs since.

The versions of Cousins in Washington and Minnesota are very similar.

• Washington: 62 games, 16,206 passing yards, 99 touchdowns, 55 interceptions, 65.5 percent completion rate, 93.7 QB rating
• Minnesota: 63 games, 16,387 passing yards, 124 touchdowns, 36 interceptions, 68.3 percent completion rate, 103.5 QB rating

Despite having a supporting cast that included Adam Thielen, Dalvin Cook, Stefon Diggs and then Justin Jefferson, the 33-year-old failed to make meaningful improvement with the Vikings.

The team finished inoffensive efficiency at Football Outsiders in four of the last five years. That isn't good enough for a unit that had the talent at Minnesota's disposal.

O&Connell said all the right things about the future of the player after he became the coach.

"Well, I know he's under contract and I'm excited to coach him. We've already started thinking about how we're going to build those systems for him and our other quarterbacks and really the tremendous skill group that we have, our guys up front. It takes all 11 to move the football on offense, to run it, to throw it, to score points in the red zone. But I'm anticipating Kirk being a part of what we do."

According to Ian Rapoport of the NFL Network, the Vikings were going to start Kirk Cousins in the upcoming season.

Ian Rapoport @RapSheet

From NFL Now: The #Vikings are all about Kirk Cousins. pic.twitter.com/SgOhd6nhrU

The $45 million question was about whether any other team would be willing to assume his large salary cap hit.

Jimmy Garoppolo had a problem with that he was a bad quarterback. He threw for 4,221 yards and 33 touchdown.

As with Garoppolo, when you are attempting to contend for a title, you might limit your ceiling or shrink your margin of error.

Even though the Vikings selected Kellen Mond in the third round of the 2021 draft, they have not seen enough of him.

In January, when the Vikings decided to pick Mond, Zimmer said that he hadn't been on board with the decision and that he wasn't the player the Vikings thought they were getting.

As the Vikings look to get some of that talent into a deep playoff run, they will once again have to rely on Cousins.