As the pro Football world turns Minnesota was included in some of latest, league-shaping speculation this week. To be exact, their starting quarterback was the subject but it's far from a simple situation.
If you're reading this you likely already know that the rumor is that San Francisco has interest in bringing Cousins to the West to play for Kyle Shanahan. It comes on the heels of their divisional rival in SoCal adding Matthew Stafford as the first major move of the offseason, in the arms race to win championships.
As part of the deal from LA to Detroit, Jared Goff was included with a small fortune of upcoming, high picks. The speculation is that as part of a deal between SF & MN, Jimmy Garoppolo would have to be included. This shouldn't have to be said, but I'm not looking to downgrade at any position and certainly not at quarterback.
The Eastern Illinois alum has been included in speculation because of the similarity between his contract and Cousins'. But the wrinkle that may have been overlooked is that if he's cut at any point this season it would only cost 3.2 million and could be even less than that if it's done early enough.
So Minnesota may be able to get itself into the enviable position of a having as little money invested at the quarterback as anyone in the league. But that wouldn't make up for downgrading the play at the position.
Then comes a fork in the road of the hypothetical offseason. With Cousins traded and Garoppolo released or subsequent dealt for a cherished seventh round pick the Purple could effort to use a combination of their own capital and the goods received from San Fran to add Deshaun Watson from Houston.
That road would put them back into the salary cap squeeze after this season - a moderate 16 million dollar hit to the cap. Given the propensity of the current head coach to flex as well as a piece of old concrete, I'm not sure Watson would be best served to play here. But the flexibility it would allow could immediately endear even him since they could then bolster his precious defense. In this scenario they would also be able to minimize the sort of long-term damage to the draft that LA has been brazen about dispensing.
Top five quarterbacks in their prime become available even less often than ones of Kirks caliber, which is miniscule. People tend to forget that when talking about the quarterback. Three years ago it was nearly unheard of for the situation to arise that did.
But I digress
The other path post-trade(s) would take even better advantage of the opened salary space and could have a similar conclusion. With more depth at quarterback now than maybe ever before they should bring in someone who could start and be okay while grooming two quarterbacks for the future. Nate Stanley could be one of the two. Or they could do what DC did and draft a pair this year. Being that they already have five picks between the third and fourth rounds adding a Kellen Mond along with one of the first round guys would make it a position of strength for the first time Daunte, or even longer. And with the other dozen or so picks that they would have, they could do another defensive blitz.
The problem with this scenario is that it would depend heavily on how comfortable the leadership feels in their positions. If they sense that a slip could be coming their way then long term planning like that wouldn't be their priority.
That's a lot of words about something that is very much a rumor, but the juiciness of it made it too enticing to not squeeze.
Maybe I missed something over the last few paragraphs. Do tell!
Until then, we'll see how the latest make-or-break offseason goes
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