Zone Coverage: Extending Cousins Can Still Allow the Vikings To Build For the Future

Over at Zone Coverage, I wrote a piece about how extending Kirk Cousins doesn't prevent the Vikings from engaging in a "rebuild" for the team. I also included a mock draft.

I occasionally write freelance for other websites, including my former employer Zone Coverage. This week, I covered the possibility of a Vikings rebuild that still included an extension for Kirk Cousins, as well as strategies to keep Danielle Hunter and Justin Jefferson.

I’ve also included a mock draft at the bottom of the piece.

Check it out here.

Minnesota’s free-agency situation has caused some consternation among fans. The big problem, as many people see it, is extending Jefferson. The Vikings are headed into 2024 with a $37 million projected cap number, which will look a bit worse after the draft and a hypothetical Cousins extension. If they want to throw a Hunter extension on top of that, things get tight, especially given that there will be important extensions for players like Dalton Risner, D.J. Wonnum, Jonathan Bullard, Khyiris Tonga, Greg Joseph, and Blake Brandel.

At first, these might seem like major issues when considered in concert with Cousins, who has traditionally preferred fully guaranteed contracts that are often difficult to perform accounting tricks with. But he and Hunter have void years left on their contract that artificially deflate Minnesota’s cap number. That means extensions for both of them would cut into their currently accounted-for cap numbers of $28.5 million and $14.9 million. Also, the cap calculation assumes the Vikings would eat all of Jefferson’s fifth-year option at $19 million.

These are all hidden areas where the Vikings can materialize new cap space seemingly out of thin air.