KIRKO RETURNS

The Vikings did the thing!

Kirk Cousins is back with the Minnesota Vikings, picked up from the Raiders for a 3rd round pick.

It's not possible to convey in blog form the amount of happiness I felt when I saw the news Tuesday afternoon.

I had literal tears of joy. 

Kirk is one of my favorite Vikings of all time. I actually chronicled his whole Vikings tenure on this blog. And what a tenure. 

Lots of great performances.  Some bad ones. Not enough playoff success. An endless slew of tired narratives.

In the middle of a surging 2023, where Kirk and the Vikings are rolling after a bad start and re-asserting themselves as NFC contenders, Kirk's Achilles pops at Lambeau.

This kicked off a rather unbelievable series of QB adventures. We get Dobbs mania. We get the Nick Millens experience. We drafted JJ McCarthy and signed Sam Darnold, who became a sensation. Then we chose McCarthy and let Darnold walk to Seattle and win a Super Bowl. We watch McCarthy stumble around hurt, and only with fleeting glimpses of potential. We get a little Carson Wentz, and even multiple Max Brosmer starts. We take a chance on Kyler Murray, and then crater going back to Wentz the other night.

Leaving US Bank Stadium Monday night, I felt low, like the Vikings season was going to be lost. Sure, the defense would still be good enough to scrape out a few more wins all on its own, but not enough to be a factor in the playoffs and maybe not enough to even get there.

Getting Kirk back changes everything.

I thought it made sense to part ways after 2023, cause Kirk was a free agent anyway, and when you're a QB in your mid 30s coming off an Achilles tear, there is hardly a guarantee you will ever be the same.

I still followed his career, though. He was pretty great early on in 2024 with the Falcons. He had them at 6-3 and in 1st place. He was at least lurking in MVP talk. But injuries got him again, and he got benched, and Atlanta missed the playoffs. Then, in 2025, he was a full-blown backup to Michael Penix for most of the season, until Penix got hurt.

Kirk helped lead the Falcons to 5 straight wins to end the season. It wasn't enough to get them to the playoffs, and Kirk himself was only average in this stretch, but it showed he could still play.

I think that if there was any reason to think he would have been that productive in Vegas, the Vikings might have brought him back in the offseason. Kirk was leading the NFL in TD passes until a week or 2 ago. He was among the yardage leaders. He had a Raiders team that was bad enough to draft #1 last year in some contention for the playoffs.

But the AFC is a very top-heavy conference, with 6 playoff spots all but decided (Bills, Bengals, Steelers, Jaguars, Chiefs, Broncos). The Raiders' only real chance anymore was to sneak in as a 7 seed, and then likely get blasted out of the playoffs. So it makes sense for them to sell high on Kirk and turn to Mendoza.

The Raiders dropping a few games, and the Wentz debacle, and the timing of the trade deadline...it all seemed to work out perfectly.

Now, we are getting a Kirk that is not the same guy we had 3 years ago. I'm not expecting 300 yards and multiple TDs a game. But this defense has proven the last 2 weeks that it can at least contain elite offenses. It can keep the Vikings in any game. We had a 4th quarter lead in Detroit. It was a 1 score game into the 4th against Buffalo. With dreadful QB play. What will this look like if we just get Raiders Kirk? It's incredibly exciting. And what a prospect, that Kirk could theoretically come back here and finally get that playoff run he never had before. You think I cried happy tears at the trade news. What if he helps take this team deep into the playoffs?

And if it doesn't work, well, to me, that would just be the ultimate proof that this KOC system is unsalvageable, and that we have to move on from him. That has value, too. 

But I prefer the first option.