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The Minnesota Vikings are actually being encouraged to consider bringing back Kirk Cousins as a Hail Mary.
The Minnesota Vikings are going into a crucial season, and it will be their first with University of Michigan product J.J. McCarthy in the role of head quarterback. It’s a wild situation, since McCarthy was forced to sit out his entire rookie season with a major injury, so the 2025 season, for all practical purposes, will mark his rookie season.
Minnesota has kept their quarterback room pretty big over the years, and this isn’t the year to back down on that. Since nobody really knows how McCarthy is going to perform when it’s finally in a NFL setting, it’s a big question mark.
Hopefully, all is well, and McCarthy performs stunningly well. But, if not, what’s a team to do? Now, the Vikings are actually being encouraged, again, to consider bringing back Kirk Cousins as a Hail Mary if all else fails.
GettyKirk Cousins #18 of the Atlanta Falcons.
Minnesota Vikings and Kirk Cousins
Cousins had a great run with the Vikings, and it’s been iffy ever since he left, on both sides. Now, he’s with the Atlanta Falcons, but he could certainly be traded before the season begins.
In a June 21 feature for Bleacher Report, Kristopher Knox names a handful of players who could be on the trade block. The report is “based on factors such as player upside, past production, positional value, contract status and any relevant recent buzz.”
In the piece, Knox says that having “Cousins on our trade board felt logical since he’s the best quarterback likely to be available via trade in 2025. Now that June 1 has passed, the Atlanta Falcons can save $27.5 million in cap space by moving him—though they’ll have to convince him to waive his no-trade clause.”
He adds that the Vikings could be a good fit, since the team has “turned to second-year quarterback J.J. McCarthy, who missed his entire rookie season following knee surgery. If head coach Kevin O’Connell doesn’t believe McCarthy is ready to start toward the end of camp, he could consider adding a familiar face in Cousins.”
The idea that O’Connell won’t think McCarthy is ready to start the season is freaky. But, it’s possible, and there’s been a lot of buzz around the topic.
More Pushes for Kirk Cousins to the Vikings
Alec Lewis of The Athletic also talked about the idea of Cousins going to the Vikings.
If McCarthy isn’t performing well, he notes, “there aren’t an abundance of alternatives” for the Vikings. He adds, “If the Vikings soured on Howell, they could try to sway longtime starter Ryan Tannehill. Plucking Kirk Cousins from the Falcons is another break-glass-in-case-of-emergency possibility….”
Finally, Brad Berreman of The Viking Age also talks about the possibility in a June 24 piece, noting, “If it came to it, the Vikings might be the only exception to the desire Cousins has to be traded to a team where he would be installed as the starter. The parting of ways was not contentious; it was just time for both sides.”
Berreman adds, “Cousins coming back to the Vikings as McCarthy’s backup remains very unlikely. He, and the Falcons, are better off waiting for a situation where a team has to replace its starting quarterback. But the idea of a reunion keeps surfacing just enough to believe there might be something to it, even if it’ll take some very specific circumstances to make it happen.”
Anne Erickson is an award-winning reporter for Heavy Sports covering the NFL, NBA and college football. Anne Erickson has years of experience covering the NFL and additional sports, and her work has been published via ESPN, Fox Sports and more. She has interviewed some of the biggest names in sports, including Detroit Lions quarterback Jared Goff. Erickson also hosts several podcasts and is a Detroit-based radio host. More about Anne Erickson
