The Facts: Cousins has narrowed his market to four teams — the Vikings, Broncos, Jets, and Cardinals.
Diehards Line:
As Globe staffer Ben Volin notes, the Jets can offer him the most money. The Vikings and Broncos offer him the best chance to win now. The Cardinals are a bit of a wild card — they appear to be in rebuilding mode and don’t have a ton of cap space ($20.6 million or so), but it could be mighty tempting to throw passes to Larry Fitzgerald and hand off to David Johnson. In addition, the Bills don’t have a quarterback after trading Tyrod Taylor to the Browns, and with about $40 million in cap space now, they could be contenders for Cousins. The Vikings have a couple of issues in going after Cousins. One is that the Vikings want to do new contracts for Stefon Diggs, Anthony Barr, and Danielle Hunter, and giving a mega-deal to Cousins could complicate that. The NFL’s funding requirement could also be an issue — teams are required to put all guaranteed money into escrow, and Vikings ownership isn’t wealthy enough to simply cut a $90 million check and be done with it. Still, the Vikings told Teddy Bridgewater at the Combine last weekend that they intend to pursue Cousins, but that Bridgewater remains a viable backup plan.... The two-day window to begin negotiating with free-agents to be opens Monday. The official signing period begins Wednesday at 4 p.m. Eastern time.