The Facts: The Vikings love quarterback Kellen Mond. But they don't love him enough to turn their current depth chart upside down. In two years, that could change. "Kirk's our starting quarterback," GM Rick Spielman told reporters on Friday night, when asked whether he called Cousins before making Mond a third-round pick. "There's no competition there. It's just taking another player, it's like, regardless of position, if we take a player in the third round or first round, I'm not calling the player and saying, 'Hey, we may take this guy here.' Our job is to try to get as many good players in here, and let them all come in and compete."

Diehards Line:As PFT suggests, they surely envision that Mond will compete. Spielman said that the Vikings had done "a lot of work" on Mond, and that he was "one of the top players on our board." How high was Mond on the Minnesota board? "You see him right in that area as where the top three quarterbacks went," Spielman said. That's quite a statement, and it gives the Vikings quite the answer to the contractual leverage currently held by Cousins. With $56 million due to Cousins over the next two years, a practical inability to tag him in 2023, and Cousins making it clear he's not interested in signing an extension, the Vikings need a Plan B that could develop into Plan A. So while Cousins faces no competition from Mond this year, if his development goes as planned the Vikings may have a viable alternative if/when Cousins struggles at all in 2022.