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Vikings Gain Cap Relief By Giving Cousins A One-Year Extension
Kirk Cousins is staying put in Minnesota through at least 2023.

The Vikings are signing Cousins to a one-year, $35 million fully guaranteed extension that puts him under contract through 2023, NFL Network's Tom Pelissero first reported.

Cousins gets a raise to $40 million in 2022 with $55 million payable by next March and a no-trade clause, Pelissero added.

A source with knowledge of the situation tells Profootballtalk.com's Mike Florio that Cousins’s cap number for 2022 drops from $45.166 million to $31.25 million.

The deal also has a no-trade clause.

Minnesota hired a new head coach, Kevin O'Connell, and general manager, Kwesi Adofo-Mensah, this offseason after having tried and failed for the last five years to win a Super Bowl.

But as Bleacher Report's Joseph Zucker pointed out, despite this decision, nobody has better symbolized the Vikings' inability to get over the hump than Cousins.

He was supposed to be the final piece for a squad that won 13 games and reached the conference championship in 2017.

Instead, the three-time Pro Bowler has presided over just one trip to the postseason since.

That said, Zucker conceded Cousins isn't a bad quarterback. He threw for 4,221 yards, 33 touchdowns and seven interceptions in 2021.

Indeed, the issue is Cousins has been consistently middle of the road over the course of his career.

As Zucker points out, the version of Cousins in Washington and him in Minnesota are almost mirror images:

Washington: 62 games, 16,206 passing yards, 99 touchdowns, 55 interceptions, 65.5 percent completion rate, 93.7 QB rating.

Minnesota: 63 games, 16,387 passing yards, 124 touchdowns, 36 interceptions, 68.3 percent completion rate, 103.5 QB rating.

The 33-year-old failed to make meaningful improvement with the Vikings despite having a supporting cast that included Adam Thielen, Dalvin Cook, Stefon Diggs and then Justin Jefferson in Diggs' place.

Despite the lack of high-end production, Cousins has secured fully guaranteed contracts for eight consecutive seasons (2016-2023) thanks to two franchise tags in Washington and three deals in Minnesota.

And if Cousins plays well, he figures to be back at the negotiating table with the Vikings next March.

From a fantasy perspective, having a solid -- even if unspectacular -- Cousins under center ensures our views of Jefferson, Thielen, Cook and Irv Smith Jr. and their ability to produce at past levels remain unchanged.