Want more from Front Office Sports
in your search results?
The Raiders paid Kirk Cousins $650,000 this season, and it was money very well spent for them. They got nine weeks of good quarterback play, months of mentoring for No. 1 overall draft pick Fernando Mendoza, and a third-round pick in next year’s NFL Draft from Tuesday’s trade that sent Cousins to Minnesota.
Now, the Vikings will begin to find out whether the $650,000 they will pay to Cousins for the remainder of this season will be worth it to them. They’re hoping that Cousins will be a bargain who solves their huge quarterback problem and helps them to be a legitimate Super Bowl contender.
It begins to play out Sunday in Green Bay as Cousins makes the first start of his second stint with the Vikings, while Mendoza takes over for Cousins with the Raiders and faces the Seahawks in Las Vegas in his first NFL start.
Cousins’s NFL career has been an intriguing follow-the-money case study through six seasons with Washington, six more with Minnesota, two seasons with Atlanta and a half-season with Vegas. He has amassed career NFL earnings of just more than $333 million, according to Spotrac.
On the field, he’s been good but not great. He’s a four-time Pro Bowl selection. He has one career playoff win.
His tenure with the Raiders was brief, but they certainly aren’t complaining. They signed him in April to a five-year contract worth, on paper, $172 million. In reality, it was a one-year commitment that would guarantee Cousins $20 million.
Following the Money
The Falcons released Cousins in March and owed him a guaranteed $10 million for this season as part of their four-year, $180 million deal with him signed in 2024. The Raiders thus were able to sign him for a $1.3 million salary for this season, the league minimum for a player of Cousins’s experience level. That was an offset amount for the Falcons, who were left owing him $8.7 million for this season.
The contract that Cousins signed with the Raiders, inherited by the Vikings in the trade, contains a guaranteed $10 million bonus next year. The deal is set up for him to likely be released and become a free agent before another $80 million would become guaranteed next March.
The trade came after nine weeks of the NFL’s 18-week season. So the Raiders and Vikings each are paying half of Cousins’s $1.3 million salary. The Falcons’ $8.7 million portion and next year’s guaranteed $10 million bonus make it all add up to a $20 million commitment for this season that’s now being shared by three teams.
The Raiders added Cousins and used the top selection in the NFL Draft on Mendoza, the Heisman Trophy winner from Indiana. This time, Cousins knew a mentoring role with a prized rookie was awaiting him in Vegas. That’s unlike what happened to him in 2024, when the Falcons signed him in unrestricted free agency and then shockingly used the No. 8 overall pick in that year’s NFL Draft on quarterback Michael Penix Jr.
Klint Kubiak, the Raiders’ first-year coach, went with Cousins as the starter to open this season and made Mendoza wait his turn. It went surprisingly well. Cousins, even at age 38, was productive. He’s currently the NFL’s 11th-rated passer. The Raiders won their first three games and, with a record of 4–5, have been far more competitive than what has become their norm. They went a combined 7–27 over the previous two seasons.
The relationship between Cousins and Mendoza was very good, by all accounts. Mendoza publicly thanked Cousins and his family following the trade last week. But the Raiders didn’t draft Mendoza to have him sit and watch for too long. The quarterback switch was always pending for them, entirely about when rather than if.
When the Vikings, desperately needing quarterback help, offered a third-round pick Tuesday just ahead of the NFL’s trade deadline, the Raiders accepted. Now, the franchise that has Tom Brady as its part-owner will begin to find out whether it chose wisely for its would-be franchise quarterback.
A Familiar Face Returns
The Vikings are welcoming back Cousins, who played for them between the 2018 and 2023 seasons. Cousins is familiar with coach Kevin O’Connell and his offensive system. He has worked with star wide receiver Justin Jefferson. He returns Sunday to Lambeau Field, where he suffered a torn Achilles tendon in his right leg in 2023 in the final start of his first Vikings stint.
The Vikings added quarterback Kyler Murray in the offseason following his release by the Cardinals and went with him over J.J. McCarthy, the 10th overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft, as their starter. They traded McCarthy to the Giants in late September. But Murray hasn’t been the answer and, with him sidelined by a hamstring injury, Carson Wentz struggled mightily in a loss Monday night to the Bills. The trade for Cousins was completed the following day.
The Minnesota defense, overseen by coordinator Brian Flores, is among the league’s best. The Vikings are ranked second in the NFL in total defense and first in scoring defense. If Cousins plays well enough, he perhaps could be the final piece to a Super Bowl puzzle. And the Vikings, in that scenario, would become the second NFL team to be delighted about its $650,000 expenditure this season on Cousins.
Download the FOS App
The business of sports, in your pocket.
Scan the QR code to get the app now.
