Vikings’ QB options with Kirk Cousins joining the Falcons

With Cousins officially leaving town, here are Minnesota’s options for finding his successor in 2024:

The veteran route

With Cousins off the board, the rest of the free-agent QB market leaves much to be desired. There are some decent options available in Gardner Minshew, Joe Flacco, Sam Darnold and Tyrod Taylor, but none of them are likely long-term solutions. 

Minshew, 27, had a surprisingly efficient season filling in for Anthony Richardson. He threw for 3,305 yards, 15 touchdowns and nine interceptions in 17 games and was selected to the Pro Bowl.

Darnold didn’t see much playing time in San Francisco, but 2023 was a season more for getting his head right than it was for him actually playing often. He did have two impressive showings, one in relief of Brock Purdy against the Baltimore Ravens in Week 16 and another in a Week 18 start against the Los Angeles Rams. He completed 24 of 40 passes for 270 yards, three total touchdowns (two passing, one rushing). 

Of the free-agent class, Darnold may be Minnesota’s best option. He’s only 26 and he has 56 games of starting experience under his belt. He spent last season learning under Kyle Shanahan, who’s regarded as one of the best offensive coaches in the NFL, and with Justin Jefferson, Jordan Addison and T.J. Hockenson, the Vikings have one of the more appealing supporting casts for any free-agent QB.

The trade route

There are two avenues to explore here. The first would be trading for Chicago Bears quarterback Justin Fields. But given they’d have to pry him from a division rival that the Vikings play twice a year, the cost for them to acquire the 24-year-old QB would be unquestionably higher for them than any other team outside the NFC North. 

However, Fields is young and has shown flashes of being a franchise passer, so the juice might be worth the squeeze.

The other avenue involves trading up in the 2024 draft. If the Vikings want either North Carolina’s Drake Maye or LSU’s Jayden Daniels, they’ll likely have to trade up from pick No. 11 with the Patriots at No. 3 to get one, and it’ll cost them. 

Minnesota doesn’t have a third-round pick this year, so any deal would involve swapping first-rounders and giving up the No. 42 overall pick this year, plus likely next year’s first-round pick plus an additional third-rounder.

There’s also always the possibility that the Denver Broncos, who pick right behind the Vikings at 12, could leapfrog them to get Michigan’s J.J. McCarthy. So if he’s their target, they may have to move up a couple spots to land him.

The stand-pat route

Minnesota could roll the dice, stay at No. 11 overall and take the best of the available passers on its draft board, which would likely include McCarthy, Washington’s Michael Penix Jr. and Oregon’s Bo Nix.

There has been plenty of recent noise about McCarthy going in the top 10, but the New York Giants are the only team picking between No. 6 and 11 that could potentially take a QB. If a team like Denver or Las Vegas decides it needs to pounce on a QB (likely McCarthy), those teams could try to jump ahead of Minnesota too.

Penix Jr. has a big arm, can move around the pocket and put up big numbers this season (4,903 yards, 36 touchdowns), but some scouts have raised questions about his skillset translating to the NFL. Nix was the most accurate QB in college football in 2023 (he led the NCAA with a 77.4 completion percentage), but he did so playing against Pac-12 defenses, which aren’t exactly known to produce many NFL-level defensive backs.

Of the three options, staying put is the riskiest.