MIN already feeling the Cousins Cap Crush

[nycdan]

https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2837179-minnesota-vikings-are-desperate-to-escape-the-nfls-worst-quarterback-trap?utm_source=cnn.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=editorial

I'm only including some of the article, which is very long, but it's pretty good and very Jets-relevant for both the Cousins-Darnold thing, and the additional pain inflicted by them resigning Anthony Barr at a higher price.  Maybe we'll have to take Rudolph off their hands to help make up for it?

Thank god we dodged this particular bullet (no thanks to Macc who was all about trying to do it).  We need to put our cap to use fully in the next 3 years while Sam is on his rookie deal.  Hopefully our next GM will at least realize that spending some of it on a Center isn't the worst thing in the world.

 

Quote

The end of May is an awful time for a team with Super Bowl aspirations to still be figuring out how to pay its starting tight end.

The Vikings and tight end Kyle Rudolph are at a contract impasse. NFL Network's Ian Rapoport reported negotiations broke off last week. Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk later reported that while talks had not stopped, little progress was being made on a new deal. Whether it's the case that the two sides are not talking or the talks are not progressing, things clearly aren't going well.

The 29-year-old Rudolph told Sid Hartman of the Star Tribune that he won't take a pay cut because he is "too young for that," as if anyone needs a reason to bristle at a pay cut. There's lots of trade speculation, which is inevitable when a cap-strapped team and a respected veteran start haggling over pay cuts. 

Over the last four years, Rudolph has caught 253 passes and 24 touchdowns and hasn't missed a start. He's the sort of player a Super Bowl contender typically wants to keep happy.

Rudolph also eats up $7.625 million in cap space this year. The Vikings have just over $1 million in cap space left after signing their rookies, per Over The Cap, and they drafted Irv Smith Jr. in the second round as Rudolph's understudy/replacement. So Minnesota has several incentives to make lowball offers.

Retaining Rudolph would give the Vikings their best chance to win this year. But doing so will leave them with almost no financial flexibility and cause cap headaches in future years. Yet trading or releasing him to save cap space will weaken a veteran roster that can't afford to backslide whatsoever after a disappointing 8-7-1 finish last season.

Welcome to the Quarterback Trap, Minnesota Vikings! You walked right into it last year when you signed Kirk Cousins to a fully guaranteed three-year, $84 million deal. Now you might have to gnaw off your tight end in a flailing effort to escape.

The Quarterback Trap is part Catch-22, part carnivorous plant, part kindergarten finger puzzle. Its mechanisms are simple. NFL teams cannot maintain success without excellent quarterback play. But excellent quarterback play is usually so expensive that it prevents NFL teams from maintaining success.

So far, teams have discovered only two reliable escape routes from the Quarterback Trap:

• Win before your quarterback becomes expensive, ideally while he's still under his rookie contract.
• Employ Tom Brady.

Teams without Brady (or a Drew Brees/Aaron Rodgers-esque reasonable facsimile) or a young phenom usually hope for the best by trying to build superteams around affordable journeymen or paying a premium for a veteran and hoping for some MVP seasons as a result. The Vikings flew straight into the pitcher plant with Cousins by paying a premium for a journeyman whose only hope for an MVP season comes from being surrounded by a superteam.

Cousins needs a top-notch supporting cast to be successful. But his salary makes it nearly impossible for the Vikings to maintain a top-notch supporting cast. And so the trap springs shut.

Cousins and his backups (Kyle Sloter, Sean Mannion and undrafted rookie Jake Browning, all of whom work for little more than free pizza) cost the Vikings nearly $30.9 million in cap space this year. Only the Patriots and Lions are alloting more cap space to the quarterback position. The Vikings also have $31.6 million in cap space devoted to quarterbacks in 2020; only the Falcons, Steelers and Packers are on the hook for more.

Two years of exorbitant cap allocations for Cousins have forced the Vikings to get cute when negotiating recent extensions:

Indispensable wide receiver Adam Thielen signed a four-year extension in April that reduced his 2019 cap hit to $8.1 million by dumping lots of salary and roster bonuses into 2020, 2021 and beyond.

Linebacker Anthony Barr's five-year deal after his free-agent courtship (Affair? Brief elopement?) with the Jets is also backloaded with bonuses and guarantees that make him affordable ($5.6 million cap hit) this year but expensive in 2020 and 2021.

…..

The Vikings never should have stumbled into the Quarterback Trap. They could have re-signed Teddy Bridgewater or Case Keenum, in-house veterans who led the team to the playoffs in past seasons, for much less than Cousins, allowing them to pass the savings along to their own veterans or free-agent upgrades. The Vikings then could have aggressively pursued a rookie quarterback in the 2018 class. Heck, they could have bid for Josh Rosen's services this offseason if they weren't tied to Cousins.

But the need to get better at quarterback, no matter the cost, is the lure of the trap. The Vikings chased a chance at marginal improvement and chose the most expensive of three imperfect solutions.

They are now stuck with that decision.

 

[BCJet]

Keep in mind, this was Mac's preferred choice over trading up for Sam

[Jet_Engine1]

Coulda been us. Bad AND  a terrible cap situation. 

 

Good riddance, Mac. 

[joenamathwouldn'tcry]

19 minutes ago, BCJet said:

Keep in mind, this was Mac's preferred choice over trading up for Sam

Keep in mind that  Cousins was also the preferred choice of a good majority of Jet's fans also.  He wasn't alone.

  Best move they never made.  You can thank Cousin Kirk for that.  I, for one, am eternally grateful.

[static14]

The universe was looking out for us. Cousins is Minnesota’s problem.

[nycdan]

When you think you're legitimately just a QB away from winning it all after a 13-3 season and then overpay a guy with a truckload of guaranteed money, you really need to do better than 8-7-1 and missing the playoffs.  That's a hard kick in the nether region.

[Nixhead]

Minnesota fell for fools gold. They saw the Jets going hard after Cousins and felt they could snag him if they came close to the Jets offer and they did. Be careful what u wish for cause u might get it. Let’s hope Barr turns into another Wilkerson and maybe we can be laughing all the way to the Super Bowl soon enough. 

[GREENBEAN]

Good!   F those A holes.  I'd say the one thing we got on them other than Cousins choosing them was we took the guy they replaced with Cousins and turned him into a 3rd.  Chuma Edoga says thank you very much. 

[Freemanm]

Not a suprise. It's too bad Cousins isn't worth that money. If anyone, he's the one who should be volunteering a pay cut. Happy we didn't land him. 

[GreenFish]

Time to go shopping Gase. Get on the case. CB’s in aisle 5. Possibly add a WR by the dairy section.

[JoeWillieWhiteShoesHOF]

1 hour ago, BCJet said:

Keep in mind, this was Mac's preferred choice over trading up for Sam

He held his b*lls his entire time playing the Imposter GM role.

He would NEVER pick a QB in the 1st Rd until his BACK WAS TO THE WALL regarding keeping the job he never deserved in the first place, which it was in 2018 and why he was prepared to wreck the Jets cap for a QB that has a 4-26 record against winning teams (Question...is that a large enough sample size to project that NO team will ever win it all, much less make a deep playoff run with Cousins as QB?), and only by the grace of God did Cousins turn the Jets and their highest dollar offer down coupled with Gettleman thinking you can win it all by having a great RB and a shaky QB situation in perpetuity.

When Cousins played the Jets Maccagnan had no choice but to roll the dice, he had run out of time.  The irony is that giving up 3 #2’s would NEVER have been necessary had Maccagnan drafted Mahomes instead of the Consensus pick Safety, or Watson (who I’ll take the Gift known as Darnold any day over), but he was too gutless, or better yet had the guts to roll with HIS draft pick Hackenberg or HIS draft pick Petty in 2017 instead of wasting everyone’s time bringing in McCown to win 5 games.  Jet fans would have been more than happy to go 1-15 and have the 1st Pick....but those 5 wins were needed to try and buy Maccagnan and Bowles another excuse...”wait until we get Cousins or draft a QB high”.

[JetFaninMI]

I never wanted Cousins because I knew he was not a guy who would be able to handle NY. Also because of the cap hit and his mediocre record. He would have been shredded in NY and been this era's Neil O'Donnell.

I wanted Watson instead of Adams. The need was there and Macc whiffed.

I wanted Mayfield because I thought Sam was going to The Browns or worse yet the Giants. How those guys passed on Darnold is still a mystery to me. Thanks I guess?

Anyway the Vikings are the situation they made for themselves but if the Jets signed Cousins it would be worse simply because the Jets roster is nowhere near as talented as the Vikings. It would have been a sh*t show of gigantic proportions.

[Jetster]

Xavier Rhodes would look good in those new Jets uniforms. If Gregg Williams could get Tru back on track, add Rhodes, Maye stays healthy, Adams, Poole, Mosely.

With QW & Polite? Could be a special defense

[IndianaJet]

10 hours ago, joenamathwouldn'tcry said:

Keep in mind that  Cousins was also the preferred choice of a good majority of Jet's fans also.  He wasn't alone.

  Best move they never made.  You can thank Cousin Kirk for that.  I, for one, am eternally grateful.

I'm not sure why this comment is getting Butt Fumbles.  I would venture to say 70% of the regular posters on this board wanted Cousins first and foremost and absolutely slaughtered Macc when he didn't sign here.

[Ohio State NY Jets fan]

10 hours ago, joenamathwouldn'tcry said:

Keep in mind that  Cousins was also the preferred choice of a good majority of Jet's fans also.  He wasn't alone.

Best move they never made.  You can thank Cousin Kirk for that.  I, for one, am eternally grateful.

We also have to thank the Giants - we got lucky in hindsight

the point of wanting Cousins is we did not need Mac to get lucky and considering his track record on draft picks, that horseshoe was needed or it's more wasted picks...  

If you combine the picks Indy got from Jets and Cousins, the Jets might be a better team than it is today - agree Darnold will be much better long term (now that Mac is gone) but there was reason to like the Cousins options at the time

**************

Jets got Sam ? but Indy completed a rebuild with this trade;

In moving back from the 3rd overall spot to the 6th position in the 2018 Draft, the Colts received 4 picks from the Jets, which turned into 5 total selections after another trade during the second-round.

-Pick 1-6: Quenton Nelson-The All-Pro guard played every single offensive snap for the Colts last year.

-Pick 2-37: Braden Smith-Injuries forced Smith into the starting lineup in Week Five and he never went back to the bench. Smith was a very steady starting Right Tackle as a rookie.

-Pick 2-52: Kemoko Turay-In moving back 3 spots via a draft day trade with the Eagles, the Colts chose the Rutgers pass rusher. Turay had 4.0 sacks and 15 tackles in 14 games (3 starts) as a rookie.

-Pick 5-169: Jordan Wilkins-The Colts needed Wilkins to start 3 of the first 4 games last season with Marlon Mack banged up. Wilkins went on to rush for 336 yards on 60 carries. His 5.6 yards per carry average was the highest for a Colts running back since 1958.

-2019 2nd round pick (34th overall): Rock Ya-Sin, CB, Temple - top 5 CB in this years draft?

***********

Sadly, Mac would not have made these picks but all of them would have filled needs on the Jets - unlike what Mac did beyond Sam

[nico002]

Saying that Mac would have preferred cousins over Sam is not fair- same for any fan that wanted cousins.

1. Jets had the 6 pick at the the time

2. Sam was 100% the number 1 pick at the time and the browns needed a QB

3. The Giants potentially needed a QB at the time as well 

At the time is was cousins + the 6th pick vs Josh Allen, Rosen, or Mayfield.

[Jetsfan80]

11 minutes ago, nico002 said:

Saying that Mac would have preferred cousins over Sam is not fair- same for any fan that wanted cousins.

1. Jets had the 6 pick at the the time

2. Sam was 100% the number 1 pick at the time and the browns needed a QB

3. The Giants potentially needed a QB at the time as well 

At the time is was cousins + the 6th pick vs Josh Allen, Rosen, or Mayfield.

 

However it went down, Mike Maccagnan offered more money to Kirk Cousins than any other team.  That is an indisputable fact.  That was his "Plan A".  If his Plan A was to draft a QB, he should have told Cousins to go screw himself and made every effort to trade up from the start.  He would not have drafted a QB had he signed Cousins. 

[WayneChrebet80]

To be fair if the Jets had Cousins they would be much closer to winning.

Cousins + the 6th overall pick in 2018 and three early 2nd rounders is definitely better than Darnold + whatever free agents they were able to bring in with the cap space (especially since the new coach doesn’t want those players).

[Charlie Brown]

1 hour ago, nico002 said:

Saying that any fan that wanted cousins (is not correct).

1. Jets had the 6 pick at the the time

2. Sam was 100% the number 1 pick at the time and the browns needed a QB

3. The Giants potentially needed a QB at the time as well 

At the time is was cousins + the 6th pick vs Josh Allen, Rosen, or Mayfield.

Thank you!!

From the fans perspective  I think this..

Some us wanted either Mahomes or Watson the year before.  I wanted Mahomes.  The reason we didn't go for either of those guys is Mac was still trying to salvage Hackenberg!

So for folks to act like we wanted Cousins over Sam is just silly talk......

[slimjasi]

12 hours ago, joenamathwouldn'tcry said:

Keep in mind that  Cousins was also the preferred choice of a good majority of Jet's fans also.  He wasn't alone.

  Best move they never made.  You can thank Cousin Kirk for that.  I, for one, am eternally grateful.

This board was in love with the idea of signing Cousins. I argued with people for days on here. 

 

[bitonti]

all these Jets fans feeling superior about the money the team didn't spend seem to forget these guys waxed the Jets 37-17 last year, in MetLife 

the Vikings won 8 games, the Jets won 4. Which would you rather live through?

and let's not breeze by that point 

it was a day, October 21, 2018 that many on this board attended in person, and most of us watched it live

by the end they were shouting SKOL in our empty stadium 

that's time we're never getting back and frankly a sh*t experience we all lived through

what's that worth? 

**

this endless future planning doesn't make sense when the cap goes up like every single year.

and the money Woody and Chris doesn't spend by the way? that gap between the labor spend and the cap? they call it profit. 

a meteor NASA isn't tracking tomorrow could show up and end the whole party 

but yeah let's make fun of the Vikings for trying to win, and in fact being a better team than the Jets 

 What Suckers They Are. 

[Thai Jet]

13 hours ago, Jet_Engine1 said:

Coulda been us. Bad AND  a terrible cap situation. 

 

Good riddance, Mac. 

I read where they've had to restructure contracts just to sign their draft picks. I loved it when they didn't even make the playoffs last year. They wanted Cousins so bad, now they can keep him.

[Kleckineau]

There are reasons the Vikes only won 8 games last year. Kirk Cousins isnt one of them. Jets fans have gone so long without a FQB most cant recognize one when they see one.

[32EBoozer]

38 minutes ago, Thai Jet said:

I read where they've had to restructure contracts just to sign their draft picks. I loved it when they didn't even make the playoffs last year. They wanted Cousins so bad, now they can keep him.

Same goes with Barr! So much happier we are trying to build through the draft. I can understand why they wanted Mosley (bad contract) to be the field general.... I am hopeful that Polite can be the edge player Barr has never panned out to be however .

[Thai Jet]

5 minutes ago, 32EBoozer said:

Same goes with Barr! So much happier we are trying to build through the draft. I can understand why they wanted Mosley (bad contract) to be the field general.... I am hopeful that Polite can be the edge player Barr has never panned out to be however .

Polite will be a boom or bust player IMO. He has 1st round talent, just needs to put it all together.

[varjet]

1 hour ago, WayneChrebet80 said:

To be fair if the Jets had Cousins they would be much closer to winning.

Cousins + the 6th overall pick in 2018 and three early 2nd rounders is definitely better than Darnold + whatever free agents they were able to bring in with the cap space (especially since the new coach doesn’t want those players).

I think this is certainly true for 2018 and 2019.  Cousins and the draft picks, used well, would have created a better Jets team than what we had in 2018 and will have in 2019.   Darnold will be better long-term.  But Mac was not thinking about any of that.  

I don't blame Minnesota for signing Cousins.   It was a good move at the time given their roster.  

I do blame Minnesota for stealing Barr from the Jets-they did not need to pay that type of money for a 4-3 LB who does not rush the passer.  They should have let him sign with the Jets.  

[Jet Nut]

13 hours ago, static14 said:

The universe was looking out for us. Cousins is Minnesota’s problem.

Probably should have spent so much time dick slapping themselves for landing Cousins and Barr for that matter.  He's the contract that seems to have put them over the top.  FU to the Minny fans who laughing it up when he decided to stay in Minny and cripple their cap

[Jet Nut]

1 hour ago, bitonti said:

all these Jets fans feeling superior about the money the team didn't spend seem to forget these guys waxed the Jets 37-17 last year, in MetLife 

the Vikings won 8 games, the Jets won 4. Which would you rather live through?

and let's not breeze by that point 

it was a day, October 21, 2018 that many on this board attended in person, and most of us watched it live

by the end they were shouting SKOL in our empty stadium 

that's time we're never getting back and frankly a sh*t experience we all lived through

what's that worth? 

**

this endless future planning doesn't make sense when the cap goes up like every single year.

and the money Woody and Chris doesn't spend by the way? that gap between the labor spend and the cap? they call it profit. 

a meteor NASA isn't tracking tomorrow could show up and end the whole party 

but yeah let's make fun of the Vikings for trying to win, and in fact being a better team than the Jets 

 What Suckers They Are. 

They also were blown out by the Bills.  None of which has a thing to do with managing the cap and leaving enough to build long term.  If the Jets play it right they'll be winning games with Darnold long after Minny let's Cousins walk. 

So yeah, let's make fun of the Vikings long term plan centered around the 85 mil QB.  

[bitonti]

4 minutes ago, Jet Nut said:

They also were blown out by the Bills.   

Even more reason to praise the Jets for being frugal? 

[Kleckineau]

7 minutes ago, Jet Nut said:

They also were blown out by the Bills.  None of which has a thing to do with managing the cap and leaving enough to build long term.  If the Jets play it right they'll be winning games with Darnold long after Minny let's Cousins walk. 

So yeah, let's make fun of the Vikings long term plan centered around the 85 mil QB.  

If Darnold can ever put up Cousins numbers from 2018 for a few seasons he will be a 100 mill + QB.

Is that good enough for ya?

 

[JetsFanatic]

1 hour ago, bitonti said:

all these Jets fans feeling superior about the money the team didn't spend seem to forget these guys waxed the Jets 37-17 last year, in MetLife 

the Vikings won 8 games, the Jets won 4. Which would you rather live through?

and let's not breeze by that point 

it was a day, October 21, 2018 that many on this board attended in person, and most of us watched it live

by the end they were shouting SKOL in our empty stadium 

that's time we're never getting back and frankly a sh*t experience we all lived through

what's that worth? 

**

this endless future planning doesn't make sense when the cap goes up like every single year.

and the money Woody and Chris doesn't spend by the way? that gap between the labor spend and the cap? they call it profit. 

a meteor NASA isn't tracking tomorrow could show up and end the whole party 

but yeah let's make fun of the Vikings for trying to win, and in fact being a better team than the Jets 

 What Suckers They Are. 

Are you kidding me? The Vikings paid a kings ransom to go from the NFC Title game to 8-8. The Jets have a young franchise QB in a cap friendly situation.  I do feel superior to the Vikings situation. Kyle Rudolph says hello.

[Jet Nut]

5 minutes ago, bitonti said:

Even more reason to praise the Jets for being frugal? 

Back to the baseless nonsense that they're frugal.

LOL.  They offered more than Minny for both players.  A couple of Jets fans complain they were frugal.  

Amazing

[bitonti]

5 minutes ago, Jet Nut said:

Back to the baseless nonsense that they're frugal.

LOL.  They offered more than Minny for both players.  A couple of Jets fans complain they were frugal.  

Amazing

individual negotiations aside, the Jets never spend up to the cap 

even right now after all their splurges they are like 30 mil under 

the team is usually more concerned about staying above the floor 

 

[bitonti]

6 minutes ago, JetsFanatic said:

Are you kidding me? The Vikings paid a kings ransom to go from the NFC Title game to 8-8. The Jets have a young franchise QB in a cap friendly situation.  I do feel superior to the Vikings situation. Kyle Rudolph says hello.

Kyle Rudolph is a 29 year old tight end who claims he too young to take a pay cut. If he were a NYJ we'd have crucified him by now 

 

they play tomorrow, what's the line? MIN -6 probably maybe MIN -3 at MetLife 

with or without Rudolph

[JetsFanatic]

1 minute ago, bitonti said:

individual negotiations aside, the Jets never spend up to the cap 

even right now after all their splurges they are like 30 mil under 

the team is usually more concerned about staying above the floor 

 

Tannenbaum was a spender. Idzik and Maccagnan were much more conservative with money.