Cousins sets a goal: 'I would like to retire as a Viking'

If Kirk Cousins starts all 17 of the Vikings' regular-season games this fall, he will tie Daunte Culpepper for the third-most starts by a quarterback in team history.

He reiterated Monday he wants to be with the team long enough to put his name even higher on that list.

Speaking to reporters Monday for the first time since he signed his one-year contract extension March 14, Cousins said he wants to retire with the team that first signed him in 2018. Though his name surfaced in some trade chatter this offseason, Cousins' relationship with new coach Kevin O'Connell suggested he could remain in the Vikings' plans. He said Monday his goal through the entire negotiation process was to stay with the team.

"The short answer [for why I signed the contract extension] is, I wanted to be a Minnesota Viking," Cousins said. "I wanted to help create some cap space so that we could put together a roster that you do feel really good about. It's just always trying to find win-wins. I think it was a way to create a win-win, and then hopefully that leads to a lot of wins this fall."

"My mind-set was really to be a Viking. I would like to retire as a Viking, and so I would like to play my way into that, if you will. I know I've got to earn the right to do that."

Cousins' new deal runs through the 2023 season and gives him a no-trade clause. The Vikings put void years for 2024 and 2025 in the deal to spread out the cap hits from Cousins' $25 million signing bonus, but he would be a free agent after 2023 under the terms of the current contract.

He'd be 35 at that point, meaning he could need another contract to meet his goal of retiring as a Viking. Cousins said Monday he understands he'll have to play well enough to make that happen.

"If I could draw it up, it'd be, 'Play well enough that you never have to play or wear another jersey anywhere else,'" he said. "I'm going to work really hard to try to make that possible."

O'Connell was Cousins' last position coach in Washington. Cousins said he talked with the team's leadership about O'Connell during the Vikings' search process but said his involvement was at "a minimal amount" as the team looked for its next coach.

"I wanted to share and communicate, but by no means did I feel like it was my job to get involved, if that makes sense," Cousins said. "So that was really where I saw my role."

Nonetheless, he will play for a coach with whom he has a solid relationship and will work with the security of a no-trade clause for the next two years. The Vikings' bet, in effect, seems to be that Cousins can find another level of performance in a system that figures to be more supportive than anything he's had in Minnesota.

He spent time earlier this offseason working out with Adam Thielen and K.J. Osborn, and the rest of his offseason, Cousins said, was "a combination of family time, a lot of bodywork, trying to as you get older try to make yourself young. And that's certainly going to be a priority for me every year I continue on in this league."

Should Cousins get his wish and spend the rest of his career in Minnesota, he'll likely have played consistently enough for the Vikings to keep him in their plans beyond 2023.

"It's staying healthy, it's playing at a high level, it's protecting the football, it's making plays, it's leading your teammates, it's playing with poise, toughness, all the things it takes to be a great quarterback," he said. "It's doing that not one time, not one season, not for a two- or three-year run, it's doing it day after day after day, and you look back after hopefully double-digit years and you'll say, 'Man, that was a great run.'"