Kirk Cousins might not retire as a Viking, but he's already one of us

The big headline, and rightfully so, from Monday's media availability with Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins is that he wants to "retire as a Viking."

After a rather tumultuous offseason that saw the Vikings — after missing the playoffs for the third time in four years with Cousins as their QB — fire both head coach Mike Zimmer and General Manager Rick Spielman and during which Cousins was himself the subject of trade rumors, the end result at the quarterback position was Cousins signing a one-year contract extension (plus adding a no-trade clause) so his deal now runs through 2023.

He was asked about the process of agreeing to that extension and whether he thought he might be traded this offseason.

"My mind-set was really to be a Viking," Cousins said. "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."

As I talked about on Tuesday's Daily Delivery podcast, it was a good answer that reflects the reality of his situation.

Cousins will turn 34 during the preseason. If he has a strong 2022 season backed by new head coach Kevin O'Connell and the Vikings experience team success, it's not hard to see a path to Cousins signing one more medium-length deal to play here into his late 30s before calling it a career.

If things go awry this season, the Vikings might nudge Cousins to waive that no-trade clause for a deal of his liking as they start over in 2023.

What I found equally interesting, though, was the response from Cousins as he talked about navigating change in the NFL and reacting to the Vikings making a major shakeup at head coach and GM.

"You just understand playing in this league for 10 years it's just kind of the standard of knowing that every year there's change," Cousins said as part of his answer. "We've had a lot of different (offensive) coordinators here in the years I've been here. And so you learn to deal with that."

While this is certainly true and has been well-documented, given how Cousins will be playing for his fifth different offensive coordinator in five seasons with the Vikings in 2022, it also struck me as the perfect passive-aggressive response to that question.

Between that and alternating between gesturing with his hands and sticking them back in his pockets, Cousins has rarely appeared more Minnesotan.

Whether he retires as a Viking remains to be seen, but he's certainly one of us.