The latest Kirk Cousins trade speculation makes no sense

We're a few weeks away from the start of the new league year in the NFL on March 16, which involves free agency and the ability for teams to make trades.

Between now and then, the NFL Scouting Combine will also happen. Before you know it, the draft will be here, and then minicamps. For a league that only plays games for about five months of the calendar, this is a reminder that the league has mastered the art of the 12-month news cycle.

This brief period right now should be a little bit of down time for the Vikings, but this is not a normal year. With a new coach and general manager, with new systems to implement and a raft of decisions to make about existing players/free agents, there is plenty going on right now.

The biggest question facing Kwesi Adofo-Mensah and Kevin O'Connell, of course, is what to do with quarterback Kirk Cousins. They attempted to answer that last week, saying the plan is to have Cousins QB the team at least in 2022 (after which he will be a free agent).

But the Cousins chatter won't stop until there is absolute clarity, and this week a report from SKOR North's Judd Zulgad indicated Carolina had called the Vikings about Cousins.

This one nugget was picked up by countless outlets. Star Tribune Vikings beat writer Ben Goessling and I addressed it on Wednesday's Daily Delivery podcast.

Basically, it comes down to this: A trade with Carolina makes no sense (and by extension, a trade with Cleveland doesn't make any sense, either).

In either case, the Vikings would almost certainly have to take back a relatively expensive quarterback playing on his fifth-year option — Sam Darnold with Carolina, Baker Mayfield with Cleveland. Both of those players are set to make $18.8 million in 2022, all of which is base salary.

The Vikings would save $35 million on their cap by trading Cousins. Does an extra $16 million in cap space make up for the production gap between Cousins and either Darnold or Mayfield? Not even close.

And because both QBs are free agents after the 2022 season, it only make sense if the Vikings were interested in either of them long-term (which, based on their first four years in the league, is not warranted).

The only type of Cousins trade that makes sense is a deal that gets the Vikings massive cap relief and some draft assets, but again any trade will probably make it harder to compete in 2022 unless the Vikings think there is a low-cost option in free agency (Mitchell Trubisky?) who could serve as a bridge or even more than that.

Everything we know at the moment makes Goessling and I think Cousins will be the Vikings' QB in 2022.