Would Kirk Cousins still be here if Vikings had hired Ryan Poles as GM?

The dominoes, ultimately, only fall once.

We lack the power to turn back time and rewrite history. So all we are left with are the abilities to wonder and speculate about how things might have turned out had different decisions been made, how one fallen domino might have led to the next.

But that doesn't stop us. In fact, the inability to change history only deepens our desire to re-imagine it, for better or worse.

Star Tribune Vikings beat writer Ben Goessling and I played a version of that what-if game on Friday's Daily Delivery podcast.

The upshot, which we arrived at in meandering fashion, was this: Would Kirk Cousins still be the quarterback of the Vikings this season if Minnesota had hired Ryan Poles as its general manager?

The question is particularly relevant as the Vikings prepare on Sunday to host the Bears — the organization that did hire Poles as GM, with the Vikings opting to hire Kwesi Adofo-Mensah.

In Chicago, Poles has orchestrated a more thorough roster reconstruction than Adofo-Mensah has authored in Minnesota.

The Bears are 2-2, but they seem far closer to a traditional, non-competitive rebuild than the Vikings in this moment.

Given the route Poles has gone in Chicago, what might he have done with similar power in Minnesota? Would he have plunged into the offseason ready to trade Cousins to the highest bidder while also shedding other high-priced veteran contracts?

Perhaps.

But we also should consider that the Bears, who went 6-11 last year and have a second-year QB on a team-friendly contract (Justin Fields) are in a more natural spot to rebuild with youth than a Vikings team that was arguably a play or two away from making the postseason each of the last two years.

We also need to take into account the distaste Vikings ownership had for a bigger roster reconstruction.

The Vikings, at least in the present, should be just fine with how things worked out in both cases.

But those future dominoes have yet to fall.