The Vikings don't know who will play quarterback for them on Sunday in the finale of this season of multiple derailments, but they do know this: The options are increasingly bleak, and none of Jaren Hall, Nick Mullens or Joshua Dobbs look like a viable choice as a 2024 starter.
Minnesota's quarterback carousel — a difficult situation handled poorly by head coach Kevin O'Connell in recent weeks — has made it fashionable to pine for the injured free-agent-to-be Kirk Cousins, who was on a hot streak that had helped the Vikings even their record at 4-4 after an 0-3 start at the time he was lost for the season.
The affection perhaps reached a fever pitch Sunday, when a shirtless Cousins got the U.S. Bank fired up right before Hall quieted them down in a 33-10 loss to Green Bay.
But as Patrick Reusse and I talked about on Tuesday's Daily Delivery podcast, thinking Cousins is the only — or even the best — option in 2024 is a conclusion that might be reached rationally.
It more likely would be reached as the product of a false choice.
If the Vikings and Cousins get together this offseason and agree to a new deal, it almost certainly would have to include multiple years of guaranteed starting QB money. The exact figure is subject to salary cap gymnastics, but let's imagine it's somewhere in the neighborhood of $35-40 million per year.
The Vikings had five seasons of a healthy and younger Cousins and won exactly one playoff game. Imagining he can lift a roster in need of a major talent infusion — which simultaneously has salary cap issues — any higher than a fringe playoff team is wishful thinking.
The counter-argument: We saw what happened this year without Cousins. Why not take the sure thing?
