Six years ago, the Vikings were looking for quarterback Kirk Cousins. And they went and took him.
Now, with Cousins less than a month away from free agency and more than a week away from Tampering Central at the scouting combine in Indianapolis, the Vikings and Cousins are without a contract.
Eight days ago, Chris Simms and I interviewed both Cousins and Vikings receiver KJ Osborne at the Super Bowl Media Center. (Video attached.) I’ll say this based on what I gleaned during — and after — the conversation. If the Vikings want to keep Cousins, they’re not going the right way.
Chances are you don’t want to keep it now. Chances are you want to make them feel like he has chosen to leave. It wasn’t their call not to pay $45 million for the quarterback, who turns 36 in August and is recovering from a torn Achilles tendon (or so). If that’s the strategy, you’re mastering it right.
But if they really want it, the strategy is to see what others are paying before making their move. If that’s the case, it’s a very bad strategy.
Everyone wants to feel wanted and valued. Cousins, by all accounts, wants to stay. But if the Vikings don’t do the things he (and his family) want, giving Cousins (and his family) a chance to feel more desirable might motivate Cousins to choose a new team over the Vikings. Money supplies are equal. It can also cause cousins to take a little to go elsewhere just to score points.
Who do you really want to work for? Someone who values you enough to make an aggressive move to get you, or someone else who respects you more than your current employer and shrugs it off when you’re paid more than expected?
We’ll leave potential cousins access to another post. For now, that means the Vikings can take advantage of their dwindling cap day to keep him. If you really want to keep him, you should make him an offer he can’t refuse – ASAFP.