Pump the brakes on all that Kellen Mond replacing Kirk Cousins talk
By Josh Hill
It sure seems like the Minnesota Vikings just opened the door to kick Kirk Cousins out in 2022.
Minnesota Vikings fans have been on a long strange quarterback journey that never seems to find resolution.
The best years the fan base have experienced were nihilistic in nature thanks specifically to the quarterback situation. Randall Cunningham gave the Vikings a 15-1 season in 1998 at age 35 and Brett Favre led Minnesota to the NFC Championship Game at age 40. Even the Minneapolis Miracle was produced by Case Keenan, who started the season as backup quarterback.
At every high point, the Vikings quarterback has been a band-aid. Dante Culpepper is the closest Minnesota has come to a franchise quarterback in the last three decades and you have to go back to Fran Tarkenton in the 70s to find the last great Vikings quarterback.
Kirk Cousins is somewhere between Culpepper and the band-aids Minnesota has applied but tides might have turned. The Vikings drafted Texas A&M quarterback Kellen Mond with its first third round pick and the wheels are turning within the fan base that a young quarterback might finally get developed to lead the team.
Did Vikings draft Kellen Mond to replace Kirk Cousins?
It’s not hard to connect the dots between the Vikings drafting Mond with its third round pick and it being a move to replace Cousins. But don’t get suckered into being a prisoner of the moment.
Yes, the Vikings drafted Mond with the idea that he’ll play a big role.
No, that role isn’t as the starter over Cousins — at least not right away.
Cousins is under contract through the 2022 season and his $21 million salary in 2021 is already fully guaranteed. He’s due $35 million next season and the Vikings cutting him would incur a whopping $45 million in dead cap space.
That means Cousins isn’t going anywhere for at least two seasons.
Things get interesting after that, however. Minnesota can trade Cousins in 2022 and only have $10 million in dead space and save $35 million. If a move is going to happen it won’t happen until next offseason at the earliest but that’s only if we’re accounting for the financial aspect of this.
As good as he was at Texas A&M, Mond is a raw prospect and has a lot of work to do. He has the tools that if they get fully developed could help him challenge Justin Fields as the best quarterback in the NFC North (after Aaron Rodgers leaves, of course).
Mond has the ability toe create and extend plays with his legs, and can fire absolute laser beam throws deep downfield, both things being big improvements over Cousins. But Mond has flaws, like how he threw a ton of interceptions at A&M (27 in four seasons, to be exact). He forces a lot of passes, which Vikings fans saw both the highs and extreme devastating lows of with Favre.
However Mond’s work ethic was something that Jimbo Fisher not only noted with pride but it paid off. Mond’s red flags got washed a little in his senior season when the threw only three interceptions to 19 touchdowns and finished his college career as MVP of the Senior Bowl.
That’s a positive sign considering he’s going to be a backup for the foreseeable future. Minnesota needed depth in the quarterback room and have a talented young star to bounce ideas off the wall with alongside Cousins. But Mond has no pressure to start until at least 2022 and likely won’t get a real shot until 2023 (assuming injuries or absolutely garbage play by Cousins doesn’t spur a move sooner). That means the Vikings can develop him to be the star he’s shown flashes of being at A&M while still having at least three years of his rookie contract left when he’s handed the reigns.
So while we all need to pump the brakes on talk of Mond replacing Cousins, it feels like the Vikings are finally in a good spot at quarterback for the first time in almost a half century.