Vikings Called About Cousins Before Wentz Struggled Against Bills

Details continue to emerge about the Las Vegas Raiders’ big trade with the Minnesota Vikings this week, with the latest intel saying the Vikings made the call to inquire about quarterback Kirk Cousins before Minnesota’s disastrous performance against the Buffalo Bills on Monday Night Football. 

That report came from Adam Schefter and Ian Rapoport of ESPN, who had the call coming on Monday afternoon. That makes sense given that the Vikings must have known to at least some extent that backup QB Carson Wentz wasn’t a viable option for the second half of the season given what they'd already seen. 

The process geared up in earnest the next day after Wentz’s horrendous performance, and the initial offer had Minnesota pitching a fifth-round pick. 

That didn’t fly, so the Vikings upped their offer to a third-rounder, and that’s when the Raiders started talking about whether the deal made sense. 

The bonus for Las Vegas was about the money, per the report. The Raiders picked up an extra $10 million in cash for 2027, with Cousins’ bonus money now shifted over to become Minnesota’s responsibility. 

The Raiders were ready to make the move to Mendoza, but the hard part was reducing the possibilty of contention for coach Klint Kubiak, who has talked consistently about Las Vegas possibly being able to earn a playoff berth. 

It’s tough to take for a rookie coach who’s been a great hire so far, and now he’ll have to live with whatever rookie mistakes Mendoza makes, starting tomorrow against Seattle. 

Cousins will now make his first start for Minnesota at Lambeau Field against the Green Bay Packers, while Mendoza will at least be able to begin his career as a starter at home, albeit against the Seattle Seahawks. 

The trade also sets up a series of weekly stats comparisons between the two quarterbacks. That’s not fair to Mendoza, of course, but that’s how the NFL works, and Kubiak will likely have to fend off questions about whatever inequities surface in Cousins’ favor. 

The trade from Cousins went through cleanly with no controversy, but the report from Schefter and Rapoport also noting that the NFL’s competition committee is likely to look in the series of altered or rescinded trades that occurred this week. 

That’s definitely too little, too late for the Raiders, who were the first victim of this sort of thing this year when their attempt to deal defensive lineman Maxx Crosby to the Baltimore Ravens fell through because of a controversy about Crosby’s medicals.