By Jacob Waltman, KSJB (Jamestown, ND) – The Minnesota Vikings lost to the Buffalo Bills on Monday Night Football, losing 23-6. With the quarterback play looking grimmer each week, many Vikings fans were already ready to give up on the 2026 season after a 6-2 start. Rumors had been going around for weeks about if or when the Vikings would go make a trade for quarterback. Names like Geno Smith, Mac Jones, Daniel Jones, and even Justin Herbert thrown in the air, but one name fans kept coming back to was Kirk Cousins.
Vikings fans prayers were answered on Tuesday, November 10th, just before the trade deadline, when the Vikings traded a 3rd round pick for Raiders quarterback Kirk Cousins. Kirk Cousins spent six years in Minnesota before he signed with the Atlanta Falcons in 2024 and then signed with the Las Vegas Raiders in the 2026 offseason. Kirks first stint with Minnesota was full of ups and down, especially through the Mike Zimmers years, but when now head coach Kevin O’Connell came to Minnesota in 2022, Kirk would end up playing the best football of his career. In 2022, Kirk would lead the Vikings to 13-4 record while throwing for 4,547 yards and 29 touchdowns, before they would lose to the New York Giants in the Wild Card. In 2023 Kirk Cousins looked like an MVP candidate through the first eight games of the season, throwing for 2,331 yards and 31 touchdowns before tearing his Achilles and ending his first stint as a Vikings.
After the 2023 season, the Vikings would move off Cousins and draft JJ McCarthy and signed Sam Darnold in the offseason. Moving off Kirk looked to be the right move at the time, with the Vikings going 14-3 in the 2024 season and Sam Darnold having a career renaissance. It wasn’t to long after though the Vikings quarterback situation went downhill, with Sam Darnold leaving in free agency, going to Seattle, and the injuries and inconstant play of JJ McCarthy in 2025, made Minnesota feel like they needed to look elsewhere for a quarterback.
With Sam Darnold leaving Minnesota and winning a Super Bowl with the Seattle Seahawks, and JJ McCarthy not looking like the answer at quarterback, general manager Kwosi Adofo-Mensah was fired, and the Minnesota Vikings brought in Kyler Murray to be the quarterback in 2026. The Vikings started 6-0, with Kyler Murray, and Carson Wentz spot starting, but any fan watching new it wasn’t because of the quarterback play, but because of the Vikings defense playing at a historic pace. As many fans know winning covers many issues, but once Kyler Murray struggled against Detroit and sustaining a hamstring injury, and Carson Wentz not being able to get the offense going against the Buffalo Bills, Vikings fans had enough, as heard on TV with US Bank Stadium being filled with boos.
Meanwhile, in Las Vegas Kirk Cousins was leading the Raiders to their best start in years, with a 4-5 record, and throwing for 2,340 yards and 20 touchdowns, but Las Vegas has the first overall pick, Fernando Mendoza, waiting to get his chance to start. All the Vikings quarterback troubles, along with the Fernando Mendoza waiting to start in Las Vegas, lead to the perfect storm for Kirk Cousins’ return to Minnesota. Minnesota’s defense is ready to win now, as seen with how dominate they were against the Bills in the first half, but when they’re on defense is on the field for 42 and half minutes of the game, they are bound to give.
Cousins doesn’t need to win score 35 points a game, like he did in 2022, to win games anymore. The Vikings defense from 2022 and the Vikings defense in 2026 are vastly different. Cousins needs to sustain drives, and put literally anything on the scoreboard and the Vikings defense can win games for this team, and with how he has played in Las Vegas this year, it shouldn’t be an issue. Not to mention he reunites with the best wide receiver in football, Justin Jefferson, and Jordan Addison, who’s best years in his career were with Kirk Cousins, so Kirk has plenty of weapons to use.
Kirk is welcomed back to Minnesota with open arms by fans and players, who were desperate for a quarterback for this championship caliber team.
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