No, Russell Wilson Shouldn’t Be The Vikings’ Next Quarterback
But it wouldn’t surprise me…
Russell Wilson being benched for the last two games of the 2023–2024 season prompts many questions about the one-time Super Bowl champion quarterback’s future. Especially if the obviously tense relationship between him and Broncos head coach Sean Payton are to be taken into account, it’s becoming more likely that Wilson will be cut from the team this upcoming March.
I try to keep a pretty close tab on these kind of things. As a Minnesota Vikings fan, this has certainly been one of those seasons when it plainly just hurts to watch. I have never seen this many backup quarterbacks play for the entire NFL this season, let alone for a single team. We had four — four — quarterbacks playing throughout. Who’s playing this week? Mullens? Hall? Shirtless Kirk Cousins in an ankle boot?
Bottom line, us Vikings fans would love a reliable, fantastic franchise quarterback. And yes, a great O-line. While we’re at the football store, I’d like to pick up some running backs, too. Sure. But all of that takes time and a really smart use of our resources. Yet when I heard about the Vikings being the rumored betting favorite for Wilson, I got scared. Really scared.
I don’t have anything serious against Russell Wilson, besides the fact that his performance this season doesn’t seem to justify his gargantuan contract. Truth be told, I don’t think there’s going to be that significant of a difference playing-wise if he were to come to Minnesota.
Therefore, we have ourselves a “bird in the hand is worth two in the bush” situation. Kirk Cousins may have the lovably humble Dad image about him, arriving on game days in a fresh ‘fit bought entirely with his wife’s Kohl’s cash, but in a league that’s facing a desperate quarterback situation, Cousins’ stats are anything but humble. I don’t want to let go of a guy that packed in over 2,300 passing yards by the time of his Week 8 achilles injury. For context: Cousins has a touch more passing yardage than the Bengals’ Joe Burrow, who played for 2 1/2 more games.
But whatever about passing yards. What’s far more important is chemistry and legacy with the team. Cousins has been with the Vikings since 2018 and really wins the locker room over. His potential leaving is even a serious talking point regarding legendary wide receiver Justin Jefferson’s return. Given Jefferson’s high praises about Cousins, if Cousins is gone, Jefferson may follow.
So, should we extend Cousins’ contract for a couple of years to give him a chance to properly mentor in the Vikings’ next quarterback? Or should we bring in a quarterback like Wilson who, for all intents and purposes, is remarkably similar to Cousins in terms of the point in his career and his recorded stats? A quarterback who, despite this, will be more expensive, will be a gamble in locker room chemistry, and won’t be around for a significant length of time for the team anyway?
Something I will add for consideration here: the Minnesota Vikings do still have to see Cousins post-injury. Would he really be the same as Russell Wilson, or worse? To that point, I still don’t really care. I’ve seen the Vikings without Cousins, and I can tell you that he is definitely an asset after looking at his backups. Backup quarterbacks really give teams a chance to show where the weak spots really are — for example, how much were Justin Herbert (Chargers), Kenny Pickett (Steelers), or CJ Stroud (Texans) keeping their teams afloat? With them absent from games, we saw the holes. But if the backup quarterbacks are struggling, the problems may be more on them and not the entire team.
For the Vikings, one has to remember that we didn’t go through three additional quarterbacks just because of injury (save for Hall’s concussion against the Falcons). It was due to poor performance. During the Vikings game against the Packers on New Year’s Eve, Coach O’Connell switched Jaren Hall out for Nick Mullens at halftime…and I heard the crowd cheer. That poor guy.
So, looking at the Vikings’ situation as a whole, we have to acknowledge our great weapons when evaluating our quarterback situation. We have a great wide receiver unit, a well-regarded defense, and a young GM-head coach pair only serving its second season and showing promise after last year’s 13–4 record. We have a future, and we should absolutely capitalize on it.
I think Russell Wilson deserves to still be in the NFL. Teams besides the Broncos (and Vikings) that I could see him doing well in include the Atlanta Falcons, the New England Patriots (potentially post-Belichick, so who knows what that’ll be like), the Washington Commanders, or even the Pittsburgh Steelers. Essentially, he’d do well with teams that are in the market for a good starting quarterback to replace options who have seen struggle, who at the same time need to evaluate how they’re going to face other major rebuilding scenarios.
But for a team like the Vikings, whose main starting quarterback is reliable when healthy and who is further along in rebuilding for their future compared to other teams? With all due respect to Russell Wilson, it doesn’t make much sense for him to come here.
