Getty Image / Hannah Foslien
Over the course of the NFL offseason, we’ll hear some wild rumors about potential trades.
This year, it looks like the rumor mill was really churning at the NFL Combine.
According to NFL insider Mike Florio, there was a rumor going around at the combine about Kirk Cousins being traded to the San Francisco 49ers in a deal that would have sent Trey Lance to the Minnesota Vikings.
Apparently at the Scouting Combine there was some noise among people in the league about Cousins being traded to the 49ers. That was a hot topic at one point.
The San Francisco 49ers were one of the NFL’s best teams last season in spite of the multiple changes they went through at quarterback because of injuries.
They are expected to be one of the league’s best teams again in 2023 with Brock Purdy under center, but there are definitely still questions about Purdy. He was a huge surprise last season and actually improved the offense after taking over from Jimmy Garoppolo, but it was a very small sample size.
Kirk Cousins has been the target of plenty of scrutiny since joining the Minnesota Vikings, but we know what he is at this point in his career.
He isn’t an elite QB, but he is consistently a good quarterback. He has thrown for over 4000 yards in 7 of the 8 seasons and has thrown at least 25 touchdowns in all 8 of those seasons.
With plenty of weapons on offense and one of the NFL’s best defenses, the 49ers would be a tough team to beat with Cousins under center.
For the Minnesota Vikings, this trade would be a pretty huge shift for them. With players like Cousins and Dalvin Cook who are older and have hefty contracts, they are currently in win-now mode. They are coming off of winning an NFC North title.
Trading for Lance would shift that focus. He’s a pretty big unknown who has had limited reps in the NFL because of the injury he suffered last season. He is also a little over a month from turning 23, so he still has plenty of time to develop.
The team already moved on from Adam Thielen this offseason, so trading Kirk Cousins to bring in a younger QB who is still developing to team up with Justin Jefferson and KJ Osborn would have indicated the Vikings were focusing on their future and would have likely led to Dalvin Cook being their next star traded.
At the end of the day, it ended just being a rumor, but this would have been a pretty huge deal for the Minnesota Vikings and San Francisco 49ers.