Kirk Cousins Injury Update: Vikings Officially Place QB On Injured Reserve After Season Ending Injury

The Minnesota Vikings on Tuesday made it official: quarterback Kirk Cousins is on the injured reserve list.

This comes a day after the team confirmed Cousins has a torn Achilles.

Though the team hasn’t said as much at this point, the type of Achilles injury Cousins suffered over the weekend will almost certainly keep him out for the rest of the season, based on historical analogs.

Cousins suffered the injury in the fourth quarter of Sunday’s win over the Green Bay Packers. Shortly after that, the Vikings ruled him out for the remainder of the game.

Kirk Cousins loves playing this game,

head coach Kevin O’Connell said on Monday.

Takes a lot of pride in playing this game and being as durable as he’s been throughout his career, so this is new for him.

The Vikings are now 4-4 and firmly in the playoff hunt, with things looking up over the last few games, and a reasonably friendly slate of matchups forthcoming.

Dobbs started eight games for Arizona this season while starter Kyler Murray was recovering from a torn ACL.

It will mark just the third game Cousins has missed since taking over as the Vikings’ QB in 2018. Cousins’ injury is the same one New York jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers suffered in week one of the regular season.

A cart eventually came to the Vikings’ sideline and took Cousins to the locker room.

Minnesota quickly announced that Cousins was out for the remainder of today’s game with an ankle injury. Nick Mullens, Cousins’ usual backup, was placed on injured reserve in Week 6. Instead, sixth-round rookie Jaren Hall entered the game to replace Cousins.

After the game, head coach Kevin O’Connell said the Vikings fear Cousins suffered an Achilles injury. A Monday MRI confirmed the diagnosis, meaning Cousins will miss the remainder of the season.

Cousins’ injury could theoretically affect how Minnesota affects the NFL’s Oct. 31 trade deadline. But now that Cousins is dealing with a long-term injury, veterans like edge rusher Danielle Hunter and linebacker Jordan Hicks could be available over the next two days.

The running game in Minnesota lacks clarity, and the loss of Cousins would remove most of the scoring equity from both Alexander Mattison and Cam Akers.

Neither would project as anything more than a low-upside Flex play next week in Atlanta, given the lack of role clarity and scoring opportunities.

Without Cousins, Addison is a low-end Flex play at best, while K.J. Osborn should be removed from starting consideration. He should, however, remain rostered given his role in this offense with Justin Jefferson on the shelf, but temper expectations significantly, even after his big Week 8.

Even with Justin Jefferson out with an injury, the emergence of Jordan Addison and Kirk Cousins’ solid play kept them afloat in the NFC North. Unfortunately for the Vikings, Kirk Cousins suffered a season-ending Achilles injury during their win against the Green Bay Packers.

The injury suddenly sent Minnesota’s happy carousel trip downstream, and all hope is seemingly lost. Justin Jefferson was placed on the Vikings’ injured reserve list after suffering a hamstring injury against the Kansas City Chiefs.

Due to the rules of the injured reserve list, Jefferson is forced to miss the next four games after his placement on the list. Sunday’s game against the Packers was the third week on JJ’s mandatory break.

Jefferson will be cleared to play as soon as Week 10, when the Vikings are able to open the practice window for the star wide receiver. The hope was that the team would be performing well enough to compete for the playoffs when Jefferson returned.

It’s likely that Jefferson might decide to just sit the season out to prevent injury. Jefferson is also up for a new contract, and an injury could affect his ability to get paid.

It’s not like he needs to prove that he’s elite: both Minnesota and the rest of the league knows how good he is.

A plan that the Vikings can execute with regards to Jefferson’ injury is to activate his practice window as soon as possible and let him play in Week 10 against the Saints.

Then, after the team has gotten a better understanding of their position without Kirk, they can decide whether to let Jefferson play the season out or sit him.

Ultimately, this decision hinges on how bad Jefferson would want to return to the field. The Vikings star is competitive, and he’d want to give his team the best possible shot of making the playoffs.

If they have even a solid game-manager at QB, Minnesota can go pretty deep in an NFC conference that’s looking shaky recently.

The next few days will tell us more about the Vikings and Justin Jefferson’s plan for his injury. Cousins has piled up more than 39,000 passing yards in his career while throwing for 270 touchdowns—would probably allow him to receive another job offer, but it remains to be seen if he would be up for the task.

Getting back to your best after major surgery can be tricky, and lower-body injuries often carry some mental baggage. The timing is also incredibly poor for Cousins on another level: He’s out of contract this season. No one will be shedding a tear over an NFL player with more than $200 million in career earnings, but potentially missing out on a payday makes things a bit more painful.

Rather than extending or trading Cousins, the club decided to let him play into the final year of his contract.

Justin Jefferson is an all-world talent, and it is possible that he’ll return this year; even with him on the sidelines, though, the club has hung tough.

Even with Cousins out, the team is probably too good to genuinely tank in any meaningful manner. Even if trading for a big-name quarterback was possible—making a major deal work in a matter of days is tricky—it probably wouldn’t be worth the cost.

The club probably won’t even get a good draft pick for their troubles, unless things really go off the rails.

With Cousins’ future up in the air and the Vikings sitting at 20th place in the draft order, there might not be a star quarterback on the cards for 2024. And, if Minnesota has to trot out a journeyman for a season or two, it’s tough to see that helping results improve.

It goes without saying that Cousins’ injury is a serious blow for both the quarterback and the Vikings. What do they do at quarterback with Cousins out?

They’re 4-4 and sitting in a playoff spot after winning their third consecutive game, and their schedule is favorable enough that their postseason hopes don’t have to suddenly be dead.

Still, it’s unclear if there’s anyone on the roster or available elsewhere who is good enough to get the Vikings to the playoffs, much less make a run in them.

Rookie Jaren Hall will almost certainly start next week’s game against the Falcons. Hall, a fifth-round pick in this year’s draft, entered after Cousins’ injury, completed three of his four pass attempts, and lost a fumble on a strip sack. If the Vikings want to maximize their chances to contend for a playoff spot even without Cousins, he may not be the answer.

Veteran backup Nick Mullens, who has 17 career starts, is eligible to come off injured reserve after this upcoming game. Head coach Kevin O’Connell didn’t commit to Hall being his quarterback moving forward, citing Mullens’ injury status — he’s recovering from a back issue — as the reason.

The team needs to look at potentially all of the options, including the best possible group around Jaren, knowing that we are going to continue to build a complete offense based upon a lot more than just the quarterback.”

The Vikings will have to add another quarterback at least until Mullens is healthy. Maybe that’s someone like 37-year-old Colt McCoy, who played under O’Connell in Washington and worked out for the Vikings recently. He could come in, pick up the offense pretty quickly, and either serve as Hall’s backup or be in the mix to start games.

The biggest possible swing the Vikings could take would be trading for Kyler Murray, but that seems highly unlikely given his contract situation and the picks it would take to acquire him. The team’s long-term future is the most important thing, but they presumably won’t want to just give up on the 2023 season.

The Vikings are getting such great play from their defense and their non-QB offensive pieces that they might be able to keep winning games even without their starting quarterback. K.J. Osborn, T.J. Hockenson, and Jordan Addison combined for 269 receiving yards on Sunday, and Justin Jefferson is eligible to return in a couple weeks.

In that context, it seems unlikely that the Vikings would pivot to selling and trade Danielle Hunter, who recorded his NFL-leading tenth sack on Sunday. At the same time, some sort of big addition also feels unlikely for a team whose ceiling is suddenly much lower than it was before their trip to Green Bay. If he thrives, he could keep the season afloat be an option to win the job in 2024. If he struggles, the Vikings could turn to Mullens or McCoy or someone else — or just stomach the losses while knowing they’re beneficial for draft positioning.

The trade deadline being on Tuesday afternoon makes this quite the quick turnaround for the Vikings’ decision-makers. What’s the backup plan when your always-durable quarterback gets knocked out for the season? Hope, Vikings’ makes the best decision to remain afloat in the Championships ahead.