It meant the Vikings would have a new starting quarterback in 2024: either Sam Darnold, whom they signed to a one-year contract hours later, or the passer they planned to draft in the first round in April (which became Michigan’s J.J. McCarthy). It also meant that the Vikings, when given the choice between a costly route to certainty and a more daring path to an open-ended future, chose the latter. They made Cousins a modest offer to return, knowing he might look elsewhere because of the looming possibility they would draft his successor, and wished him well as he pursued a $180 million deal on the open market.

In 2024, they were rewarded handsomely for their gamble: Darnold tied Cousins for the second-most TD passes in a single season in Vikings history (35), reaching his first Pro Bowl as a team projected to win seven games instead won 14, earning Kevin O’Connell NFL Coach of the Year honors and a lucrative extension through the 2029 season.

And at 1:22 p.m. Monday, March 10, 2025 — at almost exactly the same juncture the Vikings had waved goodbye to Cousins a year before — news broke that Darnold would mirror Cousins’ path to the opposite coast.

The quarterback agreed to a deal with the Seahawks that will reportedly pay him $100.5 million, including $55 million in guaranteed money, over the next three seasons. It’s a more modest deal than the four-year, $180 million contract Cousins got from Atlanta a year ago, despite the fact Darnold is almost nine years younger than Cousins and in better health than Cousins was in 2024.

The last two games of the Vikings’ season — their 31-9 loss to the Lions that cost them home-field advantage in the playoffs as Darnold went 18-for-41, and their 27-9 playoff loss where the Rams sacked Darnold nine times — might have cost the quarterback millions of dollars. Some of the chatter about Darnold at the NFL combine last month was about whether he could replicate his Vikings success without O’Connell calling plays and Justin Jefferson catching the ball, which also might have depressed his market.

But he still landed the biggest payday of his career, while the Vikings ensured they will have a new starting quarterback for the third consecutive season. It could be Daniel Jones or another veteran playing the role of a bridge to McCarthy, or it could be the 22-year-old starting his first NFL game after recovering from the torn right meniscus that ended his rookie season.

The Vikings’ approach with Darnold, though, resembled the one they took with Cousins. They praised the quarterback publicly, and continued talks with his agents on a new contract, even as they declined to place the franchise tag on him. Their willingness to give Darnold a market-rate deal, though, always seemed like it would be checked by their primary plan: careful development of the quarterback they selected 10th overall in last year’s draft, ultimately leading to successful play on a rookie contract that would allow them to fortify the team around him.