If the Minnesota Vikings don’t re-sign Kirk Cousins before the NFL free agency window opens on March 13, the four-time Pro Bowl quarterback will already be gone.

The Vikings are on the hook for $28.5 million prorated bonuses that will accelerate onto the 2024 cap sheet when Cousins’ contract expires. Paying Cousins that dead cap from his last contract and signing him to a new deal after the free agency window opens is out of the question if Minnesota has any plans of building a competitive roster.

For that reason, SKOR North’s Judd Zulgad expects the Vikings to draw a hard line with Cousins’ camp so they’ll have clarity on how much cap space and which players to pursue in free agency and the draft in April.

In November, Kwesi Adofo-Mensah expressed that there is an offer on the table for Cousins to return even after his season-ending injury, but the onus will be on Cousins to decide if he’ll accept it before the free agency window opens — Wednesday, March 13, 3 p.m. Central Time.

Zulgad went further, urging the Vikings to push for a clear answer at the NFL Draft on March 1 so they’ll know where they stand when they can meet with potential free agents when the legal tampering period opens on March 11.

“You’ve got to draw some deadlines because the worst thing that you can do is allow, for instance, the Kirk Cousins camp to dictate what your move is and to potentially screw you,” Zulgad said on a January 4 episode of the “Mackey and Judd” podcast. “You have to be the aggressor here, and I don’t think that’s being a jerk, I think it’s being realistic and it now gives you a clear-cut path.”

Cousins’ camp may want to draw out their negotiations to shop the market he could garner in free agency, but the Vikings are also inclined to move on the moment Cousins’ contract expires on March 13 — creating a conflict that should have resolution before that date.

Vikings Must Decide Kirk Cousins, Danielle Hunter’s Fates Before Free Agency

Justin Jefferson is considered a lock to become the highest-paid player at his position this offseason, but the futures of Danielle Hunter and Cousins remain uncertain.

Both players have cases to secure top-end salaries at their positions. Pro Football Focus cap expert Brad Spielberger projected Cousins to garner a deal worth $30 million a year and Hunter to see a $21.7 million average annual value on his next contract.

They both also have two or three years left in their prime at premier positions and could potentially garner larger contracts from teams that feel they’re one piece away from a championship roster.

But there is also a way for the Vikings to pay Jefferson, re-sign Cousins and Hunter and draft a quarterback of the future.

 Vikings Could Draft Rookie QB and Keep Kirk Cousins

While the Vikings’ finances appear to be in dire straights, there is a means. of the team competing now while also building for the future.

Arif Hasan, formerly with The Athletic before starting his newsletter, Wide Left, broke down the cap procedures the Vikings could make that would allow the Vikings to keep all three stars.

“If the Vikings and Hunter agree to a contract that meets the expectations of contract expert Brad Spielberger at Pro Football Focus, then they would offer him $21.67 million per year over three years with $40 million guaranteed. If most of that guaranteed money comes in the form of a signing bonus, they could create new void years for 2027 and 2028,” Hasan wrote in a Zone Coverage piece.

By adding those void years and spreading prorating the signing bonus across five years, signing Hunter would actually save the Vikings $1 million in cap space in 2024, considering his dead cap charge from his current contract be accelerated this year if he does not re-sign.

Meanwhile, the Vikings could apply the same strategy to a deal with Cousins.

“A Cousins extension without any additional years – just a simple, two-year, $60 million deal, like Spielberger’s contract projection — would dip into the voided hit before taking up any cap space. If offered a $30 million signing bonus and $15 million per year, Cousins would carry a cap hit of $32.8 million instead of $28.5 million, resulting in a net change of just $4.3 million.”

Finally, with the Vikings top stars on both sides of the ball secured, the team could still draft a quarterback — but that’s a likely point of discussion in Cousins’ upcoming contract talks that should reach their conclusion in early March.