When the news broke that Kirk Cousins would leave the Minnesota Vikings after six seasons to join the Atlanta Falcons last March, star receiver Justin Jefferson admitted there wasn’t much contact.
However, the years of success they share have left an unchanging respect in Jefferson’s eyes.
“Not really,” Jefferson said on December 5, answering if he had talked to Cousins after the veteran quarterback signed a four-year, $180 million deal with the Falcons at the start of 2024 free agency. “We probably shared a message or two, me thanking him for, of course, the start [of my career] and everything. But I always respect Kirk and always will be thankful for what he has done for me. So I feel like I didn’t even have to share that message with him, he already knows how I feel about him.”
The duo will be reunited this week for a Week 14 matchup that could be a preview of a playoff rematch come January.
The Vikings are 10-2 with Sam Darnold and could secure a wild-card spot with a win on Sunday. Meanwhile, the Falcons at 6-6 are tied for the lead in the NFC South and could host Minnesota in the first round of the NFC playoffs.
Jefferson and Cousins combined for the most receiving yards by a quarterback-receiver duo from 2020 to 2022, racking up 4,767 yards through the air — a product of both stars’ talent, consistency, and durability.
“Just seeing him, and seeing his day-to-day routine, seeing how he comes to work every day, and how he’s on the playbook, how he’s studying hard every single day, how he’s so much into the book — I love that about him,” Jefferson said, per Pro Football Talk. “And just his work ethic, and just him as a person is great, always. It’s always great to have a quarterback that you can joke around with and be yourself with and just to have his locker right next to mine, and talk to him every single day, and be with him every single day — it was definitely a great experience.”
Despite the Vikings’ 13-win season in 2022, Cousins’ departure seemed inevitable with extension talks falling through before the start of the 2023 season.
The Vikings were prepared to make Jefferson the highest-paid non-quarterback in the league, signing him to a four-year, $140 million deal, in the offseason — which came at the cost of losing Cousins in free agency.
While Cousins and Jefferson will be on opposite sidelines of U.S. Bank Stadium for the first time on Sunday, Jefferson is content with how the pivotal offseason played out.
“I feel like it worked out both ways,” Jefferson said. “Just seeing it on my side and seeing how excited he is with being in Atlanta and having that new start, it seems like he’s enjoying it very well. And then on this end, we’re 10-2 and we have a new quarterback that we’re confident in — somebody that’s a leader that can fill in that spot. So, I feel like it worked out both ways.”
Sam Darnold Has Proved Vikings Right to Not Break the Bank for Cousins
While the Vikings maintained that they had interest in bringing Cousins back, the cost proved too high for the organization to stomach.
Signing Darnold to a one-year, $10 million deal, the Vikings have gotten an immense value on the 27-year-old quarterback.
Darnold has the fifth-most passing touchdowns (23) in the league and has posted the seventh-highest passer rating (102.5). Darnold boasts the seventh-highest Pro Football Focus passing grade (80.5), exceeding Cousins’ grade of 70.8, which ranks 21st among qualifying quarterbacks.
