Raiders Trade Kirk Cousins to the Vikings for a 2027 Third-Round Pick, Sending Him Back to Kevin O'Connell

MINNEAPOLIS — Twenty-four hours after Carson Wentz's Monday night went sideways in front of a national audience, the Minnesota Vikings went and got the quarterback they already knew.

The Las Vegas Raiders are trading Kirk Cousins to Minnesota for a 2027 third-round pick, ESPN's Adam Schefter and NFL Network's Ian Rapoport reported Tuesday afternoon, with Tom Pelissero of The Ringer and Netflix Sports matching the terms. Rapoport, citing himself, Mike Garafolo and Schefter, said the move reunites Cousins with head coach Kevin O'Connell. Neither club had posted an official announcement when the reports landed, just over an hour before the 4 p.m. ET trade deadline.

No other players or additional draft choices were included in the initial reporting. How any remaining guaranteed money on Cousins' Raiders contract is being split was not detailed in those first dispatches.

A 6-2 team that could not score

Minnesota did not need a scouting report to understand the problem. In Monday's 23-6 loss to the Buffalo Bills, the Vikings failed to score a touchdown for the third time this season, per ESPN. Wentz completed 8 of 25 passes for 81 yards, threw two interceptions and had a third dropped. His 2.3 QBR was the lowest by any quarterback this season and the lowest by a Vikings quarterback since Tarvaris Jackson's 1.8 in 2006, ESPN reported.

We recapped that night as Wentz was benched. The box score was only the latest version of a season-long issue. ESPN noted that Minnesota's 11 touchdowns are tied with the winless Los Angeles Chargers, and that the Vikings are the first team since 1925 to have at least six wins and at least three games without a touchdown over their first eight games.

They are 6-2 anyway. ESPN listed Wentz, Kyler Murray and Max Brosmer in the quarterback room. The defense has been carrying a playoff team. The quarterbacks have not.

Asked after the loss about adding a quarterback before the deadline, O'Connell did not slam the door. "We've had dialogue about a lot of different positions," he said, per ESPN. "Tight turnaround, obviously, playing the Monday night game, and we'll get right to work on any potential moves that can be there. But really just focused on the game tonight, which was not good enough in any way, shape or form."

By Tuesday afternoon, the move was in front of him.

The quarterback Minnesota already trusted

Cousins is not a mystery in this building. He signed with the Vikings as an unrestricted free agent on March 15, 2018, and started there for six seasons, per the Raiders' official transactions list. CBS Sports puts his Minnesota record as a starter at 50-37-1, with a 67.9% completion rate, 7.6 yards per attempt, 171 touchdowns and 55 interceptions. The Vikings reached the playoffs twice in that stretch; Cousins went 1-2 in three postseason games, also per CBS Sports.

The best of it came with O'Connell. ESPN notes Cousins played two seasons for him in 2022 and 2023 and made the Pro Bowl in 2022, when he threw for 4,547 yards with 29 touchdowns and 14 interceptions. That was also Justin Jefferson's finest year: 128 catches and 1,809 yards, both NFL-bests, plus eight touchdown catches, per ESPN.

Then came the ending everyone in Minnesota still remembers. In 2023, Cousins started eight games before tearing his Achilles against the Green Bay Packers, ESPN reported. He hit free agency, signed a four-year, $180 million contract with the Atlanta Falcons in 2024, and watched Atlanta draft Michael Penix Jr. in the first round the same spring — a move ESPN said caused a rift. He started 22 games for the Falcons and was released on March 11, 2026, according to the Raiders' transactions.

If the reports hold, his first game back would come Sunday, Nov. 15, at Lambeau Field, where the Vikings visit the Packers at 1 p.m. ET on FOX, per the clubs' official game pages. That is the same stadium where the last chapter ended.

What Las Vegas is handing off

Cousins landed in Las Vegas on April 6, signed as a free agent to start in front of and mentor the player the Raiders were expected to take No. 1 overall, Fernando Mendoza. The Associated Press reported at the time that Atlanta would pay $8.7 million of his 2026 money and Las Vegas $1.3 million, with another $10 million in guaranteed money due in March and a two-year, $80 million option on the Raiders' side.

In nine starts he has completed 202 of 315 passes (64.1%) for 2,340 yards, 20 touchdowns and eight interceptions, with a 97.1 rating, according to the Raiders' official roster page. Las Vegas is 4-5. The production was still real: he joined the 300-touchdown club in Week 1 against Miami, and as recently as Week 8 he threw four touchdowns in a 38-33 comeback win over the Jets.

Schefter reported that Mendoza will now take over, with his first two career starts coming against the Seattle Seahawks and Denver Broncos, two of the league's top defenses. For a 4-5 club, the return is a 2027 third-round pick and an earlier look at the quarterback Las Vegas drafted to run the franchise.

The stakes on both sides

For Minnesota, this is a swap of uncertainty for familiarity. Cousins knows O'Connell's offense, he has already gotten Jefferson the ball at an elite level, and the Vikings are not asking him to build a program. They are asking him to keep a 6-2 team from wasting a defense and a season.

For Las Vegas, Cousins was never the long-term answer. A mid-round pick and an earlier start for Mendoza is the kind of deadline math a club in transition is supposed to do. The risk is the calendar. If those first two starts go the way tough defenses often go for rookies, the Raiders will hear about the veteran they just moved.

The deadline is 4 p.m. ET. The reporting from Schefter, Rapoport, Garafolo and Pelissero is that the trade is being completed. Until the clubs post it, that is the record: a 2027 third-round pick, a veteran changing coasts, and a reunion Minnesota spent Monday night reminding itself it needed.

The close

Cousins has already lived one Minnesota ending at Lambeau Field. If this trade goes through as reported, he gets another beginning there on Sunday, in the same building, with the same coach, and with a 6-2 team that just spent a prime-time game looking like it could not wait.

Cover photo: Michael Clemens/Las Vegas Raiders