Vikings bring back Kirk Cousins at NFL trade deadline. Can he save the season?

Nearly three years to the day since he played his last snap for the Vikings , Kirk Cousins is coming back to Minnesota. The Vikings finalized a deal with the Raiders to bring the 38-year-old quarterback back to Minnesota, according to a source with knowledge of the situation. Cousins, who ranks third in team history with 88 regular-season starts, comes back to the team three seasons after his six-year run with the Vikings ended when he tore his right Achilles tendon at Lambeau Field on Oct. 29, 2023 . Now, before a pivotal Vikings-Packers matchup at Lambeau Field, Cousins is returning to the team. The Vikings sent a third-round pick to the Raiders for Cousins, acquiring the QB who’s had a bit of a renaissance in Las Vegas this year . Cousins, who’d signed with the Raiders to be a bridge QB to No. 1 overall pick Fernando Mendoza, has completed 64.1 percent of his passes for 20 touchdowns and eight interceptions, while playing for his former Vikings offensive coordinator (Klint Kubiak) and quarterbacks coach (Andrew Janocko) in Vegas. The Raiders remain on the fringes of the AFC playoff race at 4-5, but with Cousins on a one-year contract that includes a $10 million roster bonus for 2027, the team decided to offload him for draft compensation. Advertisement He comes back to Minnesota to complete a Vikings quarterbacking loop that’s bordered on the surreal since Cousins left in March 2024. Cousins had played for Kevin O’Connell in Washington, and had thrived in the coach’s first year with the Vikings, growing close with O’Connell as the Vikings went 13-4 to win the NFC North. But the team declined to offer Cousins the contract with the guarantees through 2025 that he wanted, since it had eyes on drafting and developing a quarterback. Talks between the Vikings and Cousins again reached an impasse in 2023, and though the team got back to 4-4 with Cousins thriving in October, his torn Achilles put his future in doubt. The Vikings offered Cousins a deal to return in 2024, but he chose a four-year, $180 million offer from the Falcons in part because the Vikings told him they planned to draft a QB that March. But Atlanta surprised Cousins by drafting Michael Penix eighth overall, two picks before the Vikings took J.J. McCarthy. And while Sam Darnold — the veteran QB the Vikings signed to be the bridge to McCarthy — thrived in 2024, reaching his first Pro Bowl and leading the team to a 14-3 record, Cousins lost his starting job to Penix two weeks after a three-touchdown loss at U.S. Bank Stadium. He started eight games for the Falcons in 2025, but was released in the spring even after Atlanta hired Kevin Stefanski, another former Cousins offensive coordinator in Minnesota. The Vikings signed Kyler Murray instead of entertaining a Cousins reunion at that point, and Cousins signed with the Raiders. His impressive season, and Murray’s struggles in Minnesota, created the right circumstances for the serendipitous reunion. Cousins steps immediately into a playoff race, with a head coach again looking for stability at the QB position and an All-Pro receiver (Justin Jefferson) whose patience has been tried by turnover at the position.