09 September 2023 , 13:11
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The direction of the NFL can hinge on just a single transaction and had a blockbuster 2017 trade proposal involving Kirk Cousins that was revealed this week been agreed, the league could look very different today.
Cousins, 35, is heading into his sixth season with the Minnesota Vikings, who he joined in 2018 after six years with the Washington Commanders, earning four Pro Bowl call-ups throughout his career. Cousins has been one of the better regular-season quarterbacks over the past decade, although he has been criticised for his performances in the biggest games.
Meaningful pursuits of the Super Bowl have largely eluded Cousins, but he has forged an impressive career for himself considering he was a fourth-round pick in 2012 and was drafted in the same year that highly-rated QB Robert Griffin III headed to Washington as the second-overall selection.
But things could have been very different had Washington accepted a massive offer from the San Francisco 49ers back in 2017. Mike Shanahan was the head coach of the Commanders – then known as the Redskins – when Cousins was drafted, and his son, Kyle, was the offensive coordinator until the whole regime was fired at the end of the 2013 campaign.
When the younger Shanahan got his chance as a head coach with the 49ers in 2017, he knew Cousins was the ideal man to run his offense from under center and he was willing to part ways with significant draft capital to get him. Mike Shanahan told The Athletic this week the Niners offered Washington the second-overall pick in the 2017 draft
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“He knew Kirk knew his system, and he knew the type of guy Kirk was,” the two-time Super Bowl-winning head coach said. “But (Washington) wouldn’t even return the phone call.”
The NFL could look dramatically different if 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan landed Kirk Cousins in 2017. (Ian Maule/Getty Images)From Washington's perspective, declining the offer has become a massive mistake because 2017 was Cousins' last season with the franchise, joining the Vikings as a free agent. Had they accepted the offer, they would have had two picks in the top 10 in the same draft class that the likes of Patrick Mahomes, Deshaun Watson and Christian McCaffrey were selected, but instead they lost their franchise quarterback for nothing.
The Niners traded down to the third-overall pick and drafted defensive lineman Soloman Thomas, a player who failed to live up to expectations and is now playing for the New York Jets. With the pursuit of Cousins unsuccessful, the Niners traded with the New England Patriots to acquire Jimmy Garoppolo.
An unspectacular yet efficient game manager in the Cousins mold, Garoppolo led the Niners to the Super Bowl in 2019, when they were beaten by the Kansas City Chiefs. Persistent injury issues marred the rest of Garoppolo's time with the franchise, and he has since moved on to the Las Vegas Raiders.
The ripple effect of the failed move for Cousins is wide-reaching. Would the Chicago Bears have drafted big-time bust Mitch Trubisky if they had to stay at third in the draft order, or would he have been taken before them by Washington? Would reigning NFL MVP Mahomes have made it all the way to the Chiefs at 10 if there was a second QB-needy team picking in the top 10? That seems unlikely.
Would the 49ers have ended their three-decade wait for a Super Bowl title by now if Cousins was acquired six years back? We will never know, but he appears to have the skills to have thrived in Shanahan's offense and, unlike Garoppolo, he has missed just one regular season game since 2015 due to injury.
The Commanders, meanwhile, have been a non-factor in the NFL since Cousins' departure, as they have been for much of the past 30 years.