Kirk Cousins is back with the Minnesota Vikings, and while he needs to get caught up to speed with Kevin O’Connell’s offensive scheme once more, he also needs to figure out where his family is going to be staying.
Cousins revealed that his Inver Grove Heights, Minnesota home was sold “pretty quickly” when he signed with the Atlanta Falcons, which means starting anew with this return to the Vikings following a trade deadline deal the Las Vegas Raiders made.
But while Cousins’ wife, Julie, is working on the home situation, the veteran quarterback was thrilled to also reveal his two sons, Cooper and Turner, wanted to head north and leave Sin City to watch their dad hopefully turn things around in Minnesota.
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It was their call.
“I was hoping they were going to come with me, but I said, ‘What are you thinking, Julie?’ I know it was her call,” Cousins said after a reporter asked about his living situation. “She said, ‘I don’t think I can pull the boys out of school, and baseball, and their friends.’ She picked them up from school and said, ‘Here’s the situation: dad got traded to the Minnesota Vikings. What would you guys want to do?’
“They looked at her and said, ‘Let’s go!’ So, they’re across the street [in a hotel] and they’re ready and excited for the next several weeks.”
One reporter joked and asked if the boys, now nine and seven years old, would be helping shovel with the winter snows coming soon in Minnesota.
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“Well, we gotta get a driveway first,” Cousins said, laughing. “I don’t have a driveway, so one day at a time. But Julie’s handling that.”
Cousins added earlier that his neighbor had a prospective buyer once he signed his three-year deal with the Falcons in 2024, which led to a very quick sale that didn’t result in a listing. But Cousins couldn’t anticipate he’d ever be back in Minnesota.
However, the Vikings haven’t had quarterback bliss since Cousins’ departure. Sam Darnold had a fantastic 14-3 season in 2024, but he joined the Seattle Seahawks the following season, ultimately leading them to a Super Bowl.
O’Connell and the Vikings were hoping J.J. McCarthy, their 2024 first-round pick who couldn’t go his rookie year due to a meniscus injury, would be the quarterback of the future starting in 2025 when Darnold walked. But his up-and-down play, and reported character issues, led to the signing of Kyler Murray this past offseason.
Since then, Murray hasn’t been able to stay healthy, nor consistent, on the field, while McCarthy was made third string and eventually traded to the New York Giants following the season-ending injury for their own franchise quarterback, Jaxson Dart.
McCarthy has done well since he was named the Giants’ starter, going 2-0 in his starts, while the Vikings just tested Carson Wentz after Murray was too injured to play “Monday Night Football” against the Buffalo Bills. Wentz’s performance was so bad, it became clear quickly on deadline day Tuesday that Minnesota was looking desperately for a quarterback to hopefully provide competent quarterback play to pair with a Super Bowl-caliber defense.
Cousins was the man, and it seemed easy for the Vikings to want him considering the previous connection and work in O’Connell’s scheme. With Cousins’ understanding of the scheme, as well as chemistry with receivers like Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison, we could see the Vikings’ offense finally sustain drives, and hopefully for their own sake, produce points on the scoreboard.
Cousins is excited for the opportunity to work with the Vikings again, especially considering things were not going well in Las Vegas despite a 3-0 start. The Raiders are now 4-5, and the decision was made to hand the ball over to Fernando Mendoza, the No. 1 overall pick of the 2026 NFL Draft who had been backing up and learning from Cousins.
It will be a busy week for the 38-year-old signal caller, but everyone in Minnesota, including his entire family which is ready to plant its roots soon in a new home, will be behind him in this next chapter.