SF 49ers aren’t handcuffed like these 3 other quarterback contracts

No. 1: Kirk Cousins, Minnesota Vikings

Contract Value: $66 million ($33 million annual average)

From a player’s perspective, getting fully guaranteed contracts is essentially the best possible thing that could happen, and that’s what the Minnesota Vikings did with quarterback Kirk Cousins, inking him to a fully guaranteed three-year, $84 million contract back in 2018.

San Francisco 49ers

That, of course, removed any possibility of Cousins reuniting with head coach Kyle Shanahan as the franchise signal-caller of the SF 49ers.

Cousins and the Vikings reworked an extension worth $66 million and keeping him under contract through 2022, although there’s zero in guarantees that final season. Minnesota could save $35 million in cap space against $10 million in dead money, should he be cut before June 1 of 2022, so that seems workable.

But the only way Cousins could possibly be moved this offseason would be via a trade, and even then, the Vikings would have to eat $20 million in dead money.

Having made the playoffs just once in the three-year stretch where Cousins was supposed to be “the guy” in Minnesota could prompt the Vikings to make some serious changes, but that handcuffing contract won’t make it an easy proposition given the dead money associated for 2021.

And while the SF 49ers seemed to be regularly linked to any sort of Cousins trade rumor, those could probably safely die down with the realization it’ll be tough for Minnesota to execute a move anytime soon.

All contractual figures courtesy of Over the Cap.