Kirk Cousins is a Minnesota Viking again. Hours before the NFL trade deadline closed at 4 p.m. ET on Tuesday, November 10, the Las Vegas Raiders sent the 38-year-old quarterback back to the team where he played six seasons, a stunning homecoming that capped one of the busiest trade deadlines in recent memory.
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| File photo: Kirk Cousins in a Minnesota Vikings uniform. The 38-year-old quarterback is returning to Minnesota after the Raiders traded him back to the Vikings at the deadline. (CBS Sports) |
The Deadline's Biggest Name Comes Home
The Cousins deal was the headline move of deadline day. Minnesota sent its own 2027 third-round draft pick to Las Vegas, and the Vikings agreed to take on the $10 million roster bonus Cousins is due in March. The trade was contingent on Cousins passing a physical, and according to reports, the Raiders gave Cousins himself the final say — he spoke with his family, his agent Mike McCartney and Vikings coach Kevin O'Connell, then told Raiders general manager John Spytek by midday Tuesday that he wanted to go back.
It is a rare move in modern football: a quarterback traded back to a team where he was previously a four-time Pro Bowler. Cousins played for the Vikings from 2018 to 2023, helping them win 13 games in 2022 in O'Connell's first season as head coach. He tore his Achilles tendon during a game at Green Bay in Week 8 of 2023, left Minnesota as a free agent in 2024, spent two seasons in Atlanta, and took over in Las Vegas this year, where the Raiders went 4-5 behind him with losses in five of their last six games.
Cousins leaves Las Vegas with 2,340 passing yards, 20 touchdowns and eight interceptions on 64.1 percent completions this season. For the Raiders, the deal clears the way for the future: No. 1 overall draft pick Fernando Mendoza, the Heisman Trophy winner from Indiana's national title team, takes over as the starter on Sunday, November 15, against the Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks.
A Monday Night Meltdown Forced Minnesota's Hand
The Vikings did not plan to be shopping for a quarterback in November. They started the season 6-0 and still sit at 6-2, with one of the NFL's best defenses. But their quarterback situation has been a season-long problem, and it bottomed out on Monday night.
With Kyler Murray sidelined by a grade 2 hamstring strain, backup Carson Wentz started against Buffalo and the results were disastrous: Wentz went 8-for-25 for just 81 yards with two interceptions in a 23-6 home loss, and Minnesota managed only 178 total yards and nine first downs. The deal came together in under 24 hours.
The irony is hard to miss. Six weeks ago, the Vikings traded 23-year-old J.J. McCarthy — the quarterback they drafted 10th overall in 2024 to succeed Cousins — to the New York Giants for a 2027 fifth-round pick. McCarthy had been limited to 10 starts over two seasons by injuries and began this year as the third-string quarterback behind Wentz. Since the trade, he has won both of his starts for the first-place Giants, who needed a replacement after Jaxson Dart went down with a left knee injury.
McCarthy learned of the Cousins trade after practice with the Giants on Tuesday. "Kirk Cousins is going back," he said, adding that he was focused only on his own team. The Giants host the Washington Commanders on Thursday night, and McCarthy said he will play after briefly leaving Sunday's 19-11 win at Philadelphia with a hip injury.
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| EverBank Stadium, home of the Jacksonville Jaguars. The 6-2 Jaguars spent five draft picks, including a first-rounder, on three defensive players before the deadline. (Wikimedia Commons) |
Jacksonville Bets Its Future on This Season
If the Cousins trade was the deadline's biggest name, the Jacksonville Jaguars made the deadline's biggest statement. On Monday, a day before the deadline, general manager James Gladstone acquired three defensive players — safety Jessie Bates III from the Atlanta Falcons and defensive tackles Jordan Davis from the Philadelphia Eagles and Davon Godchaux from the New Orleans Saints — surrendering five future draft picks, including a first-round selection and two second-rounders.
The price was steep. Jacksonville sent a 2027 first-round pick and a 2029 second-round pick to Philadelphia for Davis, a 2027 second-round pick and a 2028 fifth-round pick to Atlanta for Bates, and a conditional 2028 sixth-round pick to New Orleans for Godchaux. The Jaguars have now parted with both of their top two selections in next year's draft.
Davis, the No. 13 overall pick in the 2022 draft, signed a three-year, $78 million contract extension with Philadelphia in March. He was a key part of the Eagles defense that dominated the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl 59, and in Jacksonville he reunites with former Georgia college teammate Travon Walker. The moves were prompted in part by two season-ending injuries that left holes on the Jaguars defense.
Jacksonville sits at 6-2, on top of the AFC South, after beating the Baltimore Ravens 33-10 on Thursday Night Football. The Jaguars have won five of their last six games and, according to reports, believe they have a shot at the No. 1 seed in the AFC and a chance to make the franchise's first Super Bowl. Gladstone pushed back on the "all-in" label on Tuesday, shortly after the deadline passed, but few teams have ever spent this much draft capital in a single day for a team that has not yet won a playoff game.
The Colts' Fire Sale and the Contenders' Shopping
While Jacksonville bought, Indianapolis sold. The Colts, at 2-7 and in the middle of a fire sale that began after general manager Chris Ballard was fired in October, traded six-time Pro Bowl wide receiver Keenan Allen to the San Francisco 49ers for a 2027 sixth-round pick, and sent slot receiver Josh Downs to the Kansas City Chiefs for 2027 fourth- and fifth-round picks.
Allen, who had 40 catches for 351 yards and one touchdown in eight games for Indianapolis, lands with a 7-1 49ers team that has been battered by injuries at wide receiver. The Colts had already traded All-Pro guard Quenton Nelson to the Seattle Seahawks and defensive tackle DeForest Buckner to the 49ers in earlier moves.
Elsewhere on deadline day, the Buffalo Bills bolstered their secondary by acquiring safety Amani Hooker from the Tennessee Titans, sending a second-round pick the other way along with a fifth-round selection. The AFC West-leading Denver Broncos added linebacker Daiyan Henley from the division-rival Los Angeles Chargers, who are 0-8 and made only one deal all season. The Baltimore Ravens acquired center Ryan Neuzil from the Atlanta Falcons for guard Andrew Vorhees and a 2028 sixth-round pick.
Not every contender bought. The Pittsburgh Steelers, 6-2 and tied atop the AFC North, left their roster untouched. In all, the NFL's trade tracker lists 18 trades completed this season, six of them on deadline day — a busy year by recent standards, even if no running back changed teams despite weeks of speculation.
What This Means
The deadline split the league into two camps, and the split was unusually clean. Teams that believe they can win now — Jacksonville, Buffalo, Denver, San Francisco, Kansas City — paid real prices for help. Teams that have decided this is not their year — Indianapolis, Las Vegas, Tennessee, the winless Chargers — cashed in veterans for draft picks.
For Minnesota, the Cousins reunion is a bet that familiarity beats upside. The Vikings gave up a third-round pick and a $10 million roster bonus for a 38-year-old quarterback who has not played a snap in O'Connell's offense since 2023 — but who also knows it better than anyone available. Since Cousins was hurt in October 2023, O'Connell has made 14 in-season switches at quarterback across 53 games, involving nine different starters.
For Jacksonville, the gamble is bigger and simpler. The Jaguars have a young roster, a 6-2 record and a wide-open AFC, and they have decided that draft picks in 2027 and 2029 are worth less than a real chance at a Super Bowl now. If the defense holds up, the cost will look like a bargain. If it does not, Gladstone will have traded away the future for a team that was not ready.
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| NFL players dive for a loose ball during a game. Eighteen trades were completed league-wide this season before the deadline passed on Tuesday. (ESPN) |
What Happens Next
Cousins is expected to be available quickly, and the Vikings' schedule gives him little time to settle in. The Raiders, meanwhile, begin the Mendoza era on Sunday against Seattle, the defending champions — a trial by fire for a rookie who has never taken a regular-season NFL snap.
Jacksonville hosts Tennessee on Sunday with its rebuilt defense, and the first test of the Davis-Bates-Godchaux trio will come against a Titans team that just traded away one of its own starting safeties. The 49ers will see whether Allen can stay healthy enough to matter, and the Chiefs will find out whether Downs can patch a receiving corps that injuries have thinned.
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