ESPN puts together a “Teddy Bridgewater returns to Minnesota” scenario

The offseason is officially upon us in the National Football League, and our Minnesota Vikings are expected to be a team in serious flux as we approach free agency and the 2020 NFL Draft. One season that is not expected to be in flux at the present time is the quarterback spot, where the purple are heading into the final season of the three-year fully-guaranteed contract that Kirk Cousins signed before the 2018 season.

In the name of rampant speculation and total conjecture, however, Bill Barnwell of ESPN has put together a scenario where the Vikings do not go into 2020 with Cousins behind center, and instead get themselves a reunion with Teddy Bridgewater instead.

Barnwell has a look at how eight star NFL players could have wide-ranging effects on the rest of the league, depending on who they sign with. One of those players is quarterback Philip Rivers, who will be parting ways with the Los Angeles Chargers and heading into free agency. Here’s how Barnwell’s scenario works:

1. Rivers signs with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to take over as their starting quarterback, with the Bucs letting Jameis Winston go.
2. Minnesota then trades Cousins to the Chargers for a second-round pick in this year’s NFL Draft.
3. The Vikings then turn around and sign Bridgewater to a “$100 million deal.” I’m assuming that’s for four years, though Barnwell doesn’t specify. It would still put his cap figure for 2020 below what Cousins would be making.

Now, I believe that Cousins has a no-trade clause as part of his contract, and he would have to waive that in order to facilitate any of this if that’s the case. He seems to really like Minnesota, from all indications, so I’m not sure if he’d be willing to do that. If he was, would the Chargers be sold on him to the point where they’d take on the final year of his contract?

However, there’s been a not-insignificant part of the fan base that really hasn’t gotten over Teddy Bridgewater leaving Minnesota after the 2017 season, and we know how Mike Zimmer felt about him before he departed, too. I’m not 100% sure of the feasibility of this idea, and I don’t hate Kirk Cousins (or even dislike him. . .he takes way too much crap for this team’s failings), but I’ve definitely heard worse ideas than this.

What do you think, folks?