Vikings trade for Kirk Cousins as Raiders hand Fernando Mendoza the start
The Minnesota Vikings reacquired quarterback Kirk Cousins from the Las Vegas Raiders for a 2027 third-round draft pick on Tuesday, just before the NFL trade deadline. The deal returns Cousins, 38, to the team he led from 2018 to 2023 and makes rookie Fernando Mendoza, the 2026 No. 1 overall pick, the Raiders' starter.
The Minnesota Vikings have brought back quarterback Kirk Cousins, acquiring him from the Las Vegas Raiders for a 2027 third-round draft pick on Tuesday 10 November, shortly before the NFL's 4 p.m. ET trade deadline. The Vikings announced the deal, which is pending a physical. In Las Vegas, the trade opens the door for rookie Fernando Mendoza, the No. 1 overall pick in the 2026 draft, who has been named the Raiders' starting quarterback.
For Minnesota (6-2), it is a bet that a 38-year-old who already knows head coach Kevin O'Connell's offence can rescue one of the league's weakest attacks in time for a playoff push. For Las Vegas (4-5), it is the start of the Mendoza era several weeks earlier than many expected.
Why did the Vikings trade for Kirk Cousins?
Minnesota's problem has been its offence. According to NFL.com, the Vikings ranked 27th in points, 31st in yards and 31st in passing going into the deadline, and had scored 16 points or fewer in five of their eight games, including the last three. That has come despite what NFL.com describes as the league's top scoring defence.
The quarterback position has been unsettled all season. The Vikings signed Kyler Murray as a free agent in the offseason; he has started six games, with five touchdown passes and three interceptions, according to the team's website. He suffered a concussion early in the season opener and later a hamstring injury. Carson Wentz started in Murray's place against the Buffalo Bills and completed only 8 of 25 passes with no touchdowns and two interceptions. On 28 September, Minnesota traded J.J. McCarthy, its 2024 first-round pick and the player drafted to succeed Cousins, to the New York Giants for a fifth-round pick.
Cousins, by contrast, has played well. In nine starts for Las Vegas this season he has completed 202 of 315 passes (64.1%) for 2,340 yards, with 20 touchdowns, eight interceptions and a passer rating of 97.1, according to the Vikings.
What is Cousins' history with Minnesota?
Cousins was a fourth-round pick by Washington in 2012 and spent six seasons there before joining the Vikings in 2018. He played six seasons in Minnesota, the last two under O'Connell. His 2022 season was one of his best: NFL.com notes he threw for 4,547 yards, 29 touchdowns and 14 interceptions while going 13-4.
His 2023 season ended when he tore his Achilles tendon at Green Bay in Week 8. He then signed with the Atlanta Falcons as a free agent in 2024, spent two seasons there, and joined the Raiders in April 2026, where he played for first-year head coach Klint Kubiak, a former Vikings quarterbacks coach.
Since Cousins' injury in 2023, the Vikings have started nine different quarterbacks, by the team's count: Cousins himself, Jaren Hall, Joshua Dobbs, Nick Mullens, Sam Darnold, McCarthy, Wentz, Max Brosmer and Murray.
The team says Cousins has a rapport with most of Minnesota's starting offensive line, receivers Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison and tight end T.J. Hockenson. If he is cleared to play in Week 10, his first game back would be at Green Bay's Lambeau Field on Sunday, the same stadium where his last game as a Viking ended in injury.
What does the trade mean for the Raiders and Fernando Mendoza?
Raiders general manager John Spytek said the club had not planned to move Cousins and had not shopped him before Minnesota called on Tuesday morning, NFL.com reported, citing team reporter Paul Gutierrez. "This was a hard decision, but we felt like we made the best decision for the Raiders going forward," he said.
Spytek then named Mendoza the starter. "This is something that he's worked very hard for since the moment he's walked into this building," he said, according to the Raiders' website. "He passed every test."
Mendoza won the Heisman Trophy and a national championship with Indiana in the 2025 college season, completing 72% of his passes for 3,535 yards and a nation-leading 41 touchdowns. His only regular-season NFL action so far came in a lopsided loss to the New England Patriots, when he completed 6 of 8 passes for 48 yards.
Kubiak said the rookie's work habits were part of the reason the club felt able to make the trade. "He's prepared, he practices extremely well," he said. He also cautioned, as quoted by NFL.com: "I anticipate it being a transition. We're going to find out together." Mendoza's first start is scheduled for Sunday against the Seattle Seahawks.
Is it a good deal for either side?
That will depend on results over the next two months, and on Cousins' health at 38. What is clear from the numbers is the gap Minnesota is trying to close: an elite defence paired with an offence near the bottom of the league. For a third-round pick, the Vikings are getting a quarterback who has produced a 97.1 passer rating this season and needs little time to learn their system.
Las Vegas gives up a productive veteran while on the playoff bubble, but gains a future draft pick and earlier game experience for the quarterback it drafted first overall. How Mendoza handles Seattle's defence on Sunday will be the first real test of that decision.
Image: Photo: All-Pro Reels (Joe Glorioso), CC BY-SA 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/), via Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Kirk_Cousins_%26_Dalvin_Cook_Vikings_NOV2022.jpg) — November 2022 file photo of Cousins with the Vikings against Washington at FedEx Field; not from the 2026 season
About this article: prepared by The Daily Context editorial desk using automated, source-based reporting from the publications linked below. No reporter was on the ground.
Sources
- Minnesota Vikings: https://www.vikings.com/news/signing-quarterback-kirk-cousins-trade-raiders
- Las Vegas Raiders: https://www.raiders.com/news/fernando-mendoza-named-raiders-starting-quarterback
- NFL.com: https://www.nfl.com/news/kirk-cousins-vikings-raiders-trade
- Associated Press: https://apnews.com/article/raiders-vikings-trade-cousins-8e25df354d4c31a5e3629dcd058fec94
Kabeer Ahmad
Kabeer Ahmad is the founder and editor of The Daily Context. He oversees the site's source-based coverage of world affairs, technology, business, entertainment, lifestyle and sports, and is responsible for its editorial standards, sourcing and corrections.
