Kyler Murray or Carson Wentz? Carson Wentz or Kyler Murray?
The answer may be neither.
This week’s apparent benching of Murray, who has a hamstring injury that probably wouldn’t have kept him from playing had the Vikings beaten the Lions on Sunday, gives Wentz a chance to beat the 6-1 Bills on Monday night. If he makes it, Wentz could keep the job for the remainder of the four-game longhorn gauntlet that ends with trips to Wisconsin to play the Packers and Mexico to play the 49ers.
If Wentz fails, the Vikings can mobilize. Immediately.
The Vikings will have roughly 16 hours after Monday night’s game ends to close a deal with another team for a quarterback. On Monday, we made the case for a trade for Colts quarterback Daniel Jones. As the week has begun, a number of indications have emerged that this is a real possibility.
Jones, who is likely reeling from the Colts’ decision to jettison guard Quenton Nelson and defensive tackle DeForest Bucker early, would likely welcome the chance to return to a team he spent a few months with in 2024 — and lead the effort to push the neo-Purple Post People seasoners.
The other option would be to try to bring Kirk Cousins home. That would be more difficult. At 4-4, the Raiders are on the brink of contention. Win or lose Sunday in San Francisco, why screw up something that’s working? Cousins currently ranks third in passing yards with 2,124 and second in passing yards with 19. His passer rating of 101.4 is higher than Josh Allen’s.
Even if the Raiders were willing to move Cousins and ride with Fernando Mendoza, it would cost a lot less to get Jones than to get Cousins. Especially since the Colts may already be planning to cut Jones before a $4 million bonus hits in March and $6.51 million of his $33.49 million salary becomes fully guaranteed.
With a new GM coming in next year, why wouldn’t the Colts want a clean slate? Doing so would wipe out $38 million in non-guaranteed money for 2027. Trading Jones would result in getting value; cutting Jones would do them no good.
It could all come by Monday night. If Minnesota wins, chances are nothing will happen. If Minnesota loses, Tuesday could be a very interesting day.
