Hello Vikings’ fans. Welcome to the NFL’s Butterfly Effect, where a single team’s offseason decision can change the path of multiple franchises. Todays case study is “The Pettiness of Daniel Snyder.”
According to former Washington Football Team coach Jay Gruden, the San Francisco 49ers were dangerously close to a league-altering trade involving polarizing quarterback Kirk Cousins.
On “The Kevin Sheehan Show,” Gruden was more than happy to spill about the negativity and bad blood between 49ers’ coach Kyle Shanahan and Washington Football Team’s owner Snyder and former general manager Bruce Allen. Kyle was part of the Washington staff under his father Mike Shanahan before being fired after the 2013 season.
After a stint as the offensive coordinator for the Atlanta Falcons, which included a run to the Super Bowl, Shanahan became the coach of the San Francisco 49ers in 2017. Almost immediately, the Kirk Cousins(who was in the last year of his deal with Washington) to the Niners rumors began. According to Gruden it was more than just rumors and the price the Niners were willing to pay for Cousins was absurdly high; two first-round picks and possibly two second round picks. San Francisco was all in were it not for the pettiness of Snyder and the front office.
“Obviously, dealing with the Shanahans was something that they did not want to do, I don’t think that they could stomach having Kirk Cousins be successful for Kyle Shanahan.” Gruden said.
The rest is history. The 49ers traded a second-round pick for Jimmy Garoppolo and honestly no one really wound up happy. The Niners we’re so unsatisfied with Jimmy that they traded even more than they were willing to trade for Cousins to draft his replacement in Trey Lance. The Washington football Team has struggled to get even close to relevance and absolutely could have used those picks to turn their franchise around, especially given Cousins walked for absolutely nothing. The Minnesota Vikings gave the first guaranteed contract in the history of the NFL to Cousins and have suffered a fate of mediocrity and check downs ever since. Yes, his stats have been good. And yes, he’s had a pretty good year this year, but any Viking fan is lying to themselves if they won’t admit they haven’t at least imagined how the franchise would have progressed after the Minnesota Miracle if they wouldn’t have handed out that giant contract.
Just like that, a simple flap of Dan Snyder’s ridiculously petty little wings and boom, the league and the Vikings paths changed forever.
