With 49ers out, where will Vikings' Kirk Cousins go in 2024? - ESPN

For much of their NFL careers, Minnesota Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins and San Francisco 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan have been the proverbial ships passing through the night. They'll make another pass Monday night at U.S. Bank Stadium (8:15 p.m. ET, ESPN/ABC), the timing once again wrong for a long-anticipated but now almost certainly unattainable reunion.

Just as Cousins, who worked with Shanahan for two seasons in Washington in 2012-13, has laid a path toward free agency and a possible exit from Minnesota the next spring, Shanahan's 49ers have landed on what appears to be a long-term answer at the position Cousins once seemed destined to fill.

The 49ers reached out to Washington about trading for Cousins in 2017, hoping to capitalize on the connection between Shanahan and the quarterback. Speculation then moved to 2018, when Cousins was set to hit the free agent market, but by then Shanahan had acquired Jimmy Garoppolo from the New England Patriots.

In 2022, the Vikings extended Cousins' contract and, according to multiple sources, heavily pursued a rookie quarterback from Iowa State named Brock Purdy in the final hours of the draft, hoping to sign him to a UDFA deal. Purdy told ESPN last week he was considering the 49ers, Houston Texans and Vikings if he had gone undrafted. The 49ers, however, swooped in and made Purdy the final selection of the seventh round. When the 49ers lost Garoppolo and fellow quarterback Trey Lance to injury during the season, Purdy stepped in and won the job.

Monday night's matchup will provide a public backdrop for a private conclusion: Kyle Shanahan has found his Kirk Cousins. Purdy, who entered Week 7 leading the NFL in Total QBR (76.9), is 12 years younger, will earn $29 million less