One cannot help but wonder which play from Monday night’s loss to the Buffalo Bills it was that pushed the Minnesota Vikings to this moment.

After a woeful performance from backup Carson Wentz, stepping into the lineup in place of an injured Kyler Murray, the Vikings have swung a deal for veteran — and former — quarterback Kirk Cousins. The passer departs the Las Vegas Raiders and now heads back to Minnesota, hoping to stablize an offense that has been a massive question over the first half of the season.

Here are the full terms of the trade:

And now, some grades.

It is hard not to love the process from Las Vegas here.

The Raiders signed Cousins last offseason, to a deal that was reported as a five-year contract worth up to $172 million, but in reality was a one-year, $20 million deal for 2026 that was fully guaranteed, with the Atlanta Falcons paying nearly half of that fully guaranteed portion of the deal. With Cousins in place, the Raiders were free to draft Fernando Mendoza with the first-overall selection in the 2026 NFL Draft, but take their time with him.

That opened the door to Cousins starting the year, but now that the season has stabilized and it looks as if the Raiders are likely going to be out of the playoff picture, they can turn to Mendoza, having given him some time to learn.

And thanks to this deal, they now have extra draft capital to use next spring to bring in some talent around their young quarterback.

Oh, and they also are on track to have more than $55 million in cap space next offseason.

Grade: A

On the one hand, this deal makes every bit of sense for the Minnesota Vikings.

The Vikings have a Super Bowl-caliber defense. They have talent around the quarterback position, starting with Justin Jefferson. Windows like this do not come around every year, so if you have a chance to push the chips into the middle of the table to try and make a run, you do what you have to do. And reuniting Cousins with Kevin O’Connell was perhaps the best option available to the Vikings at the moment.

Cousins gives Minnesota a clear upgrade over what they had at the position, is familiar with O’Connell’s offense, and now the Vikings could stabilize the offense and pair it with one of the league’s best defenses.

On the other hand, we have to consider the process that led to this moment.

Cousins spent six years in Minnesota, and when he was a free agent at the start of 2024 then-GM Kwesi Adofo-Mensah let him test the open market. While many thought Cousins would return to the Vikings, he opted to sign a four-year deal with the Atlanta Falcons.

With quarterback now more of a pressing need, the Vikings drafted J.J. McCarthy in the first round of the 2024 NFL Draft, moving up one spot in a trade with the New York Jets to select him. But McCarthy was named the backup behind Sam Darnold at the start of training camp, and a knee injury during preseason action caused him to miss his rookie season.

Making him the first first-round QB in NFL history to miss his entire rookie campaign due to injury.

So it was Darnold’s show in 2024, and he led the Vikings to 14 wins and a playoff berth. But after losing in the Wild Card to the Rams, Darnold signed with the Seattle Seahawks, paving the way for McCarthy to take over as the starter. However, he suffered a high-ankle sprain in Week 2, the team turned to Carson Wentz, and McCarthy was in-and-out of the lineup the rest of the season.

Enter Kyler Murray, who was signed by the team this past offseason. He won the job during training camp, Wentz was named the backup, and McCarthy began the year as QB3, before being traded to the New York Giants.

Now it is Murray who is hurt, Wentz who has been ineffective (to put it mildly, as there is a case to be made it was the worst QB performance in franchise history), and now Cousins comes in to try and save the day.

Which is a whole lot of words to say … a lot of wrong decisions, or to put it in a more favorable light, a lot of decisions that turned south led to this moment. And to make up for it, the price is a third-round pick. So, it could have been worse. Cousins is an upgrade, but the process could have played out much more favorably for Minnesota.