Report: Kirk Cousins doesn’t have Broncos in final two

Matt Miller of Bleacher Report indicates that Kirk Cousins has narrowed his list to two teams — the Vikings and Jets. The Denver Broncos already out?

According to a report from Matt Miller at Bleacher Report, the Denver Broncos are not in the final two for free agent quarterback Kirk Cousins.

Well, that escalated quickly.

Miller’s report was in his Stick to Football podcast, and has since been spread around the Twitter-sphere.

In addition to Miller’s report, Benjamin Allbright reported that the general feeling right now is that Cousins has not only narrowed his list down to two teams, but that the Minnesota Vikings are the team he’s going to ultimately sign with.

These are pretty shocking reports, given the fact that not even a week ago, it was reported that Cousins was going to take visits when free agency started, that he would not be signing a contract during the ‘legal tampering’ period, and that he’s keeping his options open and pursuing his free agency ‘by the book’.

Ian Rapoport of NFL Network went so far as to admit that most teams and players don’t abide by the legal tampering window rules, and will talk numbers with other teams when they aren’t supposed to, but that Cousins and his agent as well as the teams reportedly involved in Cousins were doing this by the book, meaning they were going to follow the rules that are in place.

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As it stands right now, and as I wrote on Sunday, optimism for the Broncos landing Cousins has all but faded into thin air.

But as of right now, no one is allowed to sign. It blows my mind that the Broncos — or any team — would be eliminated from Cousins’ options unless they were deliberately telling his agent they were going to low-ball him on an offer.

Why would Cousins eliminate any of his leverage in contract talks?

Perhaps the Jets are the only leverage he needs with the Vikings, but it would seem like the Broncos would be better leverage given they have a better roster situation.

As of Sunday night, multiple Broncos reporters including Mike Klis indicated that Denver is still ‘very much’ in it for Cousins, so who knows what to believe at this point?

It does seem realistic that the Vikings would be the favorites, but for teams to be eliminated before even the legal tampering window when it was reported that Cousins and his camp were going by the book seems a little ridiculous to me.