Kirk Cousins had a terrific season with the Minnesota Vikings, but it wasn’t enough to lock in the kind of deal he wanted, according to new reports.

The Michigan State University graduate wasn’t able to come to terms on a contract extension this offseason. Instead, the Vikings restructured his contract to free up cap space.

Ben Goessling of the Star Tribune has some inside information. According to Goessling, with his contract coming down to the final year, Cousins asked the Vikings for three more years and guaranteed money. They said no.

“The sense I’ve gotten is that they didn’t want to commit as long as what he was looking for. They wanted something shorter, he wanted something longer. My understanding is that 2025 was the issue,” Goessling said on the latest Access Vikings podcast. “The question of how long would everyone guarantee it for. I think he wanted ’25, they were like ‘well, we don’t want to commit that long.’ He’d be 37 before the 2025 season so it gets to be later in the game than you want to fully guarantee a quarterback deal.”

If true, this new twist shows that the Vikings are seriously looking around at their quarterback options going into the future of the franchise. They wanted to keep their options open, something that 100% guaranteeing 2024 and 2025 wouldn’t have allowed. Some NFL critics also think this points to the idea that the Vikings are looking to bring in a rookie quarterback and gaining cap space.

“They are at least willing to look at the possibility of ‘Do we go to a bridge starter? Do we go to a younger quarterback,'” Goessling said. “They’re willing to look at their options in conjunction with Kirk Cousins rather than just committing to him for the next three or four years.” Catch Goessling’s full take here.