Jets offered Cousins $90M

It isn’t always about the money. Not for Kirk Cousins. Otherwise, he would’ve been a Jet, according to a new documentary that chronicles the quarterback’s foray into free agency.

The Jets offered Cousins a fully guaranteed $90 million contract over three years when the quarterback was a free agent this offseason, he revealed in the film. He passed on the whopping deal and instead signed with the Vikings for three years totaling $84 million with $28 million guaranteed annually.

Instead of Cousins, the Jets moved up three spots in the draft to get Sam Darnold with the thirdoverall pick. Darnold is considered the heavy favorite to be the Jets’ starting quarterback on Sept. 10 in the season opener at Detroit, after starting the past two preseason games and getting a bulk of the work in practice with the first team.

In the documentary, released by the Vikings’ official team website, the 30-year-old quarterback, who made the Pro Bowl in 2016, makes it clear he preferred the Vikings and Cardinals to the Jets and Broncos, and the huge Jets offer is significant because it gave his agent the chance to leverage other teams into more money.

Obviously, the prospect of joining the Vikings — who came within one game of the Super Bowl, won the NFC North and feature one of the sport’s best defenses — was far more attractive than the Jets, who haven’t reached the playoffs since 2010 and are coming off back-toback 5-11 seasons.

Initially, the Vikings were willing to pay him just $25 million annually in guaranteed money, a potential sticking point.

“We want the money to be guaranteed,” Cousins tells his wife Julie in the documentary. “My preference would be to get a fully guaranteed contract or stick to one-year deals.

“Literally four hours — we haven’t been four hours into it — and we go to a number people said we would never get to. It just goes to show free agency is a different game. It’s a different deal, when you’re actually up for grabs.”