Vikings general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah on Wednesday provided a clear answer when asked if he wants Cousins back as the team’s quarterback next season.

“Yeah. I’ve been pretty consistent with that. Kirk the player is somebody that, as we saw what he does to this team, I thought we were playing really good football before he got injured. It’s the most important position in sports. It ultimately always comes down to can you find an agreement that works for both sides and all those things, but as a player it’s certainly my intention to have him back here,” Adofo-Mensah said.

Adofo-Mensah indicated that contract talks will happen and that both sides have an awareness of each other’s needs and wants.

“These aren’t new conversations that are happening. Each side kind of understands the other and we’re going to go have those conversations and see where we end up,” Adofo-Mensah said.

Cousins, who will be 36 when the 2024-25 season kicks off, is also recovering from a ruptured Achilles tendon that ended his season on Oct. 29.

“There’s a lot of factors that go into these things. It’s age, injury, but it’s also performance,” Adofo-Mensah said. “How do you believe the performance will go? And there’s different examples through time and obviously you have to pay attention to the person and what he puts into his body and how regimented and detailed he is. All those factors go into it but at the end of the day you’re just taking risk. We try to measure it as best we can and protect ourselves and ensure against it, but on his side he’s trying to take less risk. That’s his job and they should do that. We’ll try to find a place in the middle and we’ll see where we end up.”

If Cousins re-signs, the Vikings could still take a quarterback high in the NFL Draft.

“It’s the most important position in our sport so you want to be thinking long term and short term,” the GM said. “The Vikings are going to pursue actions that help us in both windows and that’s open to any position in the draft, whether we picked 11th or 23rd.”