In the span of 72 hours, Kirk Cousins woke up in three different cities as a quarterback with two NFL franchises.

Last Sunday afternoon, the 15-year veteran was in Santa Clara, California, leading the Las Vegas Raiders in their game against the San Francisco 49ers. By Wednesday, Cousins was in Eagan, fielding questions from reporters after the Minnesota Vikings acquired the four-time Pro Bowler in the final hours of Tuesday's NFL trade deadline. In exchange for Cousins, the Vikings sent the Raiders a 2027 third-round draft pick.

Cousins spent six seasons in Purple and Gold from 2018-23, compiling a 50-37-1 record. In franchise history, he ranks second in completions (2,093) and passing touchdowns (171) and third in passing yards (23,265) and attempts (3,081).

Minnesota has not announced who will start Sunday, but Cousins expressed his excitement about reuniting with his former teammates and coaches.

If it is Cousins, he'll lean on familiarity in the locker room and try to transfer a strong start to his 15^th pro season. Through nine games this season, Cousins ranks second in the NFL in passing touchdowns (20), fourth in pass attempts (315) and first downs (117), fifth in passing yards (2,340) and sixth in completions (202).

Let's see who the experts are picking to win the game:

Packers 27, Vikings 17 – Pete Prisco, CBS Sports

The Packers are coming off an impressive road victory over the Patriots, and Jordan Love has been on fire.

Packers 23, Vikings 21 – Bill Bender, Sporting News

Minnesota rallied from a second-half deficit to beat the Packers 39-22 in Week 1. Jordan Love is on a tear for the Packers, who have covered in each of their past six games. Love had 387 passing yards in the first meeting, but he also took four sacks. Minnesota is 6-3 against the Packers under Coach Kevin O'Connell.

Packers 27, Vikings 23 – Vinnie Iyer, Sporting News

The Vikings are operating on a short week. The Packers ripped the Patriots. Green Bay's defense is feeling it a little more with pressure and coverage and will keep the team from blowing another lead.

0 of 5 experts pick the Vikings, NFL.com

Analysis from NFL.com's Gennaro Filice: After starting the year at 6-0, Minnesota has dropped its past two games. … The last time Kirko Chainz started a game for the Vikes, they beat the Packers at Lambeau Field. Unfortunately, Cousins tore his Achilles in the fourth quarter of that triumph, upending his career and the Vikes quarterback situation. Three seasons later, the 38-year-old is back in Purple.

Minnesota doesn't have any time to waste in a wildly competitive NFC North. So, presuming Cousins gets the nod, can he keep up with one of the hottest quarterbacks on the planet? Jordan Love is throwing haymakers at a dizzying rate, as evidenced by the fact that Christian Watson (879) and Matthew Golden (783) currently rank third and fourth in the NFL in receiving yards. But Green Bay's audacious MVP candidate did have two critical fourth-quarter turnovers in the Week 1 loss at Minnesota. Could Brian Flores get the best of Love again? Perhaps. But Cousins faces a stiff challenge of his own, as Green Bay's defense is really coming together under first-year Coordinator Jonathan Gannon. Since the beginning of October, the Packers have given up the third-fewest points per game at 16.7.

2 of 7 experts pick the Vikings, Bleacher Report

Bleacher Report analysis Gary Davenport: Minnesota's ultra-aggressive defense could be a problem, especially for a Packers team that can't run the ball. But the Vikings offense remains a liability until we see differently, and Green Bay's defense is better than most realize.

Throw in Jordan Love shredding secondaries of late, and Green Bay covers at Lambeau.

Bleacher Report analysis Kris Knox: The Packers passing attack is white-hot, and Jordan Love probably isn't getting enough attention as an MVP candidate.

However, I think Minnesota is primed to cool things off in a hurry. The Vikings have the best defense in the league right now, and I don't think it's particularly close.

Had Minnesota had any semblance of a competent offense on Monday night, it probably would have knocked off Josh Allen and the Buffalo Bills.

1 of 8 experts pick the Vikings, The MMQB

3 of 11 experts pick the Vikings, ESPN

0 of 6 experts pick the Vikings, The Athletic

Thoughts from The Athletic's J.J. Bailey: It's hard to blame the experts for siding with Green Bay.

The Packers just finished putting the Patriots in a garbage disposal, and Jordan Love is so good right now that even Brian Flores has a tall order ahead of him. Now officially among the favorites for MVP, Love is delivering this offense to glory despite being saddled with the NFL's worst rushing attack (32^nd with a 30-percent success rate) and throwing 30 times per game. He is making the Packers look like legitimate Super Bowl contenders.

There are 12 games this season in which a quarterback had six or more completions of 20 or more yards, and he has four of them. No one else has more than one. There are two games in which a quarterback had six completions on passes that traveled more than 20 yards in the air. He has both of those. He just went 23-for-29 while averaging more than 12 air yards per attempt in Foxborough. Love is completing more deep daggers per game than most quarterbacks attempt, and he's been doing it for six straight weeks.

The Vikings defense is among the best we've ever seen in the modern era.

Flores has already worn Love down once this season, but the QB has leveled up since then and is backed by a top-five Green Bay defense that could get Micah Parsons back this week. The Vikings changed their outlook with the addition of a real quarterback, but that's more of a long-term thing. In the short term, I'm not sure anyone wants to play the Packers right now.

Bye-Bye, Bye?

While Cousins isn't the first Viking to have multiple stints with the team, he could be in a unique position within NFL history. Since the Raiders won't have their bye week until Week 13 and the Vikings already had theirs back in Week 6, Cousins could go the entire 18-week schedule without a break.

According to NFL Media Research, 19 players have appeared in 18-plus games in a season in league history. Fifteen of those instances occurred from 1925-30 while the other four have come after 2021 (when the NFL expanded its regular season from 16 to 17 games across an 18-week calendar).

While Cousins would become the fifth player to do so in recent memory, he'd be the first quarterback to achieve the feat. The previous four were Leonard Williams in 2023, Mike Williams in 2024 and Rashid Shaheed and Dre'Mont Jones in 2025. Shaheed was one of Vikings General Manager Nolan Teasley's acquisitions at the deadline last year while with Seattle on its way to winning Super Bowl LX.

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