If they do decide to keep him, it'll be as a starter at most for the next two seasons, at best. Maybe a third partly to help mentor his replacement. O'Connell would be a fool to put all his eggs in one basket and risk his team's season falling apart gradually after Cousins worked so hard to get them back to over .500 before he got hurt. If he hadn't gotten hurt, Minnesota probably is the 9-8, 10-7 WC team making the post-season instead of Green Bay this year.