The Minnesota Vikings are firmly in a Super Bowl window, with a talented roster they felt needed an upgrade in one area: quarterback. The Washington Redskins want to enter that same window, which meant they needed a quarterback who could afford them one key thing: cap room to build.
Those feelings are reflected in the contracts handed out to Kirk Cousins (Minnesota) and Alex Smith (Washington). It's hard to not compare their deals because the Redskins essentially replaced Cousins with Smith.