Don't forget that Cousins' extension had to happen the very summer that Ranadive bought the team. The FO that extended Cousins did not have any front-row day-in day-out exposure to Boogie yet. According to PDA, Vivek sought out advice from around the league as to whether to extend Cousins or not, and by PDA's account, the feedback was overwhelmingly in the "no" category. Presumably the reason that Vivek sought out advice was precisely because he and his front office didn't have the exposure to Cousins that a normal front office would have, because they were brand new.