A message to hardcore Vikings fans and the talking heads within sports media: Stop trashing Kirk Cousins
In 2017, the Minnesota Vikings went on to have a 13–3 season after suffering injuries in the QB position and RB position, the team would ride on the back of Case Keenum, the WR duo Adam Thielen and Stefon Diggs, and RB tandem Jerrick McKinnon and Latavius Murray.
They would go on to win against the New Orleans Saints in the Divisional Round of the playoffs where the “Minneapolis Miracle” play occurred when Case Keenum connected with Stefon Diggs in the final seconds of the game for the game-winning touchdown. However, the celebration would be short lived, after the Vikings were shut-out after their first initial drive in the NFC Championship game against the Eagles 38–7. (I couldn’t watch the full game, and I’m honestly glad I couldn’t.)
The Vikings decided to dump Case Keenum as the QB became a hot commodity after his “fluke” season. That same year, the Washington Redskins QB Kirk Cousins became one of the biggest free agents to come off the market. He would get one of the highest paying contracts in the QB position, especially in guaranteed money as he signed a three-year $84 million contract, all of it being guaranteed.
Now, in his first year as a Minnesota Viking, he deserved all the flack he got. In fact, I was an active hater of Kirk Cousins and one of those that said, “He sucks. We should’ve just kept Case Keenum.” This season, it looked like it was going to be the same story. But after the loss to Chicago and being called out by Adam Thielen, everything changed. It changed so dramatically in fact, I wrote an article asking, “Who are you and what have you done with Kirk Cousins?”
Yet despite this, it seems like almost every narrow game we just sneak the win or just barely lose, my fellow Vikings fans and talking heads in sports media want to chomp at the bit to talk about how Cousins doesn’t deserve his $84 million dollar contract.
Now if it scares you to look in this man’s eyes or his smile, I wouldn’t blame you. It can look a bit scary and unsettling. But as I looked in this picture, I see a guy that’s been trying so hard to prove himself and has been quite successful this year after a rough start. Yet with every single mistake he makes, whether it’s minutely small or drastically big, he hears about that $84 million contract.
Well I’m here to tell you why everyone needs to shut the hell up about it.
Cousins’ stats are through the roof
If you listened to Colin Cowherd talking about how he “can’t trust the Vikings” especially because he “can’t trust Kirk Cousins”, you probably wouldn’t know how well he’s actually doing. And it’s understandable. Hearing Stephen A. Smith trying to defend Kirk against Max Kellerman on “First Take” is actually quite a shock to me since back in September it seemed like the roles were reversed. But let me just share some numbers with you.
Kirk Cousins is currently 10th in total passing yards. He just made his way into the top 10 list after bubbling under it for a few weeks. He is actually ahead of Patrick Mahomes who is at number 11 on the list. (Granted, Mahomes has missed a few games, but still, that’s pretty wicked.)
He has also been low on fumbles thus far this season at three fumbles (two of those being within the first four games of the season when he was at an all-time low). He is also only thrown four interceptions, two of those in the Green Bay game, one on a drop by Stefon Diggs, and the other on a play by the Seahawks defender that looked so good it could have possibly been pass interference.
He has thrown less interceptions than Dak Prescott, Lamar Jackson, Deshawn Watson, and as many as Drew Brees, Russell Wilson, and Ryan Tannehill.
Did I mention he is Top 10 in completion percentage?
To top it all off, he has the 2nd highest QBR out of all QBs in the NFL, the only one beating his rate of 111.9 being Ryan Tannehill, the QB who has come out of nowhere for the Tennessee Titans after Mariota got benched. So technically, Cousins has the highest QBR out of all QBs playing since the start of the season. He’s higher than Russell Wilson despite the Vikings losing to the Seahawks this past Monday.
People blame him for losses
Now, I get it. I say he hasn’t sucked since Week 4 against Chicago. But people will look back at Kansas City and think, “My goodness did Kirk Cousins suck.” And yeah, he was mediocre, fumbling the ball and turning it over to Kansas City to score. But does anyone think to mention that the defense let Kansas City score 26 points when they had their backup QB?
I mean don’t get me wrong, Kirk Cousins had a chance to seal the deal (and that’s what people hold against him). But the QB in Mahomes’s place was a coaching assistant at a high school for almost a year before Moore decided to come back and be the backup QB for Kansas City. It’s not like he’s bad, but he’s not that great either. He carved up our defense in the second half.
Sounds like I’m making excuses, but let’s look at the Broncos game. Now, Cousins haters will say that he had done absolutely nothing in the first half, which is true. However, you got to factor in time of possession. Denver dominated the Vikings in that category 36:43 minutes to 23:17. This tells me that while Cousins might have gone three-and-out for a majority of the first half, the defense couldn’t shut down Denver’s drives. Cousins had to rally the team back to score 27 points in the second half to beat Denver.
Cousins is no longer the problem: It’s the defense
The thing you have to expect as a Minnesota sports fan is that the teams you cheer for will either find new ways to choke or find ways to perpetually stink in one area. For the first five games, the defense was a stronghold, allowing only 12.6 points a game. Meanwhile, the offense was stagnant, only scoring sixteen against the Green Bay Packers and six points against the Chicago Bears.
Ever since the start of Week 5, Cousins has been on a roll and the offense has been scoring over 29 points a game. Meanwhile, with the exception of the Redskins and Giants, the defense has allowed their opponents to score 20 or more points. They’ve also allowed opponents to score 30 or more points twice, the two teams being the Detroit Lions and the Seattle Seahawks.
The defense has been a problem. If not for Kirk Cousins, the Vikings wouldn’t have won against the Broncos, nor would they have had the chance to beat the Seahawks. They are no longer the pass rushing defense they used to be, although Danielle Hunter is still doing alright with 9.5 sacks in the season, and Eric Kendricks is having a pro-bowl type season. Everson Griffen seems a bit too antsy to get at the QB sometimes, but that’s not the big issue.
The issue is the secondary, including the CBs, and especially Xavier Rhodes, can’t cover anyone.
Xavier Rhodes is probably the worst CB in the league right now
Now, if Kirk Cousins was Xavier Rhodes, I would get all the hate surrounding him. But this man is the leading issue, not Kirk Cousins.
As an aside, here are some stats on Rhodes. He is tied for 90th for passes defended. (Yes, there’s that many people that are better than him.) Also, his solo tackles places him so far back among defenders, he is behind 150th place.
And the worst part about it all? He’s tied for first for most penalties by a CB. He leads in yards penalized also, with the second place person behind him by 30 yards. For a former pro-bowler, that’s abysmal. (The fact that Zimmer not only keeps playing him, but defends his horrible play is a red flag.)
If not for his contract, we would all be praising Kirk Cousins’ playing right now
If not for the fact that Kirk Cousins is earning an average of $28 million a year in guaranteed money from an $84 million contract (or if his name wasn’t Kirk Cousins), people would not only be praising him, but there would be MVP talks surrounding him.
And no, I’m not being cynical. Names like Dak Prescott, Russell Wilson, and Lamar Jackson have come up in the MVP conversation. Kirk Cousins has a higher QBR than all three of them, he has thrown less interceptions than Dak Prescott and Lamar Jackson, and has had a higher completion percentage than all of them as well.
The main thing people hold against him is that he cannot seal the deal or lead game winning drives. However, he’s shown that he can. People forget that he did so with the Washington Redskins against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, turning their season around and leading them into the playoffs in 2016. And with the Vikings, he has done so against Denver.
Was he clutch against Kansas City? No. Did he have chance after chance against Green Bay after the defense shut them out the second half of that game? Yes, and he didn’t get it done. But don’t blame him for the Seahawks loss when the Vikings defense let over 200 yards of rushing happen and 37 points be scored against them.
Yes, Kirk Cousins has an $84 million dollar contract, but he is a quarterback, not a miracle worker. Stop holding that money over his head when QBs like Carson Wentz and Jared Goff have over $100 in their contracts and have been playing like they have.
