Minnesota Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins is officially receiving his third Pro Bowl nod as a replacement for injured Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers.
The how doesn’t matter as much as the achievement itself.
Even with hordes of naysayers standing on his doorstep, “Captain Kirk” still put together an efficient season with 4,221 passing yards, 33 touchdowns and only seven interceptions.
Granted, those numbers still didn’t stop the Vikings from finishing 8-9 and missing the playoffs for a second straight year.
Cousins’ contract remains a big question mark for the Vikings heading into next season. It comes with the third-highest cap hit ($45 million) among NFL quarterbacks, and it’ll take up 21.2 percent of the team’s total salary cap.
His future with the team is up in the air with newly-hired general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah taking over the reins. There’s always the chance that the two sides could come to some form of an agreement on a restructured deal that would keep Cousins in Minnesota without strapping the team financially.
The truth is there were a lot of reasons why the Vikings struggled this season that didn’t have anything to do with the quarterback position. Cousins might not be an elite player at his position, but he has been really good.
Good quarterbacks are hard to find these days, much less great ones.
