As much as some try to dismiss the importance of quarterback wins, there is no ignoring the fact that they matter and ultimately QB’s are largely judged on their record. Great stats might make you a fantasy league darling, but it’s the victories that lead to a playoff berth and nobody is more important in today’s NFL than the guy passing the ball.
This brings us to one of the biggest lighting-rod players in the Vikings’ 62-year history — Kirk Cousins. Since the Vikings signed him to a fully guaranteed three-year, $84 million contract in March 2018, Cousins has gone 36-30-1 and led the franchise to one playoff berth.
There has been nothing wrong with Cousins’ statistical output, but in his first four seasons with the Vikings, all under Mike Zimmer, he remained a .500ish quarterback who seemed to have a knack for failing to thrive when it mattered most.
This proved to be a source of frustration for many who watched Cousins on a weekly basis and eventually became an issue for ownership after back-to-back seasons of missing the playoffs. It’s part of the reason why Vikings owners Zygi and Mark Wilf jettisoned Zimmer and hired former NFL quarterback and Rams offensive coordinator Kevin O’Connell as head coach after last season.
O’Connell installed a system that Cousins was expected to thrive in — O’Connell was Cousins’ position coach in 2017 in Washington — and also has paid far more attention to the veteran than Zimmer ever did.
Here’s the catch: Four games into the season, Cousins’ stats have declined in many categories from this time a year ago. He has 1,031 yards passing, compared to 1,121, he’s thrown three fewer touchdowns (6 to 9), three more interceptions (4 to 1) and has a lower completion percentage (63.1 to 68.8), passer rating (84.1 to 105.6) and yards gained per pass attempt (6.6 to 7.1). Those last three stats are Cousins’ lowest four games into a season since he arrived in Minnesota.
So why aren’t Cousins’ usual critics louder than ever? Simple. The Vikings are 3-1, and tied for first place in the NFC North with Green Bay. Last season, the Vikings lost three of their first four games with all three defeats coming by one score.
Is this season’s success, or last year’s earlier failure, all on Cousins? No. But the quarterback, especially a highly paid one — Cousins has had his contract extended twice by the Vikings — is going to shoulder a significant amount of blame when things go wrong. That means it’s only fair to give him credit when his team wins games, even if he isn’t putting up great numbers.
In victories over the Lions and Saints the past two weeks, Cousins has led the Vikings on game-winning drives in the fourth quarter. Cousins led no such drives in his first season in 2018 — although he did direct a game-tying drive against the Packers at Lambeau Field — and had only one game-winning drive in 2019. That number increased to three in 2020 and four last season, but the Vikings failure to post a winning record either year dampened the enthusiasm for Cousins’ newfound clutchness.
“Yeah I think as far as the ups go, I think he’s run the show,” O’Connell said of Cousins. “I think he’s been incredibly clutch when we’ve had to have it with some big-time moments.”
In the Vikings’ 28-25 victory over the Saints on Sunday in London, Cousins completed a beautiful 39-yard pass to Justin Jefferson on a go-route to set up Greg Joseph’s 47-yard field goal with 24 seconds remaining. Against the Lions, it was Cousins’ 28-yard touchdown pass to K.J. Osborn with 45 seconds left that proved to be the difference.
While he would never say it, it’s clear that Cousins feels more comfortable with O’Connell now offering the type of support he had never received in Minnesota from his head coach. Cousins plays a more conservative style than many, but he now knows that an interception or mistake won’t result in his coaching staring daggers at him.
The 34-year-old also seems more willing to dissect missed opportunities and provide the type of self-critique that we rarely heard before. This might be because he knows O’Connell realizes the mistake himself and will work with his quarterback to correct it.
The Vikings’ hope has to be that the O’Connell-Cousins partnership will continue to evolve to a point where the team can become a Top 10 scoring offense. Minnesota will enter Sunday’s game against the Bears ranked 15th in the league in that category, averaging 21.5 points per game.
Cousins tried to caution us that it would take him time to get comfortable in this offense and that it had changed in many ways since he was paired with O’Connell in Washington.
“I was saying in August or in May that, ‘It’s going to take time to learn this, but we don’t have time.’ Week 1 against the Packers was on its way,” Cousins said Wednesday. “So I just felt like, there are no excuses. You have to turn over every stone as best you can, no matter how little time you’ve had on task.
“That being said, after 40 games are you going to be at a different level in this offense? Yes, you will be. … But there is some level of going against different defenses. I think that’s the big thing. In camp, unfortunately, outside of two days (of joint practices) with the Niners you are really practicing against the same looks and same personnel every day.”
O’Connell remains confident that Cousins has many more levels to go. But the fact a quarterback who entered the season with a .500 record now has a winning mark, and hasn’t played his best, is a bonus the Vikings will take.
“It’s still four weeks into a new offensive system to him and although I continue to feel great about his preparation — both throughout the offseason into our season and then how he is methodically preparing every single week with the plans that we give him — I think Kirk’s going to continue to be more consistent, make the throws that we ask him to make while running the show,” O’Connell said. “Doing a lot at the line of scrimmage within our no-huddle, within our offense, where I feel great about where Kirk’s headed and obviously there’s some things we can really coach hard.
“Kirk’s going to continue to improve. He’s made some big-time throws. Consistency’s a factor for all of us at this point, me included, and we’ll continue to look inward and build our offense up however we see fit week-in and week-out to maximize our chances of scoring points.”
Ultimately, that’s more important than any stat directly below Cousins’ name.
Judd Zulgad is co-host of the Purple Daily Podcast and Mackey & Judd podcast at www.skornorth.com
