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Last season didn't go as planned for the Minnesota Vikings and Kirk Cousins. The Vikings made the NFC Championship Game in 2017 with Case Keenum under center, and it was widely thought they were just a franchise quarterback away from a Super Bowl.
Naturally, there was a ton of excitement after the team signed Cousins to a three-year, fully guaranteed deal. The team unraveled last year, though, and missed the playoffs. Kirk Cousins wasn't terrible by any means, and he put up decent numbers, but many of the same criticisms we've heard about him throughout his career popped up again.
For years, Cousins has been derided as someone who folds under pressure and can't deliver in big moments. Mike Sando of The Athletic recently spoke to a bunch of coaches and executives around the league, and that was a lot of what he heard about Cousins.
“The world is going to pick Kirk Cousins over Case Keenum, but both are system guys to me,” one general manager told Sando. “I get concerned with him when it counts.”
The Vikings made some changes to help Cousins this offseason, revamping the offensive line and bringing in Gary Kubiak to help with the offense.
“Kubiak will be great for him. He is the master of simplifying the complex,” one executive said.
One head coach summed up a lot of people's thoughts on Cousins:
“good guy, smart, throws a good ball, knows how to get people lined up, but when there are 30 seconds to go in the game and you need a guy to make a play…”
