Kirk Cousins’ first year in Minnesota after registering a fully guaranteed $84 million deal with the Vikings didn’t cover off by any stretch.
The quarterback hit several livelihood private highs in 2018 — completions (425), attempts (606), comp. Percent (70.1) and passing TDs (30) — although the Vikings were horribly average (8-7-1) and Cousins, though sexy in spurts, watched his creation slow down the stretch.
Cousins is well conscious of his perceived shortcomings when it matters most and told reporters Wednesday about the second day of Vikings mandatory minicamp he is intent of shooting his match also, by virtuehis team to another level.
“I feel the next level, really, is all about winning,” Cousins said. “I am pretty much a .500 quarterback in my career so far and I don’t think that is where you want to be, and that is not why you’re attracted in or individuals or enthused about you.
“If I do not play nicely, if I do not have gaudy numbers but we win multiple playoff games this year, the storyline will be I went to the next level and I may not walk off the field everyday feeling as I did but if we win, that’s the life of a quarterback is you’re in the next level. When I have my best year yet in 2019 but we are 8-8, I didn’t go into the next level. That is the reality of it.”
Cousins is actually below average as a beginner; his teams have a 34-37-2 record in the 73 games in which he has started. The damning statistic for the 84 million man is this, however: zero playoff victories.
The signal-caller was designed to cure that in 2018, linking a stacked Vikings squad a year before had made the NFC title game with journeyman Case Keenum under centre. Instead, Minnesota got off to 1-2-1 start and never got over two games over .500.
At a win-and-you’re-in finale at home against the Chicago Bears, Cousins and the Vikings laid a egg that was handsome. Cousins threw for only 132 passing yards and one score on 33 efforts as Minnesota dropped to Chicago by two touchdowns.
In the offseason, Minnesota renovated its coaching staff, adding former Broncos coach Gary Kubiak as an offensive adviser to set offensive coordinator Kevin Stefanski, who took over in December after first-year Vikes OC John DeFilippo was fired.
Not much differs with Stefanski accountable for Kubiak from the construction, except for some terminology. But the new Vikings offensive coordinator feels Cousins will thrive more this year because of his comfortability at the new area.
“Having one year under his belt around his teammates is a big deal and there’s so much that goes into understanding the nuances of each one of your recipients and your tight ends and knowing how they come out of channels,” Stefanski said. “That was something that we definitely tried to speed up the procedure last year. There’s only so much you can do this. I think that it’s really helpful he walks out on this practice field and has an inventory of knowledge of every one of his recipients particularly.”
There are lots of notions that Cousins must dispel this year in Minnesota, not least of which is the league-wide perception he does not appear in the big moments, that when the pressure is high he’s, as he said,”a .500 quarterback.” Cousins is off to a good start. Acceptance and awareness are the first steps on the road to change.
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