Cousins sees silver lining in COVID
Joe Johnson
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Minnesota Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins is used to change. Going into his third season in Minnesota he is on his third offensive coordinator in Gary Kubiak. Speaking to Vikinwgs.com author, and VikingsTerritory.com alum, Lindsey Young (and other media members), Cousins laid out the difference between the “constant” that is change in the NFL and the change that COVID has brought to the league.
Cousins spoke at first about the continuity that Kubiak brings as last seasons offensive advisor.
“…I’ve learned that turnover is the normal part of this league, Change is seemingly a constant in this league.”
With Kubiak, the 2019 system remains, as does Kubiak’s approach.
“[Kubiak] kind of still keeps that view from 30,000 feet where he’s just observing, He’ll speak into things when he has a thought, but at the same time, he’s letting [quarterbacks coach Klint Kubiak] and Rico (Rick Dennison), our offensive line coach, really also handle their territory, as well.”
That continuity is important as the Vikings will need their offense to improve drastically, without its best deep threat in Stefon Diggs, as the defense has a lot of youth and question marks for the first time since Cousins’ arrival. Luckily, outside of Diggs, the offense has a lot of continuity itself.
When it comes to the youth on both sides of the ball, like receiver Justin Jefferson or corner Jeff Gladney, many have thought that the lack of pre-season games would hurt rookies in general but the Vikings especially as they’ll need their rookies to acclimate fast.
Cousins pointed something unique out in that regard, saying:
“Coach Kubiak made the comment [Thursday], we will have done so much more meeting time and walk-through time before we actually hit the practice field and go full speed than any rookie would’ve ever gotten in the past. It does lend itself well to really learning the basics, learning the fundamentals, before you have to take it to full speed, 100 miles per hour.”
Interesting.
“I think there’s some value in that, being able to really get a base and knowing it as well as you can before you have to do it at full speed”
He isn’t wrong.
Sure, having a chance to play against non-teammates in a game situation via preseason games would be tremendously helpful. But at least there’s one positive coming from COVID, outside of the time off we had and will most likely have again.