Ever So Slightly, the Narrative on Kirk Cousins Is Changing

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Sep 23, 2021
Joe Camporeale-USA TODAY Sports

It’s not an across-the-board affair. But through two weeks of the 2021 NFL regular season, the popular sentiment on Minnesota Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins is changing.

The 33-year-old, in 10 NFL seasons with seven as a starter, is a frequent lightning rod of criticism, usually derived from the “QB Record” statistic. NFL brains enjoy adjudicating quarterbacks like tennis players. They’re assessed “wins and losses” records as if the men are holding a racket on Centre Court at Wimbledon.

And for Cousins, his QB Record is upside down at 51-53-2 (.490). When Cousins is the quarterback of a team — in Washington or Minnesota — his team wins 49% of the time. That ain’t good enough for the masses. For example, Mitchel Trubisky’s QB Record is 29-21 (.580). But — he, too, is scorned for not winning, even though he did win at an impressive clip.

QB Wins are strange.

In any event, some quarterbacks are championed for QB Wins — the Wilsons, Mahomes’, Watsons, and Rodgers’. Then, there are the “yeah buts” like Matthew Stafford. His QB Record (74-90-1, .541) with the Detroit Lions was worse than Cousins’.

Nobody cares.

Stafford is the recipient of universal sympathy because the Detroit Lions are a poor franchise. Few others are afforded that lenience. Plus, Stafford is finding success with the Los Angeles Rams.

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Cousins lives in the “he can’t get it done” territory, generally speaking for some pundits.

But in the last week, that dialogue is a bit different. For starters, his head coach, Mike Zimmer, is praising him. The working theory is Cousins and Zimmer don’t interact like an Andy Reid and Patrick Mahomes, so when Zimmer touts his performance, it feels a bit noteworthy.

Foremost, it’s odd that Cousins wasn’t “around the guys more” in 2018, 2019, or 2020. Evidently, never too late to start is the motto here. A quarterback — especially a handsomely paid one — should be in tune with his teammates to the utmost. Either Zimmer erroneously misspoke about the past three seasons — or Cousins is finally coming around. The results are glowing in his play. In two games to start 2021, Cousins engineered game-winning drives, canceled by a Dalvin Cook alleged fumble and a missed field goal which would’ve won the game against the Arizona Cardinals.

Zimmer is noticing a difference. Cousins is spearheading 4th Quarter theatrics that would ordinarily win ballgames. Stay tuned to see if the Vikings — as a team — make the most of those efforts.

After that, that statistical aroha is trickling out. Here’s an example from CBS Sports:

The Vikings quarterback is protecting the ball whereas his defensive brethren are mucking up everything else. And that’s weird for a team led by Zimmer, a loudly-proclaimed defensive firebrand. In theory, if Minnesota could hold teams to 21 points and under — the mathematical average since Zimmer joined the Vikings in 2014 — the franchise would possess a 2-0 record entering Week 3. But, nope.

The Cousins-led offense is leading the charge to win games, but the defense is porous. It’s a redux of 2020. However, it’s a refreshing state of affairs to see Cousins’ performance exalted, rather than fallaciously panned on the merits of QB Record.

The final example is vivified by the folks covering the team at a national level. Chad Graff from The Athletic authored this piece on Thursday:

This is a documented change of pace from the regular conversation pertaining to Cousins. Normally, it does not matter what the defense, running back, or kicker did. Cousins’ job is to win no matter what — or so the Cousins truthers assert.

Just like Patrick Mahomes could score no offensive touchdowns in the Super Bowl last February because his offensive line died, some Vikings onlookers are slowly realizing, “Hey, maybe this dude is actually good.”

That’s not across the board, though. The seedlings are only beginning to germinate.

If Cousins and his team can win a few games at home in the next three weeks, the man’s play against the Bengals and Cardinals will be vindicated in retrospect.

Dustin Baker is a political scientist who graduated from the University of Minnesota in 2007. He hosts a podcast with Bryant McKinnie, which airs every Wednesday with Raun Sawh and Sally from Minneapolis. His Viking fandom dates back to 1996. Listed guilty pleasures: Peanut Butter Ice Cream, ‘The Sopranos,’ and The Doors (the band).