The 4 Predominant Opinions about Kirk Cousins This Week
The Minnesota Vikings were without three quarterbacks on Saturday at training camp. Kirk Cousins, Kellen Mond, and Nate Stanley were absent due to COVID-related dealings.
Although it is unknown if Mond, a rookie from Texas A&M, is vaccinated, he reportedly contracted the coronavirus. Then, Cousins and Stanley were put in the COVID protocol territory as close contacts to Mond, disqualifying them from team activities for five days.
Jake Browning took all snaps at Saturday’s night practice, looking sharp while doing so. Because he was available and Cousins plus Stanley were not, the implication is that neither Cousins nor Stanley is vaccinated.
And for Kirk Cousins, that spurred a brand new round of fresh takes about the 32-year-old. He’s a somewhat polarizing figure as is, so the digital stratosphere pertaining to Cousins got a workout over the weekend.
These are the four Cousins-related opinions after the vaccine bedlam.
The “Cousins Is a Very Good QB, but He Should Be Vaccinated” Crowd
Before COVID, a debate transpired – seemingly every day – on the merits of Cousins’ abilities. Is he good or isn’t he? The statistics say that he is emphatically good. But his “QB Record” – a statistical parameter that some people adore – is perfectly average. 51-51-2 is his current and personal win-loss record. The naysayers struggle to reconcile the consistently impressive numbers with his mediocre win-loss record.
The “Cousins Is a Very Good QB, but He Should Be Vaccinated” group is comprised of those that defend his talents but also want to adhere to the legitimacy of science. That is – it is the mentality that leaders lead, and Cousins should lead as a football player on the field and in the locker room for life matters like the coronavirus vaccination.
For them, the best-case scenario is for Cousins to now get vaccinated after this “scare,” and lead the Vikings to the playoffs at his handsome contractual fee.
The “Cousins Is a Very Good QB, but He Doesn’t Need to Be Vaccinated” Crowd
This segment of folks is the closest to “Cousins can do no wrong.” They champion his talents, injury-free availability, and standing as the Vikings QB1. After all, Cousins has never missed a professional football game due to injury. Since the start of 2015, Cousins, Russell Wilson, and Tom Brady are the only active quarterbacks to avoid missing games altogether due to injury. Philip Rivers was on this list, too, but he retired this offseason.
Cousins is more than entitled to his individual prerogative on the COVID vaccination — is the mindset for this camp. For many of them, the pandemic might be overblown or not quite as severe as the general population believes – hence the skepticism of a vaccine. This spring, Cousins notably made headlines when he asserted “If I die, I die” on the implications of COVID. In his defense, though, he did affirm that masks were reasonable if they put his teammates and others at ease.
On the recent events of Cousins missing portions of training camp because of Mond’s contraction of the virus, this crowd would prefer that Cousins bounce back later this week – with his personal decision on the vaccination wholly up to him. The fallout for the Vikings as a team is secondary to Cousins’ individual choice.
The “Cousins Isn’t That Great, but He Should Be Vaccinated” Crowd
It gets a little quirky here. Many chide Cousins as a player incapable of propelling the Vikings to a Super Bowl. Curiously, when the prospect of Cousins missing time surfaces – like with this COVID stuff – then he becomes an integral part of the Vikings pathway to February. There is some paradoxical logic with this one.
This can be considered the savagery-no-matter-what fragment of Cousins opinion holders. Primarily, they claim he isn’t very good, massively overpaid, and then he chooses to hinder his team because of a stubborn vaccine stance. This is probably the most rapid pack of Cousins detractors – and they’re out there.
The “Cousins Isn’t That Great, but He Doesn’t Need to Be Vaccinated” Crowd
This one is self-explanatory. This partition of people learns that Cousins is the only NFL quarterback since 2015 to pass for 3,500+ passing yards and 25+ touchdowns in each season – but they decide to decry the statistic as hollow.
Along the way, it doesn’t really matter if he’s unvaccinated, per them, because he won’t lead the Vikings to much of anything anyway. It’s his choice to be vaccinated – and even he is, Minnesota isn’t going anywhere with him in the saddle.
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These are the camps. Cousins is one of the few sports personalities that cannot be figured out by the fans of his own team. His numbers are strangely comparable – and even exceed – those of Matthew Stafford’s, but the narratives surrounding Cousins and Stafford are fundamentally opposite. Stafford is a darling whereas Cousins is scrutinized.
Regardless of vaccinations, it is extremely odd.