Kirk Cousins Evidently Impressed Teammates in Galvanizing Meeting
From the moment the 2021 regular season ended, the Minnesota Vikings fired their general manager and head coach, and the organization subsequently hired Kwesi Adofo-Mensah — the most significant domino of the offseason was the future of quarterback Kirk Cousins.
The trade, extension, or do-nothing decision on his large contract was always set to determine the franchise’s next steps. Alas, the Vikings extended Cousins for an extra season, retaining the passer as QB1 through the end of the 2023 season.
Minnesota hired head coach Kevin O’Connell from the Super Bowl-winning Los Angeles Rams, and his relationship with Cousins is said to be fruitful. But before all of that, Cousins evidently impressed teammates in a galvanizing meeting.
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After the 2021 season, Cousins reportedly met with the teammates and “blew them away” with his expectation for the future while detailing the state of play. Former Vikings linebacker described the meeting on his podcast, Unrestricted.
About the meeting and teammates’ reactions, Leber said:
Let me just say this to everybody who says he’s not a leader. I will agree with you for the most part up until this point I do think he lacks some of the intangibles most people are looking for at that position. But there was a situation that happened this offseason that I’m privy to the information that has galvanized that locker room towards Kirk in ways that the public does not know. There was a meeting — all of the biggest names on the team at this meeting — and Kirk blew everybody away. In how he handled it the things that were said, the things that were said in that group, ’cause it wasn’t just played there were other people within the organization there. Apparently, a couple of guys walked out of the meeting and said, ‘Kirk’s our dog. Kirk’s our freaking dog.’ Apparently, Kirk came in very prepared for this type of meeting. Apparently, he had been taking notes all season long and laid it all out. I guess the guys were like, ‘Damn, this is a guy that we can ride with that’s going to have our backs at all times.’
– Ben Leber | Unrestricted Podcast
Cousins has often been described as a silent leader-type, much to the chagrin of fans who want the man to be fiery and confrontational. So when teammates opined, “Kirk’s our freaking dog,” the narrative obviously changed with teammates, at least for a while.
Throughout his Vikings tenure, former head coach Mike Zimmer was not well-known for warming up to Cousins — or offensive players, in general. Zimmer was a defensive mastermind for most of his Vikings career, fostering the league’s fourth-best defense on his watch per EPA/Play from 2014 to 2021.
But the statistical divide of Zimmer’s defense from 2014-2019 to 2020-2021 was vast. The Vikings defense was feared — and fearless — during his first six campaigns, tumbling into situational futility inside the last two seasons. And ultimately, that’s why Zimmer was terminated, a failure to execute a winning defense, even though the man was a defense-always head coach.
Now, Cousins will pair with Kevin O’Connell, the antithesis to Zimmer in age and football philosophy. O’Connell arrives in Minnesota with a youthful offensive background, whereas Zimmer endorsed hardnosed defensive bully-ball from yesteryear.
What O’Connell can do with Cousins — and vice versa — will emphatically determine the Vikings future under new general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah. If the team finishes in the ballpark of 8-9 again in 2022, Adofo-Mensah will pivot to a different signal-caller in short order.
Yet, the utopian vision for Minnesota is allowing O’Connell to unlock what he did with Matthew Stafford in Los Angeles. The Rams won a Super Bowl 12.5 months after acquiring a habitual “loser” quarterback in Stafford.
To this point, for folks who view football as quarterback’s mano-a-mano affair, Cousins is exactly average, holding an even-steven 59-59-2 (.500) quarterback record.
Changing the dialogue on Cousins will be a whole lot easier if his teammates buy in. He’s now their freaking dog.
Dustin Baker is a political scientist who graduated from the University of Minnesota in 2007. Subscribe to his daily YouTube Channel, VikesNow. 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).
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