Bleacher Report Claims One Vikings Player Would Make a Great HC
While Minnesota Vikings debate the merits of a possible Kirk Cousins extension with the purple team, Bleacher Report has bent in another direction.
Regardless of Cousins’ future with the Vikings, BR believes he’ll eventually make a fantabulous head coach in the NFL.
Bleacher Report Claims One Vikings Player Would Make a Great HC
Cousins was mentioned this week among current players who might take the head coach plunge in the future, as BR‘s Brad Gagnon also noted Calais Campbell, Demario Davis, Cameron Jordan, and Bobby Wagner as candidates. Yes, Cousins was the only offensive player to make the cut.
Gagnon explained the Cousins as head coach idea, “Kirk Cousins has Dan Campbell-esque energy combined with a great offensive mind and lauded leadership skills. The four-time Pro Bowl quarterback was a three-year captain at Michigan State and has been a captain in each of his last eight seasons in Washington and Minnesota.”
Cousins and the Vikings brass are at a crossroads at the moment, determining if the 35-year-old will return to Minnesota for a seventh season. He could re-sign with the Vikings or hit free agency in March. Cousins tore his Achilles tendon in late October, casting his future with the club into doubt.
“What’s more, Cousins was last year’s winner of the Bart Starr Award, which is given to the player who ‘best exemplifies outstanding character and leadership in the home, on the field, and in the community.’ Besides, the guy delivers speeches to teammates that’ll put chills down anyone’s spine. And he already sounds like a motivational head coach,” Gagnon added.
Cousins has never outwardly expressed plans to coach when his playing days end, but truth be told, the Bleacher Report theory checks out. Last summer’s Netflix docuseries, Quarterback, revealed Cousins’ intensity toward the sport, stuffed to the gills with preparation and a methodical attention to detail.
Gagnon ended by referencing a Cousins quote from last summer, “There are times when players may walk off the field and think they had a ‘good practice’ and they are doing a ‘good job,’ and you have to reframe the expectation. Good isn’t what we’re chasing here. We’re chasing great. We’re chasing a championship level, and that requires a different standard. And what you did today, while you may feel was good enough, it really wasn’t because the standard is much higher.”
The Vikings’ current coach, Kevin O’Connell, was also a quarterback in the NFL, although not to Cousins’ production level. O’Connell was a backup for five seasons with five different teams.
A decision on Cousins’ playing fate with the Vikings should be rendered in the next seven weeks.
He’ll turn 36 in August.
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 Sal Spice. His Vikings obsession dates back to 1996. Listed guilty pleasures: Peanut Butter Ice Cream, ‘The Sopranos,’ Basset Hounds, and The Doors (the band).
All statistics provided by Pro Football Reference / Stathead; all contractual information provided by OverTheCap.com.
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