Vikings Teammate Responds to Latest Kirk Cousins Kerfuffle
K. Joudry
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A little known fact is that Kirk Cousins is only a part-time football player. His full-time job is as an online argument starter, the spark that lights the fires of social media debate.
A Vikings teammate — Josh Metellus — even got pulled into the latest kerfuffle.
Most recently, the dust up involved a conversation between SKOR North‘s Phil Mackey alongside a pair of former Vikings offensive linemen: Alex Boone and Jeremiah Sirles. The conversation was taking place for the “OLine Committee Podcast.” Per the o-line pair, Cousins’ unwillingness to work on Tuesday is very likely a problem for the rest of the roster.
“You can’t get me started,” Boone argues, “the minute August starts, your life is over.” The former Vikings guard then suggests that Cousins taking “Tuesdays off” for “personal time” led to him being “offended.” And, quite possibly, the roster may be thinking that Cousins’ day off is “bulls**t.”
Sirles largely agrees, pointing toward Phillip Rivers as a great example of a QB who always showed up early on Tuesday. Sirles then explains that it’s “something I had never seen in a six-year career on four different teams.”
Vikings Teammate Responds to Latest Kirk Cousins Kerfuffle
What does Josh Metellus think of the accusation? Apparently, not very much. The safety responded with a simple word:
“Cap.”
Those who are unfamiliar with the parlance will be curious to know that “cap” basically means “false.” In essence, Metellus is seeing the opinion from Boone and then suggesting that it’s not true. The safety doesn’t think the rest of the roster has a problem with Cousins taking time off for his family (and, possibly, his faith).
The team consists of dozens of individuals, so it’s certainly possible that some players don’t love Cousins taking time off, but Metellus — who is a team captain — very likely has a good sense of where the locker room is at. When Metellus speaks, people should listen.
Plus, there have been several others who have articulated their support for Cousins during the offseason.
After the season, Brian O’Neill met with the media. He wasn’t responding to his QB taking Tuesdays off but he did have some pretty clear-cut thoughts on Cousins: “It’s pretty well documented my feelings on Kirk and everybody in this locker room’s feeling on Kirk.”
The right tackle goes on, explaining that Cousins is someone whom he definitively wants back: “Absolutely! Absolutely. One-thousand-million percent. That’s my guy.” O’Neill even says that he could “talk about Kirk for the next two hours if you want because he has that kind of impact on our locker room.”
“10,000% I’d rather have nobody else than Kirk under center for us,” O’Neill explains.
Like Metellus, O’Neill is a team captain.
And then there has been public support from Justin Jefferson, Alexander Mattison, and certainly several other Vikings players in recent weeks and months. The Minnesota players, in short, seem to be quite supportive of their QB. Furthermore, Kevin O’Connell and Kwesi Adofo-Mensah have always offered their praise for the veteran passer, suggesting that the franchise’s main two leaders don’t see an issue with Cousins’ weekly schedule.
The criticism from Boone and Sirles is reminiscent of the thoughts articulated by Mike Florio when the Vikings were preparing to take on the Chiefs in Week 5. Florio attributed some of the gap between Kirk Cousins and Patrick Mahomes to a willingness to work on Tuesday: “That’s fine. That’s [Cousins’] prerogative. But let’s not be surprised by the fact that Mahomes is currently the best quarterback in football, and Cousins is not.”
So, the conversation about taking a day off has been going on for a little while. Florio’s critique arose back in October, but some people still have an issue with Cousins stepping away from football to spend more time with his family.
Notably, the problem has largely existed outside of the Vikings’ locker room.
Kirk Cousins is far from perfect. There have been moments when he has needed to be better and one can quibble with how much of the budget he has demanded. But, crucially, his teammates don’t seem to have too many problems with taking a day off.
Cousins will be 36 in August and has an achy Achilles. Those factors alongside the guaranteed cash he typically demands will be the most pressing matters for whether he sticks around in Minnesota.
Regardless of where he plays in 2024, Cousins seems very likely to spend time with his family on Tuesday. Whichever team lands him will need to make their peace with that approach.
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K. Joudry is the Senior Editor for Vikings Territory and PurplePTSD. He has been covering the Vikings full time since the summer of 2021. He can be found on Twitter and as a co-host for Notes from the North, a humble Vikings podcast.
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