Following his first season as quarterback of the Minnesota Vikings, Kirk Cousins has explored his new Midwest community more, gradually becoming more familiar with his new neighbors.
“They call it ‘Minnesota nice’ for a reason,” Cousins told USA Today. “Face-to-face, fans were always so great to me, and so great to my family.”
Unfortunately for the Vikings, Cousins hasn’t been able to return the favor.
The Vikings inked Cousins to a three-year, $84,000,000 fully guaranteed contract last offseason to become their franchise quarterback, hoping the former Michigan State star was the missing piece to building a team capable of contending for the Super Bowl.
Minnesota went 12-4 in the 2017-2018 season, losing to the eventual champion Eagles in the NFC Championship Game with Case Keenum under center. Cousins, who was one of the most coveted free agents last offseason, was supposed to elevate the Vikings, who already had an elite defense, to another level.
Instead, Cousins led the Vikings to an 8-7-1 record, missing the playoffs.
On the surface, Cousins’ stats don’t replicate much of the criticism he drew last year. His 30 touchdown passes and 70.1 completion percentage are both career highs and his 99.7 passer rating was his second-best as a starter. Cousins’ 17 turnovers hurt the Vikings, but his ineffectiveness last year lies in other metrics.
Cousins’ 7.1 average yards per passing attempt ranked 23rd in the league, and his 35.8 percent conversion rate on third downs ranked 26th. Together, a lack of explosive, downfield plays and an inability to convert on third down led to Minnesota’s 20th ranked offense, scoring a feeble 22.5 points per game.
“That’s an emphasis to me: figuring out how to have more explosive plays,” Cousins said. “And then, you look at third downs, and specifically third-and-four to six, we were among the worst in the league, and if you’re going to do anything in this league, you’ve got to do better there, so I’m going back and looking at how can I be better at creating explosive plays and how can I be better on third down so we can stay on the field, because if we can really improve those areas, we should be pretty good.”
The potential for Cousins to rewrite his narrative is there, and Adam Thielen and Stefon Diggs, two 1,000-yard receivers, can help make Minnesota’s offense more dynamic. That, and a full year of familiarity of the offense, could help Cousins become the player the Vikings desperately need him to be.
“When I see [the fans] and they are so nice to me, I just feel awful that we didn’t do more last year,” Cousins said. “The good news is 2019 is right around the corner. Until we play games, you do still have that bad taste in your mouth, but hopefully I can make amends for it this coming year because it’s a fan base that’s really strong. You want to do it for them and bring home a world championship to a team that’s been so close.”
