Comparing Brett Favre’s magical run with the Vikings to what Kirk Cousins has done up to this point 

This may surprise some people, but Kirk Cousins’ stats in his first two seasons with Minnesota are comparable to Brett Favre’s two seasons with the Vikings.

On Monday night, ESPN aired a classic Vikings game where Brett Favre beat the Green Bay Packers at the Metrodome. It brought back nostalgic feelings for Vikings fans, with it being one of the most fun seasons the team has ever had. 

A huge reason that season was so fun was due to the magic that Favre brought with him to Minnesota. The news clips of Favre coming back to the game, the Greg Lewis catch and the run that led to a disappointing finish in the NFC Championship game. 

Historically speaking, Favre is one of the best quarterbacks to play the game. And although he was only in purple for two short seasons, he will still go down as one of the best Vikings quarterbacks of all time. 

Being able to watch Favre come into Minnesota, beat his former team twice and take the Vikings to the NFC Championship game will be in the memories of Vikings fans forever. However, the Vikings current quarterback is also on pace to go down as one of the best quarterbacks in franchise history. 

Comparing Kirk Cousins to Favre might seem like a joke to some, but the numbers speak for themselves. The one aspect of Favre’s game that made him so special was the ability to avoid pressure and zip the football into tight windows. This has been one of Cousins biggest flaws to this point, and he himself said in a virtual interview this week that he needs to become more mobile. 

In Favre’s two seasons with the Vikings, he did some great things. His 2009 season was much stronger than 2010, partially because he got injured and missed a total of three games in 2010. 

In his 2009 season, Favre threw for 4,202 yards, 33 touchdowns, seven interceptions and a completion percentage of 68.4. If you combine his two seasons with the Vikings, he averaged 3,356 yards per season, 22 touchdowns, 13 interceptions and a completion percentage of 64.5. 

In 2010, Favre was playing into his 40s and battled with an injury. That season never turned out the way Vikings fans hoped, after finishing the 2009 season with a disappointing loss in New Orleans. 

What the Vikings have currently in Cousins is much different than a first-ballot Hall of Fame player entering the end of his career. Cousins is still in his prime, and as of right now will more than likely not be enshrined in Canton someday. There is still time for him to change that, but it looks like that would be an unrealistic expectation to put on Cousins at the moment. 

Having said that, the numbers are still worth looking into. In his best statistical season with the Vikings, Cousins threw for 4,298 yards, 30 touchdowns, 10 interceptions and a completion percentage of 70.1%. In his first two seasons with the Vikings, Cousins averaged 3,9506 yards per season, 28 touchdowns, eight interceptions and a completion percentage of 69.6%.

Just comparing the stats, Cousins has been the better quarterback for the Vikings in two seasons, but more goes into it than just stats. Favre played the game in a different way than Cousins, and seemed to trust his arm more as well. The interceptions were much higher, but that was because Favre had more of a gunslinger mentality. 

This mentality that Favre brought to the table is what Vikings fans are itching to see Cousins do. The stats show he is already a great quarterback, but the ability to escape pressure and force throws into extremely tight windows would make him that much better. That ability is what made Favre a Super Bowl winning quarterback.

Favre is high up in the record books in many good categories, but he is also atop the charts for interceptions thrown in a career with 336. Cousins has proven that he has elite accuracy, but it doesn’t always show when he has pressure in his face. His limited turnovers have helped the Vikings over his first two seasons in purple. However, if you were to give him Favre’s confidence and ability to make plays outside of the pocket, he would become that much better of a quarterback even if he threw more interceptions. 

Up to this point with the Vikings, Cousins has been a very good quarterback. The numbers don’t lie, and he has put up just as good of a season as Favre did in 2009. The narrative is there that he can’t win in big games, but he was able to come out of New Orleans with a playoff win last season.

When Cousins’ career is over, how will he be remembered? Who knows? But the quarterback definitely has the potential to be great.