It never fails that blaming Kirk Cousins seems to be the remedy for everything Minnesota Vikings-related these days.
If the defense is getting knocked around like an over-the-hill MMA fighter boxing Jake Paul, blame it on Cousins. If offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak is as redundant with his play-calling as if he’s playing a game of Madden, blame it on Cousins. If guys get injured during the now 18-week-long NFL season, blame it on Cousins.
The Vikings quarterback is the proverbial punching bag for everything that went wrong in an undeniably frustrating season.
Look, I’m not here to say the 33-year-old signal caller is above reproach.
Those fully guaranteed contracts, which total at $150 million (2018 and 2020), aren’t exactly making it easy on the Vikings to spread the wealth around, especially on the defensive side of the ball.
And the whole non-vaccination status situation isn’t necessarily the best look in hindsight of Cousins testing positive for COVID and missing the Sunday night game against the Green Bay Packers, which was the one game that could have saved the Vikings’ season.
But the grass is rarely greener on the other side at the quarterback position. Cousins has thrown for 3,971 yards, 30 touchdowns and only seven interceptions. Now, think up in your head all of the other teams in the NFL that would love to have that “problem.”
Good quarterbacks, much less elite ones, don’t grow on trees. At the very least, Cousins gives the Vikings a chance to compete.
Sure, maybe he’s not elite like Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers or Patrick Mahomes. He might not even have the upside of a Josh Allen, Justin Herbert or Joe Burrow.
But you can’t argue he’s not really, really good.
Assuming that everything else works, he’s serviceable enough to help the Vikings get to and possibly even win a Super Bowl. Or, they could opt to just trade him away and end up stuck in the same never-ending quarterback search as most of the other franchises.
By the time the Vikings find their “guy,” Cousins could be finishing the rest of his days in an upscale retirement home somewhere.