Since the 1976 season, the Vikings have not had the privilege of playing in the Super Bowl. Minnesota has come close plenty of times since then, but the team has fallen short, often in heartbreaking fashion.
The Vikings are not to be confused with a team like the Jaguars or Lions — teams that don’t consistently come within playoff contention. Yes, Minnesota is a team that is usually at least in the postseason hunt under Mike Zimmer, but you don’t get a trophy just for being in the hunt. The Vikings have to find a way to get into the upper echelon of NFL teams.
Just look at the Chiefs. Kansas City already had an established quarterback in Alex Smith, but that didn’t stop the team from moving on in the draft. At the time, Smith was a good enough quarterback to take a team to the postseason. But the Chiefs still asked for something more.
You’ve also got to look at the Buccaneers. Sure, Tampa Bay needed a lot to go its way to reach the final game of the season, but the Buccaneers built a roster that was capable of doing so. Before Tom Brady arrived, the team was 7-9 with horrendous quarterback play. Brady proved to be somewhat of a missing piece.
That said, Kirk Cousins is better than Jameis Winston. Cousins adds a lot to this Vikings team and can make them a playoff contender. That raises a question, though: Can Cousins ever have a year where he’s top-three or even the best quarterback in the NFL? I have trouble believing that.
Yes, it is hard to find the next Patrick Mahomes. Tampa Bay, a team with a star-studded roster, had to land Brady this offseason, as opposed to developing a quarterback after drafting him.
But Kansas City and Tampa Bay have something in common: They put themselves in positions to land quarterbacks. The Chiefs already had one and still went through the draft. While the Buccaneers had an inconsistent one, it was willing to let Winston go and make a splash in free agency.
The Vikings are currently not in a great position to sign a quarterback in free agency or really even draft one, due to Cousins’ contract. The team can still go for a low-cost option in the draft, but Cousins being on the team makes him the definitive starter for the time being.
For the short term, it’s a big deal to not have a good quarterback. Your team will struggle to run its offense and you’ll probably lose more than you win, unless the other pieces around the quarterback are stellar. For the long term, however, not being locked into a quarterback — until of course you find one who can take you to the final game — can have its benefits, as Kansas City and Tampa Bay have shown.
Sure, one season is a small sample size and Tampa Bay could very well be having an outlier good season. But, personally, I’d rather the Vikings keep looking for a quarterback who’s better than Cousins. Though he’s a good quarterback, he’s not in the elite-tier of NFL QBs. You simply need too many things to go your way with a quarterback like Cousins. And that’s at least part of the reason why the Vikings have been watching more Super Bowls than they’ve been going to.