Closing the Case for Kirk: Why the Vikings chose Cousins over Keenum

Tale of the tape

Cousins stands 6’3”, while Keenum is a stretch to make 6’1”.  Cousins’ arm is stronger though not obviously superior, and his career accuracy, especially in the vertical game, is easily the better.  Both use the pocket well (if it is there), but Cousins’ height is a distinct difference between the two men. Where Keenum rarely waits to step through the pocket because of his lack of altitude over a pressing line, Cousins is able to examine passing lanes while still in the pocket before realizing he has to redeploy his position.

Personally, both men are clearly good guys.  Both married, church-going, sincerely humble team guys who brighten the locker room and go out of their ways to dispense praise.

Perhaps the real reason has something to do with a notion that cuts across the integrity of the game yet still illustrates the legend.  The integrity that affirms the truth of football as the ultimate team sport, and the legend of players and plays that fans glory.

Sometimes, you just need that guy.

“You play to win the game”, old Herman Edwards once said when he was much younger.  And, of course, he was right. But to date, the Minnesota Vikings have won a lot of games, and there’s really only one game they–and we as fans–are interested in winning anymore.

The last game.

During this offseason, the Vikings front office had the very rare opportunity of obtaining a Pro Bowl quarterback–in his absolute physical prime–from a team who had somehow either lost or forsaken him.  I certainly suspect the former, as Daniel Synder is arguably the most naive and frivolous of NFL proprietors.

Remember, he signed Fred Smoot the year after he commandeered the ‘Love Boat’ in Minnesota!

The Vikings had the chance to get the best guy out there.  The ‘right guy’ out there. Personally, I think Kirk Cousins is Case Keenum on steroids.  Bigger, stronger, more successful. Just as sweet. Just as devoted to his wife. Just as devoted to his team.  

A franchise tag on Keenum, not a tragic potential decision, would have cost the Vikings around $25M in 2018.  So they paid $84M for 3 years for Captain Kirk. That’s approximately 26, 27, 29. The guarantee is unique, but the guy hasn’t missed a start since 2012.  

The ‘Minneapolis Miracle’ means more to the world of sports than to most Viking fans.  It was one great play, but it was made on one great mistake by a defender in a game that we should have won handily, and nearly let slip away.  Considering the fact that this team was humiliated a week later in Philly rendered this ‘miracle’ moot to me.  The loss instead felt like a new tread on the old soul. A rough, painful tread that is clear among the others.

But I have hope.  A real hope. A Kirk Cousins, Dalvin Cook hope.  I have now watched the Saints, the Buccaneers, the Seahawks and the Eagles win it all.

Even the Cubs. Nothing is impossible if you keep working to get better.

That’s what the Vikings did.