For some, the Minnesota Vikings quarterback is not living up to the expectations of the big-money contract he signed in March.
Monday’s performance against the Seattle Seahawks was the latest letdown on the offensive side of the ball for the Minnesota Vikings.
The Vikings’ offense finished with 276 total yards against the Seahawks and they only managed to put up a whopping seven points on the scoreboard. It’s the second week in a row that Minnesota has been held to 10 points or less by their opponent.
For the second straight game, Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins also had another underwhelming performance. Cousins ended ended up throwing for 208 yards and a touchdown on Monday, but a third of those passing yards came on Minnesota’s final offensive drive of the night.
Despite his recent play, Cousins is still on pace to become the fourth quarterback in Vikings history to throw for at least 4,000 yards in a single season. He’s also on pace to finish with more touchdown passes in a year for Minnesota since Brett Favre in 2009.
Even with these numbers, some of those who root for the Vikings feel like Cousins has not been living up to the expectations that came when he signed his big $84 million contract last March. Those who feel this way were basically expecting the quarterback to put the franchise on his back and carry them to three straight Super Bowl wins with the amount of money he was given.
Cousins isn’t even the highest paid signal-caller in the NFL. Matt Ryan of the Atlanta Falcons and Aaron Rodgers of the Green Bay Packers have a higher average salary than the Minnesota quarterback and Ryan was even given more fully-guaranteed money than Cousins.
Guess which of these three signal-callers has led their team to more wins through Week 14 this season? That would be Mr. Cousins.
The amount of money the Vikings gave Cousins during the offseason is just what it currently costs to acquire a solid quarterback. Other current passers around the NFL like Dak Prescott, Marcus Mariota, and Carson Wentz are likely going to get similar contracts in the future that people will also overreact to and find reasons to complain about.
Cousins’ struggles this season have mostly been due to the way in which Minnesota is using him in their offense.
Case Keenum experienced success with Minnesota in 2017 because the team didn’t put the offense on his shoulders. Last season, the Vikings won eight of the nine games in which Keenum attempted 35 passes or less.
Cousins has just three starts this year with 35 pass attempts or less and two of these games have resulted in Minnesota victories.
The difference in the skill levels of both quarterbacks is not that much. Keenum has a better pocket presence while Cousins has a stronger, more accurate arm.
So instead of having Cousins play a similar role in their offense as Keenum last season, Vikings offensive coordinator John DeFilippo has decided to center the team’s offense around their new quarterback. And surprise, it hasn’t turned out very well.
Like Keenum, Cousins is at his best in a more balanced offense. But this is the case for just about every quarterback in the NFL.
In games with at least 40 pass attempts, both Rodgers and New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees have career winning percentages below 40. This is also the case for Philip Rivers, Ben Roethlisberger, Russell Wilson, Matthew Stafford, and Cam Newton.
Looking at numbers like this, it’s really not that crazy to think that all of these solid passers would struggle in Minnesota’s offense this season as well.
Cousins is not the problem with the Vikings this year. How Minnesota has decided to use their quarterback is the problem that the team has yet to figure out.