Why Kirk Cousins is entering the most important season of his career

After a disappointing 2018 campaign, the Minnesota Vikings quarterback will be stepping onto the field in 2019 for a career-defining season.

To say the outcome of the 2018 season for the Minnesota Vikings was a letdown would be a gigantic understatement.

Coming off an appearance in the 2017 NFC Championship, having the majority of their starters returning, and upgrading at quarterback by signing Kirk Cousins resulted in some pretty monumental expectations for the Vikings last year.

But instead of earning the franchise’s first appearance in the Super Bowl since 1976, Minnesota and Cousins didn’t even get a sniff of the playoffs. The Vikings were left wondering why they weren’t able to achieve more success than 2017 despite having a better passer starting under center.

Minnesota’s failures last season were certainly not entirely on the shoulders of Cousins. But the Vikings quarterback definitely deserved a portion of the blame.

Cousins has been experiencing similar seasons throughout his entire career though. He’s always been able to do enough to help his team get at least seven to nine wins, but nothing ever more than that.

He’s basically the Jeff Fisher of quarterbacks, at least at this point in his career. This isn’t to say that Cousins cannot improve and change the direction of where his time in the NFL appears to be heading though either.

He’s only 30-years-old and a number of notable passers in the league’s history didn’t really begin to achieve postseason success until the back half of their career (see Drew Brees, Peyton Manning, and Steve Young).

So Cousins still has plenty of a career left in the NFL ahead of him. But how he performs with Minnesota in 2019 will likely determine how his time in the league ends up being remembered.

Cousins upcoming season with the Vikings is easily the most important of his NFL career and there are a few reasons to help explain why.