5 players the Vikings can’t afford to lose to injury in 2019
By Nik Edlund
Kirk Cousins – QB
Love him or hate him, one can’t argue that the Vikings would be absolutely screwed if Kirk Cousins got hurt and missed the majority of the 2019 season.
Cousins showed impressive toughness a season ago during his first year with Minnesota. He played behind a very porous offensive line and defenders were consistently pounding him into the ground play after play. To Cousins’ credit, he hung in there and continued to sling the football.
If one of those hits finds its mark in 2019 and Cousins goes down, the Vikings’ offense would be a wreck as Sean Mannion or Kyle Sloter would become the new starter under center.
Minnesota has enough weapons to make these guys jobs easier, but both Sloter and Mannion lack experience and would most likely struggle. Teams would focus on shutting down the Vikings’ running attack to make one of the two inexperienced quarterbacks beat them through the air.
At this point, it’s very doubtful that either Mannion or Sloter would be up to the task. The offense would sputter out and Minnesota would likely be picking in the top half of the 2020 NFL Draft.
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Cousins’ health is vital to the success of the 2019 Vikings. If he can play a full 16-game schedule, they’ll be just fine. But if Cousins gets hurt and he misses time, Minnesota will find it very difficult to have a winning record next season, let alone make the playoffs.