Entering his second year with the Minnesota Vikings, the veteran quarterback is working towards helping the franchise win its first-ever championship.
Despite putting up career-best numbers in 2018, Kirk Cousins’ first season as the starting quarterback for the Minnesota Vikings isn’t really viewed as a success.
When Cousins was brought in by the Vikings last offseason, the hope was that he would give the team enough of a boost under center to capture the franchise’s very first Super Bowl win. But a year after making it to the NFC Championship with Case Keenum as their starting quarterback, Minnesota failed to make the playoffs in 2018.
Cousins knows he has to better next season and that his impressive statistics don’t mean a thing if the Vikings can’t achieve postseason success. He recently spoke with USA Today and expressed these exact thoughts.
"“It’s about winning to get to the playoffs and then once you get to the playoffs, winning playoff games and ultimately winning a world championship. Unfortunately, that’s something I haven’t done yet. But that’s where my focus is now.Now, it’s only about becoming one of those guys that’s consistently in the playoffs and winning in the playoffs. That’s where I want to go and where I want our team to go.”"
Cousins also revealed that much of his motivation to deliver a championship to Minnesota’s is to bring joy to the team’s dedicated fan base that has suffered so much heartbreak over the years.
"“They call it ‘Minnesota nice’ for a reason. Face-to-face, fans were always so great to me, and so great to my family. When I see them and they are so nice to me, I just feel awful that we didn’t do more last year.It’s a fan base that’s really strong. You want to do it for them and bring home a world championship to a team that’s been so close.”"
The Vikings quarterback certainly has the right mindset for the upcoming season. Cousins seems to be very aware that 2019 won’t be deemed a success for Minnesota without any sort of run in the playoffs, whether his numbers are among the NFL’s best passers or not.
Last year’s failures for the Vikings were due to a number of factors, including the performance of their quarterback in the team’s toughest matchups.
But Cousins was also running an offensive scheme in 2018 that didn’t really play to his strengths. During his time in the league, he has been an excellent play-action passer.
Despite this, Minnesota actually ran less play-action pass plays last season (21 percent of play calls) than they did in 2017 (30 percent).
Now with Kevin Stefanski and Gary Kubiak leading the offense, the Vikings are expected to see their play-action usage get back to how it was when Pat Shurmur was the team’s offensive coordinator two years ago.
If this actually ends up happening, then Cousins may be able to deliver that championship to Minnesota like he’s hoping for.