Has Kirk Cousins redeemed himself?

After getting called out by his teammates, has Minnesota Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins redeemed himself after a few rocky starts this season?

The Minnesota Vikings have won two games in a row after looking lost offensively versus the division rival Chicago Bears in Week 4. Starting quarterback Kirk Cousins was called out by his wide receiver Adam Thielen for not throwing him the ball often enough in that game. His other wide receiver Stefon Diggs didn’t exactly dispel trade rumors around that time.

But in Cousins’ last two starts versus the New York Giants and the Philadelphia Eagles, it looks as though he’s righted the ship, playing quarterback at a level worthy of the amount of coin the Vikings front office has invested in him. That being said, has Cousins completely and totally redeemed himself after a few rough starts in the early part of this 2019 NFL season?

On this week’s episode of Stacking the Box, FanSided‘s Matt Verderame and Mark Carman, along with former NFL offensive lineman Geoff Schwartz, assess Cousins’ last two starts to see if he figured everything out that hurt him versus Chicago, or if he took advantage of bad NFL secondaries on early window games few people outside of the Twin Cities are watching (53:58)?

“I’m out because I need to see him do it against a team that can play defense,” said Verderame. “Philadelphia’s secondary is the worst secondary in football right now…but they’ve been awful, they can’t cover anybody.”

“And with Cousins, it’s always the same thing. Can he beat anybody who’s got a really good defense?… I want to see him do it in a big game in a big spot because I’ve never seen it.”

The Vikings have a strong test this week when they take on the division rival Detroit Lions, a team that is coming of a Monday Night Football loss where the officiating got in the way of the football game and cost the Lions dearly. Detroit may only be a .500 team, but the Lions play good defense. Will Cousins, Diggs and Thielen take advantage? Cousins will have redeemed himself if he does.

Cousins is one of three Air Nominees for the FedEx Air and Ground Player of the Week for his great performance against the Eagles in Week 6. He completed 75.9 percent of his passes for 333 yards, four touchdowns, one interception and a passer rating of 138.4 in the Vikings’ 38-20 win over Philadelphia.

Each Tuesday morning of the regular season, through Thursday at 3:00 p.m. ET, fans can visit NFL.com/FedEx or the NFL Twitter page to vote for their favorite performances of the week, with FedEx awarding a $2,000 donation in the winning players’ names to The USO.

Here are a few other topics that were discussed on this week’s episode of Stacking the Box:

• Kansas City Chiefs should trade Tyreek Hill for Patrick Peterson – 9:07
• Has Jason Garrett hijacked the Dallas Cowboys offense? – 11:12
• Here’s why the Los Angeles Rams are such a disaster this year – 15:22
• Mitchell Trubisky still has a chance to succeed – 60:54

All this and more!

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