ESPN’s lack of respect for Kirk Cousins couldn’t be more obvious

A recent article from ESPN displayed some major disrespect for the Minnesota Vikings quarterback.

Despite his numbers being among the NFL’s best since he became a full-time starter in 2015, current Minnesota Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins remains one of the most under-appreciated players in the league.

With the Vikings in 2019, Cousins saw his efficiency get much more impressive. Of the quarterbacks who attempted at least 400 passes last season, the Minnesota signal-caller ranked second in completion percentage, third in touchdown percentage, and fifth in yards per attempt.

Some of the other quarterbacks who ranked in the top five of these categories included Deshaun Watson, Lamar Jackson, Russell Wilson, and Patrick Mahomes. All of these passers are regarded as some of the best in the NFL. So Cousins should be viewed as one of the best quarterbacks in the league too, right?

ESPN re-draft shines a light on their disrespect for the Minnesota Vikings quarterback.

Nationally, not many NFL analysts are really fans of Cousins and it’s a little perplexing exactly why this is. Maybe it’s because he never really gives in to anyone’s criticism and just goes about his business? Who knows, but this disdain was recently made very clear.

On Monday, ESPN released a project where they re-drafted the entire NFL. Every current player was available and each team had four picks. Of these four selections, one had to be used on a quarterback, one needed to be for a non-quarterback offensive player, and another needed to be used on a defensive player.

Courtney Cronin, ESPN’s Vikings reporter, was in charge of making the picks for Minnesota. The Vikings’ first opportunity to make a selection came with pick No. 25 and with this choice, Cronin decided to draft current Tennessee Titans quarterback Ryan Tannehill.

Cronin explained that she believes Tannehill is currently a top-15 signal-caller in the NFL and that he has the potential to continue to the success he had in 2019 for the next three to five years.

Excuse me? Tannehill is a top-15 quarterback? In what world is this the case? He started 10 games for the Titans last season and he’s never led a team to more than eight wins since he entered the NFL in 2012.

Did something change in the last few months that would lead one to believe Tannehill was worth using a first-round pick on during this imaginary-land draft over guys like Cousins, Matthew Stafford, and Cam Newton?

Aside from this head-scratching decision, Cousins didn’t end up coming off the board until the third round of this draft. 23 other quarterbacks were selected before Miami Dolphins ESPN reporter Cameron Wolfe decided to finally use a choice on the current Vikings passer with pick No. 69.

Of the 23 quarterbacks who were selected before Cousins, guys like Joe Burrow, Tua Tagovailoa, and Justin Herbert haven’t even taken a snap in the NFL yet.

One of the intentions of this exercise was to draft players who could help the team win a Super Bowl within the next five years. So there are people who believe quarterbacks like Herbert and Drew Lock (who was selected with pick No. 15 and that is a whole different story) actually have a better shot at leading their team to a championship win during the next five seasons than Cousins?

It’s fine if people don’t view the Minnesota quarterback as one of the 15-best passers in the NFL right now. But there is no other way to describe Cousins being the 24th signal-caller to come off the board other than flat-out disrespect.