4 biggest overreactions from the Vikings loss to the Colts in Week 2

Tanking for Trevor is the answer

Against the Green Bay Packers in Week 1, Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins wasn’t terrible. But let’s not pretend like he was great either, because he wasn’t.

During Minnesota’s loss to the Colts on Sunday, Cousins was terrible. His performance was just plain ugly and it was easily one of his worst games in a Vikings jersey since he joined the franchise in 2018.

Through two games this season, Cousins has completed just 58.8 percent of his passes for 372 yards, two touchdowns, and four interceptions to go along with a 61.9 quarterback rating. Since becoming a full-time starting signal-caller in 2015, Cousins has never had a quarterback rating below 74.3 (in 2019) heading into Week 3.

Following his performance on Sunday, the calls for the Vikings to move on from him certainly grew louder. What appears to be picking up the most steam among those who are finished with Cousins in Minnesota is the idea to tank for the rest of the season in order to land the No. 1 pick in the 2021 NFL Draft and select current Clemson quarterback Trevor Lawrence.

Just type in #TankForTrevor on Twitter and see how many Vikings fans pop up. It’s a number that definitely saw an increase after Minnesota’s loss to Indianapolis on Sunday.

This might sound like a great plan and it’s certainly become more of a trend to want a team to tank for a top draft pick, but it’s far from being the most successful plan.

The Vikings might want to move on from Cousins after this season and that’s perfectly fine. But they shouldn’t think that landing Lawrence with the No. 1 pick is going to be the answer to all of their problems.

Of the 17 quarterbacks to be drafted first overall from 1990 to 2018, only two of them (Eli Manning and Peyton Manning) have won a Super Bowl as a starter. That’s 12 percent for those interested. 43 percent of the last seven teams who won the Super Bowl were led by signal-callers who weren’t even drafted in the first round.

So people want Minnesota to throw away a season for something that has a 12 percent success rate since 1990? That doesn’t sound very smart, does it?