Kirk Cousins looks like an All-Pro QB when he throws to Justin Jefferson

The Minnesota Vikings quarterback has been taking advantage of his new target this season.

During their first two games of the 2020 season, the Minnesota Vikings offense and Kirk Cousins struggled to find any sort of consistent success. Adam Thielen was clearly the only receiver Cousins had faith in during these two contests and it resulted in some terrible trows by the veteran quarterback.

But then in Week 3, Minnesota decided to move rookie receiver Justin Jefferson into the starting lineup. Since then, Jefferson has been lighting the NFL on fire and Cousins has been looking more like the quarterback who had a 107.4 rating in 2019.

Cousins is no longer forcing bad throws in the direction of Thielen and the quarterback’s success with Jefferson has resulted in him gaining trust with other Minnesota pass-catchers as well.

Justin Jefferson making life easy for the Minnesota Vikings quarterback

During the Vikings’ last two games, Cousins has had some insane numbers when targeting Jefferson out on the field.

When throwing in the rookie’s direction this year, the Minnesota quarterback has completed 80 percent of his passes for 348 yards (21.8 per completion), one touchdown, one interception, and a 114.6 rating. Then when Cousins has targeted Thielen this season, he’s completed 64.5 percent of his pass attempts for 284 yards (14.2 per completion), four touchdowns, three interceptions, and a 94.0 rating.

Thielen does have 11 more targets than Jefferson and the rookie has only been a starter for the Vikings’ last two games. But this still shouldn’t diminish the success that Cousins has had when targeting Jefferson this year.

The key for the Minnesota quarterback and his new target will be consistency. If Cousins and Jefferson can continue to produce at a high level when the two connect during each game, then it’s only going to make the Vikings’ offense even more dangerous.

It took a couple of weeks for Minnesota to give their top 2020 draft pick a shot to be a starter this season. But the Vikings and Cousins have to be happy with the results since that decision was made back in Week 3.