Benching Kirk Cousins suggested as a possibility for Vikings in Week 3

Despite Kirk Cousins playing some of the best football of his career during the last two weeks, some still believe the Minnesota Vikings could bench him in Week 3 against the Seattle Seahawks.

Kirk Cousins is arguably in the middle of the most important season of his NFL career. How he performs during the next few months will not only determine his future with the Minnesota Vikings, but it will likely have an impact on how much longer he remains in the league.

So far, Cousins has been putting up very impressive numbers for the Vikings during the first two weeks of the 2021 season.

During Minnesota’s first two games, the veteran quarterback has completed 71.6 percent of his passes for 595 yards (297.5 average), five touchdowns, and no interceptions while posting a 112.9 passer rating.

Don’t expect the Minnesota Vikings to bench Kirk Cousins against the Seattle Seahawks

Heading into Week 3 of the 2021 season, there are some NFL teams that are probably thinking about a quarterback change already. At least one person believes the Vikings could be one of those teams.

FanSided’s Rucker Haringey recently listed three signal-callers that could be benched in Week 3 and Cousins was one of the three passers he included.

Haringey believes the combination of Cousins’ less-than-stellar relationship with Minnesota head coach Mike Zimmer and the team starting 0-2 this year has put their quarterback’s starting job in “serious jeopardy.”

Haringey also adds that if the Vikings get off to a slow start against the Seattle Seahawks on Sunday, he thinks Zimmer won’t hesitate to bench Cousins for the rest of the game. He believes “it’s only a matter of time before the Vikings pull the plug on [Cousins] as a starter,” this season.

Minnesota benching their starting quarterback and his 112.9 passer rating this weekend against Seattle just seems extremely unlikely. Cousins would have to probably throw at least six interceptions in the first half in order for Zimmer to pull him out of the game.

If the Vikings had better backup options than Sean Mannion and rookie Kellen Mond, then maybe this becomes more of a possibility. But even then, Cousins has actually been one of the bright spots for Minnesota during the last two weeks, and benching him for any reason on Sunday doesn’t seem like it would benefit the team in any way.