How Sean Mannion is more impressive than Kirk Cousins

Despite only throwing one touchdown in his NFL career, Sean Mannion has landed another contract with the Minnesota Vikings to backup Kirk Cousins.

For the past three seasons, Sean Mannion has been the No. 2 quarterback for the Minnesota Vikings behind Kirk Cousins. Well, it sounds like this could end up remaining the case for the 2022 campaign despite the recent change in leadership for the Vikings.

On Tuesday, Minnesota announced that they had agreed to a new contract with Mannion, who was a free agent this year. His new deal with the Vikings only lasts for one season according to multiple reports.

We should possibly hold off judgment on figuring out what re-signing Mannion might mean about how Minnesota’s new regime feels about Kellen Mond. There’s still plenty of time this offseason for the young quarterback to prove to the Vikings that he deserves to be Cousins’ backup for the 2022 campaign.

Sean Mannion defies logic again as he remains the backup for Minnesota Vikings QB Kirk Cousins

With Minnesota’s hirings of head coach Kevin O’Connell and general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah earlier this year, some felt it meant that the Vikings were going to move on from a bunch of longtime contributors.

Mannion has been with the franchise for the last few seasons, so he was certainly a candidate for Minnesota to part ways with this year. However, the veteran quarterback has managed to even convince the Vikings’ new leadership that he has value for the team in 2022.

People have praised Cousins through the years for managing to make a boatload of cash in his NFL career despite his performance never really translating to overall team success. While that might be impressive to some, it’s starting to get to the point where Mannion deserves similar praise, if not more.

The Minnesota quarterback entered the NFL in 2015 when he was drafted in the third round by the Los Angeles Rams back when they were located in St. Louis. Despite a career record of 0-3 as a starter, a career passer rating of 66.2, and the fact that he’s thrown just one touchdown during his entire time in the NFL, Mannion has managed to remain in the league ever since he was drafted.

He’s clearly figured out a way to keep a job in the NFL despite being an abominable quarterback whenever he’s been asked to play. And that’s why his tenure in the league at least deserves some consideration to be more impressive than Cousins’ time in the NFL.

At least Cousins has been able to put up above-average numbers at a consistent rate, so people can have an actual argument that he’s worth close to what he gets paid every year. But Mannion has easily been one of the worst quarterbacks to ever throw a football in a Vikings uniform, yet he keeps getting re-signed.

At this point, all anyone can really do is be impressed that he’s been able to last as long in the NFL as he has.