The Minnesota Vikings' trade for Kirk Cousins addressed an important need, as they have a quarterback the organization believes can lead them deep into the postseason. But Cousins’s past shows that while the Vikings' supporting cast is the best he’s ever had, he can also make their weaknesses even louder – especially along the offensive line.
Interior pressure was Cousins’s kryptonite the last time he was in Minnesota, and it made stars out of marginal players like Akiem Hicks and Kenny Clark. While both interior defenders are no longer in the NFC North, the Vikings’ interior offensive line has similar questions to the last time Cousins was here.
Donovan Jackson’s season-ending knee injury has thrown Joe Huber into spot duty, and Blake Brandel’s experiment at center has had plenty of highs and lows. But the biggest question may be the performance of Will Fries and how Cousins’s arrival could put it under a bigger magnifying glass.
Kirk Cousins’s return puts Will Fries’s struggles into focus for the Vikings
Fries was signed in the spring of 2025 to put an end to the Vikings' struggles at guard. During his final season with the Indianapolis Colts, Fries looked the part of a franchise lineman, posting a Pro Football Focus overall grade of 86.9, a run-blocking grade of 84.9, and allowing six pressures and two sacks over 145 pass-blocking snaps before fracturing his tibia in Oct. 2024.
The injury didn’t stop several teams from showing interest when he hit free agency, but he ultimately signed a five-year, $88 million contract with the Vikings. Landing with a franchise that once plucked Hall of Famer Steve Hutchinson in free agency, Fries had big expectations to live up to, but that hasn’t happened in his 25 games in Minnesota.
Fries posted a PFF grade of 61.7, a run-blocking grade of 60.1, and allowed 37 pressures and three sacks on 574 pass-blocking attempts last season. But a lot of that was pinned on his recovery from his injury.
After a full offseason to recover, Fries seemed capable of a bounceback year, but the response has been disappointing with an overall grade of 58.9, a run-blocking grade of 59.5, and allowing 16 pressures and three sacks on 267 pass-blocking attempts.
Those issues also resulted in one of his worst games of the season in Monday’s loss to the Bills. While he didn’t allow a sack, he tied a season high with three pressures allowed and posted a 48.7 overall grade and a 48.3 run-blocking grade.
It’s obvious that level of performance wasn’t going to get the job no matter who was under center, but it becomes more important now that Cousins has returned.
Will Fries must improve to give Kirk Cousins a chance to succeed
Interior pressure does several things to Cousins. While Kyler Murray and Carson Wentz could use their mobility to buy time, Cousins is a strict pocket passer whose ability to extend plays has been limited since tearing his Achilles tendon in 2023.
It also prevents him from stepping up in the pocket to deliver more zip on his throws and forces him off schedule.
This would prevent him from hunting the big plays downfield that O’Connell wants from his offense and increase the probability of mistakes, as his turnover-worthy play rate jumps from 0.8 percent when kept clean (third among qualifiers) to 6.4 percent when pressured (10th-highest), per PFF.
Perhaps the biggest hindrance interior pressure would pose to the Cousins plan is the number of hits he would be taking. At 38 years old, there’s an increased injury risk with Cousins, and while he’s shown toughness throughout his career, eventually the sand runs out.
The NFC North is also loaded with similar monsters that tormented Cousins when he was last in Minnesota. The Chicago Bears recently traded for Jeffery Simmons, who has been on a tear since arriving in a trade from the Tennessee Titans.
The Detroit Lions are also seeing Alim McNeill shake off the rust from his torn ACL, and while the Green Bay Packers don’t have an interior game wrecker, Micah Parsons is a versatile pass rusher who can go wherever the weakness is on an opponent’s offensive line.
This is where the Vikings need Fries to step up. While expecting him to be at the elite level he flashed in 2024 may be a reach, he needs to be a serviceable guard to make the Cousins experiment work.
If he’s unable to do that, Cousins may have the short-circuit moments he had in key moments during his last stint with the Vikings, and it could give his celebrated reunion an unfortunate ending.
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