For the last six seasons, Kirk Cousins was the starting quarterback for the Minnesota Vikings. During Cousins' tenure with the franchise, he managed to help lead the Vikings to a grand total of one playoff win.
That lone victory is actually the only postseason win the veteran quarterback has been a part of since he entered the NFL in 2012. For whatever reason, Cousins' performance has never really resulted in a team experiencing consistent success in the playoffs with him as their starter.
After signing a multi-year contract with the Atlanta Falcons earlier this offseason, Cousins will no longer be Minnesota's starting signal-caller. Instead, the Vikings are expected to attempt to replace the veteran passer with one of the top quarterback prospects from this year's draft pool, including one who was recently compared to the now-former Minnesota signal-caller.
J.J. McCarthy compared to former Minnesota Vikings QB Kirk Cousins
On Monday, ESPN shared a list of NFL comparisons for some of this year's top draft prospects, and the comparison that was selected for former Michigan quarterback J.J. McCarthy is one that Vikings fans are very familiar with.
Former NFL signal-caller and current ESPN analyst Dan Orlovsky revealed that he believes McCarthy best compares to Cousins, and he shared the following to explain why.
"McCarthy and Cousins play with a high level of conviction and routinely make difficult throws from the pocket look easier than they should. The former Michigan quarterback has his eyes and arm tied to his feet on when and where to throw the ball."
It's certainly an interesting choice by Orlovsky, as there aren't really a ton of similarities between McCarthy and Cousins aside from the fact that they both throw the football accurately.
McCarthy is much more mobile than the new Falcons quarterback, and the former Michigan signal-caller is coming off of a season in which he helped lead the school to a national championship. McCarthy also seems to be more willing to do whatever it takes to get a win, while it often seemed like Cousins always had to make sure his stats looked good regardless of whether or not his team won or lost.
If Minnesota ends up selecting McCarthy in this year's NFL Draft in a few weeks, people will truly get to see how different he is from Cousins, especially if the young quarterback continues to help lead his team to a high level of success, just as he did at Michigan.