Kirk Cousins escaped wrath of Mike Zimmer in recent Vikings rant

When Mike Zimmer was fired as the head coach of the Minnesota Vikings in 2022, one of the multiple reasons for his departure was his inability to develop any sort of positive relationship with veteran quarterback Kirk Cousins.

Zimmer was never a fan of the Vikings giving a bunch of money to a quarterback, so when it happened, he seemed to take out his frustrations with the situation on Cousins during their time in Minnesota together.

So when the Minnesota Star Tribune's Mark Craig shared a no-holds-barred interview with Zimmer on Saturday, it was quite the surprise to see that the former Vikings head coach took it pretty easy on the current starting quarterback of the Atlanta Falcons.

Unlike others, Mike Zimmer didn't throw former Minnesota Vikings QB Kirk Cousins under the bus in recent interview

With the gigantic amount of tension that seemed to exist between Zimmer and Cousins when they were in Minnesota together, it was a bit surprising that the Pro Bowl signal-caller didn't really receive much criticism from the former Vikings head coach in his interview with Craig.

When it came to Cousins, all Zimmer really talked about in the interview was just the general idea of signing him, as the coach knew it was going to force the team to part with multiple impact players in the future.

"[We were] averaging 10 wins a year playing really good defense with some other quarterbacks who weren’t as talented as Kirk. Then we paid Kirk a lot of money and ended up having to get rid of some guys on defense and weren’t able to get ones we needed."

Zimmer knew Cousins was a much more talented quarterback than Case Keenum, Teddy Bridgewater, or any other player to start under center for Minnesota during his first four seasons with the team. But the former head coach didn't like the idea of using a ton of money to sign Cousins and then having to part with guys like Linval Joseph, Xavier Rhodes, and Everson Griffen sooner than he wanted to.

But Minnesota went ahead with signing the veteran passer in 2018, and in the end, Zimmer was correct, as the quarterback position improved, but a number of other position groups, especially on defense, suffered because the team didn't have enough resources to maintain an above average talent level.

So, at least at first, Zimmer likely didn't have a problem with Cousins as a person or a player. He just never liked the idea of paying a lot to sign him or any other quarterback because he knew it would eventually hurt the overall level of talent for the Vikings.