Still don't get the Cousins hate....

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@jargomcfargo said:

@MaroonBells said:

@Vanguard83 said:
Couldn't agree more.  Cousins doesn't deserve the $hitstorm he gets.
He's a damn good QB, and we are fortunate to have him.

We will like 12 games last year if our defense holds our opposition to under 30 points.

His CONTRACT however.....is like a kick in the pills

Interesting thing about that contract is that the one we gave him back in 2018--the one that everyone screamed about, the one that made him the highest paid player in NFL history (for about 5 minutes)--would rank somewhere in the middle of the pack right now among QBs.

And even with his extension, his average per year ranks 7th and his guaranteed money ranks 9th.

Just not so sure that's so far out of line with where he ranks in terms of performance.

Easy to see that looking back. For me it was more about the impact the contract had on the ability to maintain and construct the rest of the team around him than simply his performance. I felt the contract tied their hands a little bit when it came to free agency and resigning some of their own players. They seemed to trade offensive improvement at the expense of the defense.
As an aside, I have always wondered how the other teams felt about the precedence of a fully guaranteed contract.

the concern was when he was signed that his deal would have cap consequences down the road and his, combined with a couple other high dollar deals did just that.  sure the cap situation isnt entirely on Kirk,  but he carries a large cap hit so it would be misleading to say his deal wasnt a contributor to the defense losing so many players to FA last year and which was a large part to its poor performance... not entirely,  but a contributing factor IMO.

[Guest]

I don't see any Cousins hate at least on this blog.  I see some who want/expect more but no hate.  I am a Cousin's fan/supporter but I also try my best to be a realists.  I have been saying for years that Cousin's is good enough to win a SB but we need a full team and surrounding pieces.  He is not going to carry a team to a SB victory IMO.  Not many QB can.  That is why Brady is by far the best ever...he carries numerous designed teams to SB victories.  Elway on the other hand really really needed TD and all the other pieces.  Favre only won the one but needed Reggie White to solidify the Defense.  Rodgers has only won one because the Packers have not been able to put together a complete team around Rodgers except for that one year...thank god!

I also have no problem with Cousins contract and said so at the time because every next QB contract knocks you down a peg and by the time your contract runs out you are usually middle of the pack...gotta pay to play.  The only handicap with Cousins contract was when we extended it by guaranteeing his next 2 years salary at the start of the league year his year.  That has put us in a bind but I am happy that we didn't allow that to stop us in drafting a QB in the 3rd round in Mond.  

I was a strong advocate to even moving up for a QB this draft and was hoping that the above Cousins contract would not prevent us from even entertaining the thought.  This was such a crazy deep QB draft that I didn't want our sunk cost of Cousin's contract to prevent us from looking ahead and past a deep QB draft where we were in the Top 15 picks - both of which don't happen at the same time too often.  

The QB that I wanted us to move up for was Zack Wilson but as the draft approached it was clear he was out of reach.  We only had enough ammo to get to around 6-8 without a 2 this year and still giving up the farm.  

All-in-all I am very happy with the way the draft fell for us and how Spelly worked it!  I wanted Darrisaw and a Guard with our first few picks and bingo.  

We had no shot at Lawrence/Wilson/Lance.  I would have been tempted for Fields as he fell because I do think he is a Top 10 pick and the Bears got real value with him.  He will be starting this year and the Bears have a Defense that can have them compete for the Division.   

Oh well, fun to put this down for the record that no one will ever remember including me!  

(sidenote:  I have not collected NFL cards since I was a kid.  Have you guys seen the card market since covid?  It is insane.  I decided to buy a few box sets of Panini 2021 NFL with the thought of how deep the QB class was.  of course all could bomb just like every draft but might not be a bad investment.  I bought 2 boxes so far.  My plan is to open one and then keep the other intact for a future sale.)  

[Guest]

I don't see a lot of Cousins "hate" on this board. But there is a lot of unfair criticism surrounding him on Twitter among fans and media, mostly outside of the Vikings. Prisco, Cowherd, etc., but there are a few Vikings beat writers who feel the same. 

These are people who think he's "incapable" of winning an important game. Or that he gets all of his stats in "garbage time," or that his high completion percentage and passer ratings are padded by throwing "dink and dunk" passes. All of which are demonstrably false. 

I've always felt that he's flawed, that he's not a perfect QB. He doesn't appear to have the moxie or swagger to be a QB with the kind of killer instinct you might ideally want.

That said, it's pretty hard to be objective and still deny the kind of numbers he consistently puts up, frequently ranking near the top in several categories, including passer rating, completion percentage, TD/INT ratio, and deep ball accuracy. And this despite getting far worse protection than most of the QBs he ranks above. 

I could be wrong but I tend to think that if we can just get him league average or better protection, you're going to see him light it up and put up the kind of numbers that will make him an MVP candidate. 

[Guest]

One more pretty amazing fact from Dustin Baker...

https://twitter.com/DustBaker/status/140...33058?s=20

[Guest]

Dustin is awesome. So much so, I've actually considered listening to his podcast with Bryant McKinnie.

[Guest]

Wait until the defense has allowed 40 points, the Vikings have the football with 1:45 left down by 5 and Cousins doesn't 'win the game'. Then come check out the board.......uh huh.

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@"BarrNone55" said:
Dustin is awesome. So much so, I've actually considered listening to his podcast with Bryant McKinnie.

I haven't listened to his pod yet, but he's a great Twitter follow just for the way he seems to have an endless supply of facts to disprove many of the misconceptions about Cousins. 

[Guest]

@MaroonBells said:
One more pretty amazing fact from Dustin Baker...

https://twitter.com/DustBaker/status/140...33058?s=20

You know why that is though right?  Because Cousins is one of the most accurate deep ball throwers and one of the better play-action passers in the league.  There are other parts of his game that leave something to be desired, but those two traits are his best qualities.

And if anyone that wants to look...  since he's been here, it isn't a coincidence that our best year as a team (made the playoffs and won a playoff game) was when he attempted the least amount of passes in his Vikings career...  something to think about.

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@Wetlander said:

@MaroonBells said:
One more pretty amazing fact from Dustin Baker...

https://twitter.com/DustBaker/status/140...33058?s=20

You know why that is though right?  Because Cousins is one of the most accurate deep ball throwers and one of the better play-action passers in the league.  There are other parts of his game that leave something to be desired, but those two traits are his best qualities.

And if anyone that wants to look...  since he's been here, it isn't a coincidence that our best year as a team (made the playoffs and won a playoff game) was when he attempted the least amount of passes in his Vikings career...  something to think about.

Right, but that's a bit of a cart-leading-the-horse argument. In other words, I think when teams do well they attempt fewer passes.

Heck, if I had Dalvin Cook I'd probably throw less too. Doesn't take away the fact that, in spite of throwing so infrequently, Cousins still ranked 5th in TD passes. I think that says something. 

[Guest]

I just want to see my team in the Superbowl one more time before I die and I don't care who the players are that get us there. So if you stink up the field behind a bad oline or a good oline I most likely will slam you.I have that right.