Cousins has always proven himself. He’s ready to do it again.

[Guest]

@purplefaithful said:

@Skodin said:

@purplefaithful said:

@pattersaur said:
Without circling the drain on Kirk even further since we all have our opinions, I got to thinking— how many tenured QBs have actually changed their reputation over the course of their careers?

Recently, Stafford comes to mind but then he got hurt immediately after and now the Rams are a mess.

Russell Wilson and Carson Wentz kind of did, but in a bad way.

The best example I can think of is Eli Manning, and he did it by winning a couple rings. 

For Kirk he’ll always be polarizing for some but I really think the only way the narrative for the majority of folks will change is if he wins a Super Bowl, whether in MIN or elsewhere.

But maybe I’m forgetting some other examples?

Lol.  Cousins is no Elway.  Elway was a beast, taking teams that had no business deep into the playoffs.  

@Skodin said:

@purplefaithful said:

@pattersaur said:
Without circling the drain on Kirk even further since we all have our opinions, I got to thinking— how many tenured QBs have actually changed their reputation over the course of their careers?

Recently, Stafford comes to mind but then he got hurt immediately after and now the Rams are a mess.

Russell Wilson and Carson Wentz kind of did, but in a bad way.

The best example I can think of is Eli Manning, and he did it by winning a couple rings. 

For Kirk he’ll always be polarizing for some but I really think the only way the narrative for the majority of folks will change is if he wins a Super Bowl, whether in MIN or elsewhere.

But maybe I’m forgetting some other examples?

Lol.  Cousins is no Elway.  Elway was a beast, taking teams that had no business deep into the playoffs.  

Who said Kirko was an Elway?

The poster asked what other QB's changed their narrative over the course of a career

[Guest]

@pattersaur said:

@purplefaithful said:

@Skodin said:

@purplefaithful said:

@pattersaur said:
Without circling the drain on Kirk even further since we all have our opinions, I got to thinking— how many tenured QBs have actually changed their reputation over the course of their careers?

Recently, Stafford comes to mind but then he got hurt immediately after and now the Rams are a mess.

Russell Wilson and Carson Wentz kind of did, but in a bad way.

The best example I can think of is Eli Manning, and he did it by winning a couple rings. 

For Kirk he’ll always be polarizing for some but I really think the only way the narrative for the majority of folks will change is if he wins a Super Bowl, whether in MIN or elsewhere.

But maybe I’m forgetting some other examples?

Lol.  Cousins is no Elway.  Elway was a beast, taking teams that had no business deep into the playoffs.  

@Skodin said:

@purplefaithful said:

@pattersaur said:
Without circling the drain on Kirk even further since we all have our opinions, I got to thinking— how many tenured QBs have actually changed their reputation over the course of their careers?

Recently, Stafford comes to mind but then he got hurt immediately after and now the Rams are a mess.

Russell Wilson and Carson Wentz kind of did, but in a bad way.

The best example I can think of is Eli Manning, and he did it by winning a couple rings. 

For Kirk he’ll always be polarizing for some but I really think the only way the narrative for the majority of folks will change is if he wins a Super Bowl, whether in MIN or elsewhere.

But maybe I’m forgetting some other examples?

Lol.  Cousins is no Elway.  Elway was a beast, taking teams that had no business deep into the playoffs.  

Who said Kirko was an Elway?

The poster asked what other QB's changed their narrative over the course of a career

Elway is a good example— totally agree. But he did it by winning a ring which is kind of my point.

Jalen Hurts or Josh Allen could maybe be cited but they were young enough to still be in that, “jury is still out” category.

I just think, it’s very very hard to get people to change their minds about anything.

I also agree that if Kirk DOES win a ring, it will 1000% shed a better light on the rest of his career and he maybe even becomes a Hall of Famer. Maybe. Wild to think about. Can’t say I expect it to happen but it would be poetic if he was the guy to bring the Vikings that title. 

[Guest]

@comet52 said:

@StickyBun said:

@comet52 said:

@1VikesFan said:

@comet52 said:

@1VikesFan said:

@comet52 said:

@Riphawkins said:

@purplefaithful said:

@StickyBun said:
The guy has an amazing attitude. Oozes leadership. Yet half the fanbase dislikes the guy. Its so weird. 

Only one way to quiet haters....

Did San Diego fans hate Dan Fouts as much as Vikings fan hate Kirk? How about Warren Moon? How many fans and experts disrespected him as much Kirk gets disrespected?

Those guys are in the HOF, a place Kirk and his .500 career of checking it down on 3rd and long will never be.  Maybe you should have gone balls to the wall and compared him to Tom Brady and Patrick Mahomes instead.  =)

Can't speak for Riphawkins but it's possible that the Fouts and Moon comparisons were due to all their Super Bowl successes.

I'm sure the HOF qbs who never won a SB would have a good chuckle at being told they are comps for Kirk Cousins.

The comp for Kirk is Jay Cutler, not guys in the HOF.

Ok then 

Are you saying Kirk will get in the HOF?

He could actually get in...if he buys a ticket at the front door like the rest of the tourists.  :p

This isn't about Kirk being a HOF QB......my original point was even a HOF QB, like Marino, didn't win a Superbowl. Because the negs in the thread put that as the bar: Superbowl trophies. So Marino was an epic failure then.

I would never set the bar for Kirk at SB trophies, and shame on those who do. You can't go setting goals for guys that they will never achieve, it's just not fair!

There have been 52 Superbowl trophies awarded and 29 different QBs have won them. 29 total in history. TOTAL. So yeah, I want one......but I also know its not easy. And its really rare. 

[Guest]

Just thinking about the best Viking teams over the last 30 years, the best teams had a deep QB bench

98 had Cunningham, Johnson, Jay Fielder (who went on to be a starter)
09 had Favre, Sage, TJ (two guys who were borderline starters and could win games)
17 had Case, Bradford, Teddy (two guys who were starters when healthy)

Ever since we got Kirk, it's been Kirk, and that's all

[Guest]

@Skodin said:
Just thinking about the best Viking teams over the last 30 years, the best teams had a deep QB bench

98 had Cunningham, Johnson, Jay Fielder (who went on to be a starter)
09 had Favre, Sage, TJ (two guys who were borderline starters and could win games)
17 had Case, Bradford, Teddy (two guys who were starters when healthy)

Ever since we got Kirk, it's been Kirk, and that's all

Those 3 teams were more complete than anything Kirko had either. Especially 09/17

[Guest]

@1VikesFan said:

@comet52 said:

@Riphawkins said:

@purplefaithful said:

@StickyBun said:
The guy has an amazing attitude. Oozes leadership. Yet half the fanbase dislikes the guy. Its so weird. 

Only one way to quiet haters....

Did San Diego fans hate Dan Fouts as much as Vikings fan hate Kirk? How about Warren Moon? How many fans and experts disrespected him as much Kirk gets disrespected?

Those guys are in the HOF, a place Kirk and his .500 career of checking it down on 3rd and long will never be.  Maybe you should have gone balls to the wall and compared him to Tom Brady and Patrick Mahomes instead.  =)

Can't speak for Riphawkins but it's possible that the Fouts and Moon comparisons were due to all their Super Bowl successes.

That’s exactly the comparison I was making. Also, while Warren Moon was on the wrong end of the “Greatest Comeback in NFL history”, Kirk was on the right side. Imagine if Kirk had been in the playoffs and did what Moon did? Maybe get into the Hall of Fame?

[Guest]

@MaroonBells said:

@Riphawkins said:

@purplefaithful said:

@StickyBun said:
The guy has an amazing attitude. Oozes leadership. Yet half the fanbase dislikes the guy. Its so weird. 

Only one way to quiet haters....

Did San Diego fans hate Dan Fouts as much as Vikings fan hate Kirk? How about Warren Moon? How many fans and experts disrespected him as much Kirk gets disrespected?

I think more than anything the difference is with social media, which didn't exist back in the days of Fouts and Moon.

Whether it's football, politics or culture wars, our social media feeds on Facebook, Twitter, even Google, are designed to push into "sides" or "camps" and keep us there. 

For sure, many of the narratives written about Kirk in the past were just myths: "He's a check down Charlie who doesn't go deep." False, and always has been. Statistics show he's not only a good deep passer, but one of the best. "His stats are built in garbage time." Statistics show this also was demonstrably false. 

But there were also narratives that even I believed to be mostly true. "He's not a leader; he's not clutch; he doesn't win; he's too risk averse." Winning is not a QB stat in my book, but the leader and risk averse thing were always my biggest complaints about Kirk. 

I don't know that a QB has ever defeated narratives more convincingly than Kirk defeated these in '22. Under KOC's guidance, he became a much more vocal leader, he was uber-clutch, he was much less risk averse, and he won. A lot.

So I think we're out of narratives now. And I can see the Haters clinging onto each other, all perched on a tiny ledge called contract and age.  It's all that's left. 

I agree about Social Media thing. Everyone is an expert now! The Camps and Experts have kind of taken the fun out of it. Hell, it’s difficult coming here after a close win, and damn near impossible after a loss.
BTW, I was made fun of by someone here when I said the more simple times (before 24/7 coverage, mock drafts, 100 podcasts that call everyone else idiots) were more fun for me. 
They posted a meme with a bunch of old people saying something like,

What are Internets?



Like the average age here isn’t ancient as far as the internets go! We were all around a long time and are long suffering fans. A ton of fans would make fun of us for hanging out on a message board.

I think some of the restrictions Zimmer put on Kirk taking risks were gone last season. I also think he doesn’t like to fail, and that causes a problem when it comes to making a play. But maybe KOC will get him to play a little more loose.

I love the play against Arizona when Kirk took off running and KOC was kind of taken by surprise. I hope Kirk continues to grow under this coaching staff and the continuity of the offensive coordinator and by not having 2 or 3 new guys on the line in front of him every year.

Maybe 2024 is the year! I’m sure there will still be haters even if it happpens.