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The 2018 Kirk Cousins Megathread


Heimdallr

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On 4/14/2018 at 7:52 AM, vikestyle said:

At least Cleveland tried to change things. Irsay kept Grigson around foreverrrr. Now they seem to have some decent personnel guys there, but man was Grigson horrible. Irsay doesn't seem like a guy that people want to be around either. 

Grigson was only around 5 years.  That's not even close to forever.  That's only 2 years less than Spielman has been GM...and 3 years less than Matt Millen was GM of the Lions. 

Edited by disaacs
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  • 2 weeks later...

At about 8 or 9 p.m., McCartney called the Vikings to tell them they’d be Cousins’ first visit on Wednesday night and Thursday, with no promises. By later that night, taking advantage of the two-hour time difference between Chicago and Arizona, McCartney told Keim that he couldn’t guarantee him a Cousins visit, and if he had to move on, he’d understand. On Tuesday at 9:15 a.m., McCartney called the Jets. The Jets wanted to be assured they’d get to make their case to Cousins one-on-one.

“That was a tough phone call,” McCartney said. “They were clearly frustrated. They wanted to be guaranteed a visit. I told them I couldn’t guarantee a visit, that if he goes to Minnesota and loves it, he could sign. They were not happy about that. I understand, but I told everyone all along what the rules were, and we abided by them.”

McCartney knew now that the visit by Cousins was vital—because they might not have great options if for some reason Cousins hated something about the Vikings. Minnesota sent its plane to Atlanta, where Cousins was spending time with his in-laws, Wednesday at the start of the free agency period—4 p.m. ET. Accompanied by Vikings GM Rick Spielman, Cousins and his wife, Julie, and son, Cooper, flew to Minneapolis to join a contingent of 13 for dinner Wednesday night, including owner Mark Wilf, coach Mike Zimmer, Spielman, DeFilippo and wife, Stefanski and wife, tight end Kyle Rudolph and wife, and wideout Adam Thielen and wife.

Independently, Cousins’ mom and dad came in to help babysit Cooper and experience the moment, and that night McCartney got a call from Don Cousins. The Vikings had left two Cousins jerseys—Vikings purple, number 8, with COUSINS on the back—in the parents’ hotel room, one for dad and one for mom. “That’s the first time I ever got a jersey from a team,” Don Cousins told McCartney.

While Cousins was flying to Minnesota, two important things happened. McCartney worked out the final wrinkles in the contract; there would be no-trade and no-transition-tag clauses in the three-year deal, fully guaranteed. But McCartney couldn’t accept it without Cousins’ nod. Also while the plane was in the air: Spielman told Cousins the Vikings were finalizing a trade for Trevor Siemian of the Broncos. During the negotiations, McCartney had stressed to the Vikings how important a helpful backup quarterback would be to Cousins. What a coincidence—McCartney represents Siemian. Late Wednesday, Siemian was officially a Viking.

At 8:15 p.m., between the appetizer and the entrée, Cousins saw a text from McCartney, still in Chicago. The agent wanted to know how dinner was going.

No reply. An hour passed. Two hours. At 10:37 p.m., Cousins texted back: “It’s going very well. Had a great dinner. Grateful for the opportunity.”

No red flags, McCartney knew; Cousins would have told him if there were. McCartney got on a plane Thursday morning for Minneapolis, and met Cousins at the Vikings’ facility. At 2:30 p.m., the long, strange trip of Kirk Cousins’ rise to being the highest paid player in NFL history was complete. He signed his contract.

“How awesome is this?” McCartney said to Cousins.

“This is great,” Cousins said, beaming. “I am so thrilled.”

“It took a lot to get here, bro,” McCartney said.

https://www.si.com/nfl/2018/03/19/kirk-cousins-minnesota-vikings-free-agency-guaranteed-contract-mmqb-peter-king

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I am so conflicted...I want to feel that bitterness/envy that I should with how much money the Wilfs make off the stadium, but I still find myself loving them for how they own and run the Vikings.  They do it the right way...and the way I've wanted them to be run my entire lifetime.  We've come a long way from the Gang of Ten.  

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1 hour ago, disaacs said:

I am so conflicted...I want to feel that bitterness/envy that I should with how much money the Wilfs make off the stadium, but I still find myself loving them for how they own and run the Vikings.  They do it the right way...and the way I've wanted them to be run my entire lifetime.  We've come a long way from the Gang of Ten.  

I know the feeling.

Leaving jerseys for Mom and Dad Cousins at the hotel was a nice touch.  First class all the way.

But at the same time I can't help picturing a slave wage peasant in a Haiti sweat shop with a seam ripper removing the BRADFORD from the back of a couple of surplus 2017 #8 Viking's jerseys and stitching on COUSINS.

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6 hours ago, SteelKing728 said:

http://www.nfl.com/videos/nfl-network-total-access/0ap3000000932053/Game-Theory-Why-red-zone-is-area-that-separates-Cousins-from-Keenum

link that shows the difference in the redzone when comparing Case Keenum and Kirk Cousins

Well, hopefully, he'll cut down on the times that he was throwing off his back foot (which he did in a couple of those ints).  

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14 minutes ago, vike daddy said:

was the Washington coaching staff anything of merit? i guess Gruden himself is a former QB, but who else did Cousins have to mentor him?

Former NFL backup QB Matt Cavanaugh was his QB coach for 2 years and was the OC last year.  

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7 hours ago, SteelKing728 said:

http://www.nfl.com/videos/nfl-network-total-access/0ap3000000932053/Game-Theory-Why-red-zone-is-area-that-separates-Cousins-from-Keenum

link that shows the difference in the redzone when comparing Case Keenum and Kirk Cousins

“The Vikings may want a return on that investment”. Bad investments aren’t “returned” like unwanted purchases taken back to the store. 

Is there more to this segment than the 40 second long clip? There’s no actual analysis here.

The Vikings scheme made Keenum’s life easy in the red zone. He had a lot of defined reads and some playmakers who he could trust to come down with the ball on a 50-50 throw. I don’t know what Cousins was doing in general but on the clips here he ends up standing in the pocket surveying multiple targets and throwing late. I doubt DeFillippo is going to put him in that position very often. 

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We have reason for optimism that Cousins will be an upgrade at QB over what the team got from Keenum last year. My hope is that he'll play at least as good as Keenum did last year but there is reason for concern too and the turnovers is one of the main reasons for concern. The other is Cousins play when pressured. Couple that with the Vikings offensive line and there is solid reason for uncertainty.

There is some connection between Cousins play under pressure and his turnovers. The Vikings would be wise to prioritize strengthening the pass protection after investing so heavily in Kirk Cousins.

 

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