The 2018 Kirk Cousins Megathread

[Guest]

2 hours ago, Krauser said:

Cousins isn’t the main problem this year. The turnovers are bad, but he’s otherwise met or exceeded expectations. He’s scheme and talent dependent, but then so is basically every QB, or did you fail to notice what happened to Ryan after Shanahan left, or to Rodgers since 2015? If Cousins was in Goff’s position, the Rams would be just as good.

His contract isn’t an overpayment. He’s making a little less than Stafford and comparable money to Garoppolo. Noticeably better QBs (Rodgers, Ryan, Brees) are paid considerably more. 

Hes quite a bit better than Keenum in everything except pocket mobility. Keenum’s thrown 12 INTs (Cousins 10) and fumbled 8 times (Cousins 9) but has only lost one fumble (Cousins 7), so even the turnovers are roughly a wash there aside from the Vikings bad luck with fumble recoveries. Cousins obviously is a much, much better passer than Keenum. He costs $9M more than Keenum this year, which is about right.

There shouldn’t be too much regret with signing Cousins. Keeping Teddy was the only other viable option and even that was dependent on his knee holding up long term, which the team apparently doesn’t expect it to, and which of course hasn’t been tested yet.

The mistake in hindsight (and foresight) was trading a 1st for Bradford. Playing out the year with Hill would’ve left them a top 10 pick and a chance to draft Mahomes or Watson.

The problem with the offense this year is that JDF decided to try to make Cousins into Peyton Manning or Aaron Rodgers, running everything out of shotgun, and sticking with 3 WR sets despite only having 2 good receivers. It’s pretty shocking that JDF got so far away from the Eagles scheme: the run game and TEs were underused, the screens were poorly executed especially to RBs, and they couldn’t convert on short yardage.

Cousins needs to get back to the McVay/Shanahan model with zone runs from under center, frequent play action and a second TE or FB on the field. Luckily it looks like that’s what Stefanski is doing. If he’d been given the OC position in the first place, this year would’ve gone better.

 

I am willing to say that a lot of the offensive problems were due to JDF, however, I don't think Kirk should be left off the hook.  I do believe that you are wrong about his contract not being an overpayment.  Let's not forget that his contract is guaranteed for every dime, nickel and penny.  That was a precedent setting signing.  If a team in guaranteeing $84,000,000.00 then they expect Kirk to play like a top 5 quarterback.  When has Kirk ever played like a top 5 quarterback?

[Krauser]

1 minute ago, Virginia Viking said:

I am willing to say that a lot of the offensive problems were due to JDF, however, I don't think Kirk should be left off the hook.  I do believe that you are wrong about his contract not being an overpayment.  Let's not forget that his contract is guaranteed for every dime, nickel and penny.  That was a precedent setting signing.  If a team in guaranteeing $84,000,000.00 then they expect Kirk to play like a top 5 quarterback.  When has Kirk ever played like a top 5 quarterback?

He isn't being paid like a top 5 QB. Adjusted for the cap at time of signing, his contract is something like 10th-12th in the league, comparable to Carr, Garoppolo and Stafford. He's paid noticeably less than better QBs who've signed contracts since (Rodgers, Ryan). As the other QBs come up for extensions (Wilson and other veterans, Wentz, Goff and other young QBs), his contract will slide down the list.

The fact that Cousins' contract was fully guaranteed isn't worth worrying about. He could've signed a 5 year deal that would've effectively been fully guaranteed for 3 years, and the Vikings would've been in the same situation, making a 3 year commitment. No franchise QB is going to sign a UFA deal that allows him to be released or traded any sooner than that, anyway. 

I wouldn't leave Cousins off the hook for some of his poor play. He was bad in the Patriots game and terrible in the Seahawks game, and he's made too many dumb mistakes with the turnovers. But I do think he was put in a bad situation with the scheme, play calling and OL. If Stefanski can continue to get the offense back on track, I still think Cousins' ceiling with this team is considerably higher than anything we saw from Keenum, and the only realistic chance this team has of winning a playoff game.

[Guest]

5 minutes ago, Krauser said:

He isn't being paid like a top 5 QB. Adjusted for the cap at time of signing, his contract is something like 10th-12th in the league, comparable to Carr, Garoppolo and Stafford. He's paid noticeably less than better QBs who've signed contracts since (Rodgers, Ryan). As the other QBs come up for extensions (Wilson and other veterans, Wentz, Goff and other young QBs), his contract will slide down the list.

The fact that Cousins' contract was fully guaranteed isn't worth worrying about. He could've signed a 5 year deal that would've effectively been fully guaranteed for 3 years, and the Vikings would've been in the same situation, making a 3 year commitment. No franchise QB is going to sign a UFA deal that allows him to be released or traded any sooner than that, anyway. 

I wouldn't leave Cousins off the hook for some of his poor play. He was bad in the Patriots game and terrible in the Seahawks game, and he's made too many dumb mistakes with the turnovers. But I do think he was put in a bad situation with the scheme, play calling and OL. If Stefanski can continue to get the offense back on track, I still think Cousins' ceiling with this team is considerably higher than anything we saw from Keenum, and the only realistic chance this team has of winning a playoff game.

I think Cousins best friend going forward will be a robust running attack.  He should never be put in a position where he has to throw the ball more than 30 times a game, and even then it should be rare.  I think Stefanski will be much better in utilizing Cook and Murray.

[since72]

Cousins needs 99 yards to have the second highest yards passing in a season for Vikings quarterbacks.  He has completed more passes this season than any other Vikings quarterback has in one season ever.  The fifth time a Viking QB has thrown for over 4000 yards.  What a bum.  When's he gunna start earnin' his paycheck.

[VikeManDan]

Not to mention he is 1 TD away from 30 which has been done all of 4-5 times in team history. 

[vike daddy]

2 hours ago, since72 said:

Cousins needs 99 yards to have the second highest yards passing in a season for Vikings quarterbacks.  He has completed more passes this season than any other Vikings quarterback has in one season ever.  The fifth time a Viking QB has thrown for over 4000 yards.  What a bum.  When's he gunna start earnin' his paycheck.

kids today have higher standards.

[vikesfan89]

He has thrown the ball an awful lot

[Vikes_Bolts1228]

1 hour ago, vike daddy said:

kids today have higher standards.

Pssshhhh!

He didn't get 4,500 and 40? WHAT A WASTE OF CAP SPACE!

[since72]

53 minutes ago, vikesfan89 said:

He has thrown the ball an awful lot

Yet only 10 (bonehead) interceptions.  42 Viking QB's have thrown more in a single season.  Of course he still has to get past the Bears next week.

[Vikes_Bolts1228]

43 minutes ago, since72 said:

Yet only 10 (bonehead) interceptions.  42 Viking QB's have thrown more in a single season.  Of course he still has to get past the Bears next week.

I know his first 3 weren't his fault.

[SotanKing]

Cousins has attempted 4th highest number of throws in NFL this season...so I wanted to see % stats on few key metrics like Interceptions, Sacks.

Among QBs who have attempted atleast 100 throws this seasons - 

Sack %: Cousins has 15th best sack rate (6.28%) among 40 QBs.

Interception %: Cousins has 11th best Interception rate (1.75%) among 40 QBs.

 

Despite being under a bad OL, that sack % is pretty decent...I feel like his sack% has gotten better as season went on. Even Int % is also pretty good but the problem has been that most of the interceptions have been costly, resulting in Pick6.

[since72]

2 hours ago, vike daddy said:

kids today have higher standards.

My children want to know what this "standards" thing is that you speak of.

[Guest]

The point I will continue to make is that Cousins has always...always had great stats.  What has it led too?  Mediocrity.

[wcblack34]

Yup. Matt Stafford had great stats. Phillip Rivers. Tony Romo. Etc. etc. and I’d argue each of them was more accomplished than Cousins. 

He’s only thrown 10 INTs this year. Cool. 3 were pick-6’s. 8 fumbles lost. Two returned for TDs. He holds on to the ball and takes 12 yard sacks when he has plenty of time to throw the ball away. At least he hasn’t knelt when trying to clock the ball this year. 

[vike daddy]

36 minutes ago, wcblack34 said:

Yup. Matt Stafford had great stats. Phillip Rivers. Tony Romo. Etc. etc. and I’d argue each of them was more accomplished than Cousins. 

He’s only thrown 10 INTs this year. Cool. 3 were pick-6’s. 8 fumbles lost. Two returned for TDs. He holds on to the ball and takes 12 yard sacks when he has plenty of time to throw the ball away. At least he hasn’t knelt when trying to clock the ball this year. 

and a bah humbug to you too, Mr Scrooge....