The 2018 Kirk Cousins Megathread

[SemperFeist]

 

[vike daddy]

Such are the reasons Cousins seems so comfortable only 4½ months after he signed with the Vikings. Questions about his future were put to rest with the three-year, $84 million contract he received in March, and his status as the organizational alpha dog is not in doubt after several years of uncertainty with the Redskins. At this point, at least, there’s little for the 29-year-old quarterback to worry about other than bonding with players who seem as invigorated by football minutiae as he is.

Cousins: “Those guys are just easy to work with. They’re easy to lead, too, because they are so excited about football and they love playing this game. There are people in this league who love what football brings them, but they don’t really love football. We’ve got a lot of guys on this team who really love football, regardless of what it brings them and that’s obviously fun to work with and play with.”

“At some point you have to be given a license to lead. You have to be given permission to take charge and when you’re still having internal competition, it’s hard to do that. I’ve been in those situations in the past, going back to college, where I didn’t know if I would start and so it was hard to really assert my personality in the locker room because I didn’t want to step on the toes of the other people. When you know your role, and it’s been defined, you can then lead from a place of greater comfort. I think that helps the overall dynamic.”

http://www.startribune.com/kirk-cousins-confident-and-in-control-is-already-taking-the-lead/489304151/

[Klomp]

 

[Klomp]

 

[vike daddy]

Cousins didn’t take any big shots downfield Saturday night, and he explained that part of the reason was “coverage-related” and that he reacted accordingly to Minnesota’s defense. He later explained how practicing against last season’s number-one defense can only make him – and the rest of the offense – better.

Cousins:  “It’s a great challenge for us. It’s fun to talk football with them, as well, in the cafeteria, to go back and say, ‘Hey, what are you doing there? Why are you doing that?’ Even to pick  Mike Zimmer’s brain is helpful, as well, to hear where he’s coming from. Try to use those guys to try to gather as much as I can, and it’s a great challenge for us to get better.”

https://www.vikings.com/news/cousins-diggs-offer-takes-after-vikings-night-practice?sf194948956=1

[VikeManDan]

13 hours ago, vike daddy said:

Cousins:  “It’s a great challenge for us. It’s fun to talk football with them, as well, in the cafeteria, to go back and say, ‘Hey, what are you doing there? Why are you doing that?’ Even to pick  Mike Zimmer’s brain is helpful, as well, to hear where he’s coming from. Try to use those guys to try to gather as much as I can, and it’s a great challenge for us to get better.”

I absolutely love this quote from him, I can't wait to watch him play!

[Klomp]

 

[Guest]

19 hours ago, Klomp said:

 

I think that's a future offensive coordinator right there!!

[vike daddy]

Anthony Barr: “I’m looking forward to playing with him. What he has shown in practice has been great so far. He’s very smart and he knows where he wants to go with the ball and makes his reads really fast. He knows the playbook like the back of his hand already, which is impressive. It’s exciting having him as our quarterback and them putting up points to take the stress off of us and we’re confident that he will be able to do that.”

https://247sports.com/nfl/minnesota-vikings/Article/Anthony-Barr-reveals-future-hopes-more-in-exclusive-interview-120779463/

[vike daddy]

Among quarterbacks with more than 100 play-action throws last season, Cousins had the second highest quarterback rating, only behind Tennessee’s Marcus Mariota. The Vikings’ quarterback threw the ball 112 times and racked up a 66.1 percent completion percentage, 10 touchdowns, two interceptions and 9.4 yards per attempt. When he wasn’t using play-action, Cousins’ numbers slipped. His non-play-action rating ranked 17th among QBs who played the full season.

Cousins:  "[Play-action plays] takes everybody. The game plan has to be good plays. You can run play actions but if they’re bad route concepts, poorly designed protections, you can have a great fake and have all the intentions of making the right throw, it’s not going to work. If the plays are designed correctly and then your protection is loose, guys aren’t holding up. The running back doesn’t have a good mesh. Even as a quarterback, you can do all you want to do, it’s not going to work. When the line can protect, the concept is good, the running back has a great mesh, the receivers can run with speed and create separation. That is when a play action offense can really be effective. It takes all 11 plus the scheme to really come together and make it work.”

“Anytime you can give them a personnel that doesn’t tell them much, doesn’t give them any insight, you’re helping yourself. But some of the best teams I’ve been around are teams that can sit in 11 or 12 or 21 personnel the entire game, never change it and the defensive personnel has no idea what’s coming because you’re just in the same personnel and multiple situations. I think that the key is you can vary your personnels but if you come one dimensional before when you’re in each individual one you’re not really making it hard on the defense. What’s great is when you can be in a certain personnel grouping and a defense has no idea if it’s run, pass, play-action, screen, deep-shot, check-down they just don’t know because you can do so much from the individual groupings.”

http://www.1500espn.com/vikings-2/2018/08/personnel-play-action-ways-maximize-kirk-cousins-skills/

[SteelKing728]

What do we make of Cousins first performance at US Bank Stadium?

[HitStickAllDay]

7 hours ago, SteelKing728 said:

What do we make of Cousins first performance at US Bank Stadium?

It was the preseason and too small a sample to discern anything? Didn’t look good, obviously. But a patchwork o-line, vanilla playcalling, and no Dalvin Cook make it impossible to judge either way. 

[Krauser]

10 hours ago, SteelKing728 said:

What do we make of Cousins first performance at US Bank Stadium?

He was pretty bad. He looked nervous: decision making seemed hurried and he wasn’t setting his feet.

The OL wasn’t the problem. I don’t think he got hit except for the sack on a naked bootleg where the DE didn’t follow the run action. PFF only charted one throw as being under pressure (aside from the sack), from memory I guess that was the left sideline toward Thielen. Pass blocking in general was fine. 

There were at least 2 makeable throws that Cousins missed for no obvious reason: the 3rd down to Rudolph on the first drive and the short curl he skipped in the dirt to Diggs I think it was. 

His decision making was questionable too. The throw on the first drive that could’ve been picked — it was all short routes, he came off his first read, looked at Diggs (who was open by a step) in the middle of the field but didn’t like that for some reason, then turned and fired at Thielen. Can’t take that long to make a decision in a 3 step game. Also questionable were the 3rd and 7 where he threw a 3 yard pass to Diggs (could’ve been DPi but what’s the point in making that throw) and similarly the throw to Treadwell at the line of scrimmage on 3rd and long. 

Adding Dalvin Cook to the mix will make the run game better, and thus the offense better, but that’s not going to make the QB better. Cousins will need to do much better than that. 

[Guest]

37 minutes ago, Krauser said:

He was pretty bad. He looked nervous: decision making seemed hurried and he wasn’t setting his feet.

The OL wasn’t the problem. I don’t think he got hit except for the sack on a naked bootleg where the DE didn’t follow the run action. PFF only charted one throw as being under pressure (aside from the sack), from memory I guess that was the left sideline toward Thielen. Pass blocking in general was fine. 

There were at least 2 makeable throws that Cousins missed for no obvious reason: the 3rd down to Rudolph on the first drive and the short curl he skipped in the dirt to Diggs I think it was. 

His decision making was questionable too. The throw on the first drive that could’ve been picked — it was all short routes, he came off his first read, looked at Diggs (who was open by a step) in the middle of the field but didn’t like that for some reason, then turned and fired at Thielen. Can’t take that long to make a decision in a 3 step game. Also questionable were the 3rd and 7 where he threw a 3 yard pass to Diggs (could’ve been DPi but what’s the point in making that throw) and similarly the throw to Treadwell at the line of scrimmage on 3rd and long. 

Adding Dalvin Cook to the mix will make the run game better, and thus the offense better, but that’s not going to make the QB better. Cousins will need to do much better than that. 

I hope these traits can be conquered...however, this is exactly what Washington fans complained about his whole tenure as a starter.

[TENINCH]

I felt that he was nervous in front of the home crowd. Completely different QB from what we saw in Denver. He never looked comfortable and I think that since he wasn't really being touched it was just his nerves and adrenalin taking over.