The 2018 Kirk Cousins Megathread

[vikesfan89]

Just now, SemperFeist said:

A lot of this falls on the offensive linemen. They need to be a better job at staying engaged, which doesn’t allow the defender to set up and jump. 

I don’t think it’s a coincidence that a lot of the deflected passes started after we started seeing multiple injuries along the o-line. 

Could be but it's like they know exactly when he's going to throw. 

I suppose that could have to do with his drop back depth and other things

[Cearbhall]

For me, it is still an open question whether Kirk Cousins is worth the contract the team gave him. That is a nice change from Sam Bradford who I was afraid the team would bring back. I was pretty sure when the team traded for Bradford that it was a bad use of a first round pick. However, my worst fear was that they would stick with Bradford and waste a decade. I knew the team would be throwing away not just money but some number of years if they signed Bradford after his two years with the team. I am so relieved that didn't happen.

Is Cousins on that contract the right answer? I don't know. But that is a lot better than having a guy that you know isn't going to take the team anywhere. I am optimistic about Cousins. However, if the team doesn't improve their offensive line it is a lot less likely that the Cousins investment will look like a decent investment by the end of year three.

[SemperFeist]

 

[SemperFeist]

 

[Krauser]

1 hour ago, SemperFeist said:

 

Isidora and O'Neill get whipped here, but Remmers saves O'Neill by peeling off to pick up Jordan. 

Isidora had a couple of these, waist bending while the DT swims by him. One of Sheldon Rankins' sacks was almost instantaneous (the play where the announcers said Cousins had to throw it away if his initial read on the 3-step drop wasn't there -- which is a good point but still, Isidora got smoked on the pass rush). 

O'Neill didn't make this mistake often, but he did get pushed back by bull rushes several times. To be fair, Cam Jordan is one of the better power rushers in the league. 

[SemperFeist]

1 hour ago, Krauser said:

O'Neill didn't make this mistake often, but he did get pushed back by bull rushes several times. To be fair, Cam Jordan is one of the better power rushers in the league.

With the notion that O’Neill’s biggest area of weakness was his strength and ability to handle power rushers, coupled with Cam Jordan being one of the top power rushing ends, the fact that O’Neill only allowed a few pressures and Jordan didn’t have a career game, I took it as a pretty big positive for the rookie. 

I’ve been very happy with what I’ve seen from O’Neill, given he’s a rookie, and was deemed as somewhat of a project. 

Edited October 30, 2018 by SemperFeist

[Krauser]

10 minutes ago, SemperFeist said:

With the notion that O’Neill’s biggest area of weakness was his strength and ability to handle power rushers, coupled with Cam Jordan being one of the top power rushing ends, the fact that O’Neill only allowed a few pressures and Jordan didn’t have a career game, I took it as a pretty big positive for the rookie. 

I’ve been very happy with what I’ve seen from O’Neill, given he’s a rookie, and was deemed as somewhat of a project. 

Yeah, he's been OK. Good enough to start ahead of Hill once Reiff comes back.

O'Neill is currently PFF's 50th highest graded tackle (out of 79 who've played at least 20% of snaps). He's the 3rd best rookie tackle, after McGlinchey (7th) and Braden Smith (21st). He's the 6th highest graded rookie OL regardless of position, behind Hernandez, Nelson and Daniels and just ahead of Ragnow and Connor Williams.

So he's living up to his draft status and looks like he can become an effective starter once he gets a little stronger. 

[vike daddy]

Vikings QB Kirk Cousins has an NFL-high 241 completions.

[SemperFeist]

1 hour ago, vike daddy said:

Vikings QB Kirk Cousins has an NFL-high 241 completions.

He’s also only 1 shy of leading the league in attempts. 

Currently, Cousins is on pace to attempt 682 passes. The most passes attempted by a Vikings QB in team history is Warren Moon with 606 in 1995. 

[Vikes_Bolts1228]

25 minutes ago, SemperFeist said:

He’s also only 1 shy of leading the league in attempts. 

Currently, Cousins is on pace to attempt 682 passes. The most passes attempted by a Vikings QB in team history is Warren Moon with 606 in 1995. 

We're going to have to start doing what analytics teams do in baseball:

Bring out Trevor Siemian for the 1st quarter as our "opener" QB to keep Kirk's "throw count" down so we can save him for the playoffs.

[Krauser]

39 minutes ago, SemperFeist said:

He’s also only 1 shy of leading the league in attempts. 

Currently, Cousins is on pace to attempt 682 passes. The most passes attempted by a Vikings QB in team history is Warren Moon with 606 in 1995. 

682 attempts would be the 3rd most in a single season in NFL history, behind Stafford 2011 (727) and Bledsoe 1994 (691). 

[VikeManDan]

Perhaps getting a healthy Cook back will help provide more of a run-pass balance. This is not intended as a shot at Murray either, I think he's come on the last few weeks.

[Guest]

On ‎10‎/‎30‎/‎2018 at 9:37 AM, Krauser said:

Yeah, he's been OK. Good enough to start ahead of Hill once Reiff comes back.

O'Neill is currently PFF's 50th highest graded tackle (out of 79 who've played at least 20% of snaps). He's the 3rd best rookie tackle, after McGlinchey (7th) and Braden Smith (21st). He's the 6th highest graded rookie OL regardless of position, behind Hernandez, Nelson and Daniels and just ahead of Ragnow and Connor Williams.

So he's living up to his draft status and looks like he can become an effective starter once he gets a little stronger. 

Yeah...I think he's strong enough now.  I think if he continues to learn and hone technique to bolster his quickness and athleticism, he'll be fine.  So far, he's done a commendable job for a rookie who hasn't played tackle all that long.  If he adds to much muscle mass...I am afraid it will hamper his athleticism somewhat.

[Krauser]

1 hour ago, Virginia Viking said:

Yeah...I think he's strong enough now.  I think if he continues to learn and hone technique to bolster his quickness and athleticism, he'll be fine.  So far, he's done a commendable job for a rookie who hasn't played tackle all that long.  If he adds to much muscle mass...I am afraid it will hamper his athleticism somewhat.

No, he's not strong enough -- he's getting pushed back into the QB even when he's using good technique to anchor. That's a flaw in any tackle that good power rushers (like Cam Jordan last week) will exploit over and over again. 

O'Neill's very smooth on his feet, has hardly been beaten on the outside all year. He can afford to gain 5-10 pounds and get some "old man strength" and still be quick enough to handle speed rushers. 

[Nzd07]

Cousins is very good, however the offense isn't performing as well as it was last year (from an efficiency standpoint). Obviously, people will look at this and say we made the wrong move.

However, if you look closely, the big issues for us is on third down. Last year we were 1st in 3rd down conversion percentage. This year, we're 19th. Well, if you think back to last year, who were the players frequently getting the ball on 3rd downs? Thielen, Rudolph, McKinnon and Wright. We lost 2 of those players in free agency. Treadwell has been a disaster, and Murray doesn't operate in space like McKinnon did. I think those losses hurt us more than we expected. 

Also, our team for the season has only hit 66.7% of our field goals. That's abysmal. 

Of course the talking heads will say we overpaid and should've kept Keenum. But if we want to build a sustainable offense, we absolutely made the right move. Keenum's errant throws have caught up to him like most of us had predicted. He's thrown 10 picks.  Really, the only sane alterior we had was to draft Lamar Jackson. And who knows if he'll even be any good. 

/rant