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Former Vikings quarterbacks praise Kirk Cousins’ stellar season. But the playoffs is what counts.

chris tomasson, pioneer press
·8 min read
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Kirk Cousins has accumulated plenty of fans this season. Some of them are former Vikings quarterbacks.

When Cousins led the Vikings back from a 33-0 halftime deficit to defeat Indianapolis 39-36 in overtime two weeks ago, among those cheering on from their homes were Warren Moon in Seattle, Brad Johnson in Athens, Ga., and Randall Cunningham in Las Vegas.

“Oh, yeah, I was watching,” said Cunningham, who played for the Vikings from 1997-99. “That was ridiculous.”

In his fifth season as Minnesota’s quarterback and 11th overall in the NFL, Cousins, 34, is having a career year. True, his statistics are not as gaudy as they have been in some seasons, but he has steered the Vikings to a 12-3 record, has been named to his fourth career Pro Bowl and has tied an NFL record by leading eight fourth-quarter comebacks.

“He playing at an MVP level,” said Moon, who played for Minnesota from 1994-96 and was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2006.

The Pioneer Press talked to five former Vikings quarterbacks about the season Cousins is having. In addition to Cunningham, Moon and Johnson, weighing in were Tommy Kramer and Rich Gannon.

Gannon, who played for Minnesota from 1987-92, was the NFL’s MVP with the Oakland Raiders in 2002 and led them to the Super Bowl that season. He lives in the Twin Cities and follows the Vikings closely as a longtime NFL television and radio analyst.

“I’ve really been impressed,” Gannon said of Cousins’ season under first-year head coach Kevin O’Connell. “I’ve always admired his body of work. But I think the difference between this year and last year is they were 2-5 last year in games decided by four points or less and this year they’ve won 11 one-score games (without a loss). I think you look at his production late in games and it’s been really impressive. He’s had an outstanding season.”

Heading into Sunday’s game at Green Bay, Cousins has thrown for 4,117 yards with 27 touchdowns and 11 interceptions while completing 65.7 percent of his passes. His passer rating of 93.3 is on track to be the worst he’s had since he became a regular NFL starter with Washington in 2015, but the big difference has been the team’s won-loss record.

Cousins said in June 2019 he had been “pretty much a .500 quarterback in my career so far, and I don’t think that’s where you want to be.” The Vikings did make the playoffs in 2019, but they didn’t the past two years under previous coach Mike Ziimmer. And Cousins entered this season exactly at .500 with a 59-59-2 career quarterback record.

“I think a lot of people thought that, ‘Oh, well, they’re just going to (be around .500 again) this year,’ ” said Kramer, who played for the Vikings from 1977-89 and lives in the Twin Cities. “But he’s winning, and that’s the only thing that matters.”

Still, there continues to be some detractors. In games against two top teams in the NFC, the Vikings got throttled, losing 24-7 at Philadelphia and 40-3 at home to Dallas. And star wide receiver Justin Jefferson recently took to Twitter to say that criticism of Cousins “has to stop.” He followed that up by telling reporters that people “make jokes about him” but that “he’s doing whatever he needs to do in order for his team to win.”

Regardless, there are fewer detractors than before. And the narrative of Cousins not being a winning quarterback and not performing well in big games does seem to be changing. Most notably, he led the Vikings back from a 17-point deficit late in the third quarter to win 33-30 in overtime on the road Nov. 13 against highly regarded Buffalo.

“The narrative definitely has changed during the regular season,” Moon said. “He’s been able to win some big games. Skeptics are going to say that he’s still got to prove that he’s the type of quarterback who can win a bunch of playoff games.”

As for this regular season, Moon sure likes what he has seen.

“He’s been able to bring his team back from behind, and those aren’t empty numbers he has,” Moon said. “A lot of times his numbers were come-from-behind numbers (in losses).”

In his first four seasons with the Vikings, with Zimmer as his head coach, Cousins had a combined total of six fourth-quarter comebacks. This season, with two games remaining, he has tied the NFL quarterback record of eight set by Matthew Stafford for Detroit in 2016.

“I love watching the Vikings play,” said Johnson, who played for Minnesota from 1992-98 and 2005-06. “It’s fun to watch Kirk do what he does with so many come-from-behind wins this year. With what he’s doing, they just believe that they’re always going to find a way to win.”

So what’s the difference from previous seasons? Gannon believes Cousins is more comfortable under the offensive-minded O’Connell than he had been when the defensive-minded Zimmer was in charge.

O’Connell, a former NFL quarterback who was Cousins’ quarterbacks coach for Washington in 2017, calls the offensive plays for the Vikings. Zimmer didn’t call the offensive plays, but he had a heavy influence of what he wanted with a more conservative, more run-oriented attack.

“He and the play-caller, Kevin, are on the same page,” Gannon said. “I think Kevin O’Connell sees the game through the eyes of a quarterback. He’s a former quarterback. I think all of that has benefitted and helped the relationship, and I think that’s so important. I think (Cousins is) in a better place. I think there was some tension in years past.

“I think it’s really important that he’s been through the adversity already. He’s had to climb the mountain a number of times. He’s gotten knocked down, criticized, and I think when you look at what he’s done, he’s stood tall.”

Much criticism surrounding Cousins has had to do with his salary. After playing for Washington from 2012-17, he signed a three-year, $84 million contract with the Vikings in March 2018, making him for a time the highest-paid player in NFL history. He since has signed a two-year, $66 million extension in March 2020 and a one-year, $35 extension in March 2022 to take him through the 2023 season.

When Cousins signed his initial deal with Minnesota, he had a 0-1 playoff record in three years as Washington’s starter. In the previous four Vikings seasons, they made just one playoff appearance, going 1-1 in 2019.

“Their defense didn’t play well the last two years,” Gannon said of the Vikings’ losing records in 2020 and 2021. “Quite frankly, their defense hasn’t played all that well this season at times, but they’re going out and putting up (25.2 points per game) and winning games.”

The Vikings rank No. 28 in the NFL in scoring defense and No. 31 (next to last) in total defense. Yet they are tied for the NFL’s second-best record and have clinched their first NFC North title since 2017.

“Cousins is playing really well,” Kramer said. “I think it was a smooth (transition) bringing in a guy who was his quarterbacks coach in Washington rather than just bringing in a coach out of nowhere. And, of course, they’ve got a heck of a lot of receivers.”

Jefferson flourished in his first two NFL seasons, 2020 and 2021, and in 2022 has been even better. He leads the NFL with 123 catches and 1,756 receiving yards, and has come down with many so-called “50-50” balls Cousins has put up.

Cousins also has receiving threats in Adam Thielen, K.J. Osborn and T.J. Hockenson, a Pro Bowl tight end acquired Nov. 1 from Detroit who really has helped the offense. And Dalvin Cook has rolled up 1,109 yards rushing.

“Jefferson’s the best receiver in the league,” Cunningham said. “And Kirk is leading them, and people look up to him. People have looked at him in the past as just a .500 guy, but he’s getting the job done. He’s going to go up against better teams in the playoffs, but I think he’s going to continue the same way.”

How Cousins does in the playoffs obviously will play a key role in how his 2022 season ends up being viewed. The Vikings have an outside chance of catching Philadelphia (13-2) for the No. 1 playoff seed in the NFC and are trying to at least stave off San Francisco (11-4) for No. 2. The 49ers would win a possible tiebreaker over the Vikings.

“They’ve won on the road, they’ve done it at home,” Johnson said. “Now it’s just a matter of finishing out the season and doing it once again in the playoffs.”

Johnson knows all about making a playoff run. In January 2003, he was Tampa Bay’s quarterback when the Buccaneers defeated Gannon’s Raiders 48-21 to win Super Bowl XXXVII.

With that in mind, Johnson was asked what Cousins ultimately might need to do to silence most of the detractors.

“Well, they’re going to say bad things about 31 quarterbacks on 31 teams,” Johnson said. “So only one gets the reward. So that’s what you’re playing for.”

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