Minnesota Vikings to Defer to Kirk Cousins, Run the Ball in 2019

Minnesota Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins will be under more pressure to perform this season than perhaps any other quarterback.

There are some quarterbacks that can win you a Super Bowl all by themselves. Then, there are some quarterbacks that you can win a Super Bowl with if the team around them works.

Kirk Cousins is the type of quarterback that you can win with, rather than one who will win it all on his own. The problem for Kirk Cousins is that he is being paid as much as one of those Super Bowl winning signal-callers. 

His three year, $84 million contract, signed last year, has fuelled talk of a trip to the Super Bowl with the Vikings. 

Want $250 to bet on NFL futures?

However, the Minnesota Vikings missed out on the playoffs last year. As well as that, Cousins has never won a playoff game in his career. There is no guarantee that he will drive them to postseason success if they do make it.

His numbers were good last season, when he threw for 4,298 yards and 30 touchdowns and 10 interceptions. Additionally, he had a passer rating of 99.7 due to completing 70.1% of his passes. 

The Vikings went 8-7-1 in 2018 playing a system that didn’t optimally connect Cousins to his receivers. 

This year, we should expect to see Minnesota utilizing play-action passes a lot more. It’s what Cousins came up doing under Kyle Shanahan in Washington and what he does offensively. 

Read: Two Trades Add Needed Depth to Patriots Offensive Line

The Vikings aren’t looking to revolutionize football like the Baltimore Ravens and Lamar Jackson. However, with Dalvin Cook firing again they will look to run the ball a lot more.

As a result, Cousins will likely throw the ball a lot less than the 606 times he did in 2018, which was 4th in the league.

Doubts remain, but if Cousins can better connect with the likes Stefon Diggs and Adam Thielen, the Vikings could once again be a force in the NFC North.