In the early days of training camp, Kirk Cousins has a whole new vibe.
Cousins is coming off an appearance in the Netflix documentary Quarterback, which granted a look into the daily life of playing the position in the NFL. The appearance gained him a ton of new fans, and that confidence has translated as the Minnesota Vikings showed up to Eagan.
Cousins feels comfortable being himself at the podium and has been giving “riveting” presentations to his teammates. He’s in his second year in Kevin O’Connell’s offense and has even worn different jerseys to send a message to help the team. With a new attitude, everything sets Cousins up for a big year. But his biggest challenge in 2023 will be to find a way for all of the good vibes to translate to the field, which is something that has held him back throughout his career.
Cousins has been labeled a good but not great quarterback since coming into the league. If you play around with Stathead long enough, you can put his name next to Dan Marino, Peyton Manning, and Aaron Rodgers. If you watched Red Zone this season, you would have understood why — Cousins tied an NFL record with eight fourth-quarter comebacks.
There are times when he looks like a franchise quarterback, but there are others where he struggles with the leadership aspect of the position.
It was true in the documentary, which painted Cousins in the same light. Quarterback showed moments where he was gutting out a painful rib injury. However, there were also moments where he isolated himself from teammates and let the analytical side of his game take over.
So far in camp, Cousins has looked like the player who was featured in Quarterback. He looks accurate in practice and seems to have a grasp of the new offense. With this being the first time Cousins will have the same play caller in consecutive seasons, he looks as comfortable as ever, especially when addressing his teammates.
Just two years ago, this was a different story. Cousins was preparing for his third different play caller in three consecutive seasons under Mike Zimmer, and the tension surrounding camp was thick. After going into the league’s COVID-19 protocols, Zimmer stopped short of throwing his quarterback under the bus, and it led to an eight-win season that ultimately ushered in the O’Connell era.
While Year 1 showed progress, such as Cousins’s “Kirko Chainz” persona, it was ultimately a learning experience that he has taken into this year’s camp.
NFL Network’s Sam Wyche was one of the first to observe the new Cousins as he addressed his teammates at the beginning of camp. The presentation was centered around a scene in the Quarterback documentary when Cousins was having issues remembering the play calls in O’Connell’s offense.
Backup quarterback Nick Mullens later suggested that Cousins record the play calls and listen to them in an effort to study the new terminology. Cousins used that as an example of how anyone on the roster can help the team.
“He said that’s an example of leading up because [Mullens] didn’t have to share that because he’s the backup,” Wyche explained. “He could have been envious or whatever and said ‘I’m not going to help the starter.’”
Wyche also reported that his sources said the presentation was “absolutely riveting” and was able to grab his teammates’ attention. “The fact [Cousins] is one of the oldest guys on the team [and] was touching guys who just came into the league with this message…they were like ‘This is our leader. This is a righteous guy that we want to get behind.’”
Cousins continued his motivational tactics this week at practice when he hit the field wearing a No. 66 jersey. After giving reporters and fans a collective heart attack when he wasn’t spotted on the field, Vikings.com writer Lindsey Young reported that Cousins was sending another message to his teammates after punter Ryan Wright wore the number during last year’s training camp.
Wright was considered to be nothing more than a camp leg throughout the season. However, he wound up beating incumbent Jordan Berry for the starting job. While Wright’s ascension was surprising, Cousins wanted to show that anyone could make the final roster and inspired his new teammates.
When looking at this in a vacuum, it’s easy to say that Cousins is taking a hold of a leadership role. But if we go back a year ago, it’s the same thing that happened when O’Connell took over. According to an episode of the Unrestricted podcast with KFAN’s Ben Leber, Cousins had a similar meeting with his teammates in March 2022.
“There was a meeting – all of the biggest names on the team were at this meeting – and Kirk blew everybody away in how he handled the things that were said,” Leber said. “Apparently, a couple of guys walked out of the meeting and said ‘Kirk’s our dawg. Kirk’s our freaking dawg.’”
Leber went on to say that Cousins’s attention to detail was one of the biggest themes of the meeting, and it went a long way toward motivating his teammates.
“Apparently, he had been taking notes all season long and laid it all out,” he continued. ‘I guess the guys were like ‘Damn, this is a guy that we can ride with that’s going to have our backs at all times.’”
In some ways, this played out during the season. The Vikings won 13 games in large part due to Cousins’ heroics. But as Quarterback showed, it was anything but a smooth ride. His preparation included meeting with a sports therapist, getting stretched in a weekly chiropractic session, and even doing brain exercises in his legendary van. There were also times when the Minnesota’s offense had long stretches of adversity, which led to Cousins’ eight comebacks.
Such has been the story. Nobody will match the level of preparation that Cousins will put into a presentation to his teammates or a game on Sunday. But the question has been how that level translates to the field, which makes his future in Minnesota difficult to project.
