‘You like that,’ then you don’t: Who is the real Kirk Cousins?
Tom Jackson says that when coach Mike Zimmer and QB Kirk Cousins are on the same page, the Vikings are a “team to be reckoned with.” (1:02)
EAGAN, Minn. — Minnesota Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins had long known these questions were coming with his former team, the Washington Redskins, headed to town for a Thursday night game.
Instead of allowing the focus to be on why things didn’t work out between him and the franchise where he spent the first six years of his career, Cousins pivoted to a single principle while reflecting upon his time in Washington.
Gratitude.
“When 31 other teams hadn’t picked me, the Redskins picked me,” Cousins said. “The quarterback I am, the player I am and where I am in this league now is largely the result of the coaches I got to play for there and the way they impacted me and the teammates I got to play with. So in a way it’s challenging to play your old team because you have so much respect for the people on the other side of the field. But that’s what Thursday night calls for, and that’s what we’re going to do.”
Following an inconsistent start to the season when tensions mounted on offense, Cousins flipped the script and enters Thursday on the best three-game stretch of his career. There’s no better time for a “you like that?” moment than Week 8, when he faces the team that let him hit free agency in 2018.
The Vikings have won three straight with Cousins leading the NFL in touchdown passes (10) and yards per attempt (10.8) during that stretch. In victories over the Giants, Eagles and Lions, Cousins became the first quarterback in NFL history to record at least 300 passing yards and a passer rating of 135 or higher in three consecutive games.
This Cousins plays into why the Vikings signed him in the first place. But the Redskins knew this version of Cousins, too — the one who outperformed his shortcomings in bursts only to regress toward the mean.
It’s part of why Washington didn’t view Cousins, who was 24-23-1 as a starter over three seasons, as the long-term answer at quarterback. The dilemma Cousins has encountered throughout his career is rooted in stability, having to answer whether these extended windows of great play are for real and a sign of what’s to come on a consistent basis or an outlier that’s eventually going to even out with some bad games.
No one knows that better than the Redskins, who experienced the peaks and valleys with Cousins that included stretches of greatness that weren’t sustainable.
“When you’re 7-9, you know it’s hard to say, ‘Wow, this guy really was outstanding,'” former Redskins coach Jay Gruden said after the 2017 season. “Kirk had his flashes where he was really good. From a consistent standpoint, over the course of 16 games, you know we’re 7-9.
“He did some great things, threw for over 4,000 yards and 29 touchdowns. I think he’s a very, very good quarterback without a doubt, but as far as getting us over the hump from 7-9 to winning a division with all the injuries that we had, I think he competed and did some good things.”
Among the other examples of Cousins’ struggle with consistency:
With most quarterbacks, there’s always going to be some regression from their best moments. Game flow will dictate that, as will the play from the rest of his teammates, the strength of their opponents, etc.
In the final 10 games of the 2015 season, beginning with a 24-point comeback victory (the largest in franchise history) over the Bucs, Cousins threw 23 touchdown passes and three interceptions, the best TD-INT radio (7.7) in the league over that span, according to ESPN Stats & Information research.
Cousins led Washington to the playoffs with a 4-0 record over the final four games of 2015 behind some phenomenal play. It was the only time in his career, until this season, when he had three straight games of 300 yards passing. But the Redskins faltered once they got to the playoffs. How much of that falls on Cousins is debatable because the defense allowed 35 points.
From Week 8 to Week 12 of 2016, Cousins had his two highest single-game passing yard performances, both over 445 yards each, which helped the Redskins go 2-1-1. The final five games of the season told a different story. With the Redskins in contention for a playoff spot, Cousins went 2-3 down the stretch of the season, including a Week 17 loss to the Giants.
Washington’s 3-3 start in 2017 doesn’t reflect the big numbers Cousins put up in his first six games. The final 10, however, saw a decline in production from Cousins. His record was 4-6, and Washington again missed the playoffs.
Cousins had a great start to his first season in Minnesota, throwing for 400 yards in two of his first five games. Over the final nine games of the 2018 season, his numbers dipped considerably and the Vikings missed the playoffs. He is 13-10 as a starter in Minnesota heading into Thursday’s game.
The Vikings’ goal is to find the middle ground between the best and worst Cousins has to offer. The challenge for Minnesota becomes how to sustain this phenomenal play from the past three games over the second half of the season. Because this version of Cousins is exactly why the Vikings moved on from Case Keenum, who starts Thursday for the Redskins, and signed Cousins to a three-year, $84 million contract.
“He’s played very well. He’s playing the best I’ve seen him play since he’s been here, obviously,” Vikings coach Mike Zimmer said. “It’s a credit to offensive coaches, what they’re doing. I feel like we are playing to his strengths.”
Those strengths fall in a number of areas, but the basis for Cousins’ improved play begins with playcalling.
Since Week 5, the Vikings rank first in points per game (36.0) and yards per play (7.2) and are second in yards per game (480). Cousins’ completion percentage has jumped from 64.6 to 75.6, and his passing yards per game, touchdown-to-interception ratio and yards per attempt also have improved considerably.
The catalyst for that success is rooted in a number of areas, from having a clean pocket to heavy play-action usage. While Dalvin Cook and the run game have been performing at a consistent level all season, Cousins has finally been able to take advantage.
Over the past three weeks, Cousins has used play-action on 46% of his pass attempts. That’s up from 29% over the first four weeks. It has allowed him to dismantle defenses with the deep ball, as his average play-action attempt has averaged 13.0 air yards over the past three weeks. That’s up from 5.2 over the first four weeks.
He has thrown six touchdown passes using play-action over the past three weeks, including three against Detroit, and he has thrown for at least 150 yards using play-action in each of those games. He had one such game in his career with the Vikings prior.
There’s also been a concerted effort to move Cousins around in the pocket and get him in space. According to NFL Next Gen Stats data, he’s 13-of-16 for 15.4 yards per attempt, three touchdowns and zero interceptions on designed rollouts in the past three games. He was 5-of-8 for 9.8 yards per attempt, one touchdown and one interception on those plays in the first four games.
Cousins’ 15 completions and 207 passing yards throwing on the run over the past three weeks are both the second most in the NFL, behind Seattle’s Russell Wilson. He’s completing 71.4% of such passes in his past three games, which is 17.7 points higher than his 54.7% expected completion rate.
Equally as important, the turnovers that hurt Cousins early this season, particularly in losses to Green Bay and Chicago, haven’t shown up over the past three weeks. It’s a simple formula for success, but the stretches of good play throughout his career have come when he has taken care of the football.
Being able to get this version of Cousins to continue the rest of the season is the ultimate goal.
His history shows that this level of play is not sustainable. But if the Vikings continue to improve the ways they build their game plan around Cousins to bring out his best, their decision on his future in Minnesota might be a lot easier than the one the Redskins made in 2018.
“It’s week to week and you’ve got to go prove it,” Cousins said. “I don’t really feel safe on who we are or what we’re doing until the season is over. Then you look back and say, ‘What was the body of work?’ Each week is its own identity, and you never know what the next opponent is going to throw at you or how you need to respond to it game to game but also series to series.
“I think we understand what we do well and the playmakers we have and how we want to use them. … We’ll see at the end of the year what the body of work ended up being.”