It's Not About Kirk Cousins, It's What Kirk Cousins Represents

Last January, Kirk Cousins stood at his locker at TCO Performance Center. Locker Room Clean Out Day is a somber time for any football team, but it hit especially hard for the Minnesota Vikings.

They had just grinded through a 7-10 season, fighting back from a 1-4 start to get back into the playoff picture. However, they lost Cousins to a torn Achilles in the process. While Cousins was out for the season, he already started fading into Vikings history as his pending free-agent status hung a dark cloud over his future.

The media scrum was filled with questions about the upcoming spring, and Cousins gave one final sound byte for everyone to chew on.

"It’s not about the dollars," he said. "It’s what the dollars represent."

Cousins signed a four-year, $180 million contract with the Atlanta Falcons a few months later. On Sunday, he’ll return to Minnesota, wearing red and black instead of purple and gold. Many don’t know how to react to a player who has a notable place in Vikings history but came short of being a true legend.

But when assessing his legacy with the team, it’s not about Kirk Cousins. It’s what Kirk Cousins represents.

Cousins has the resumé of one of the greatest quarterbacks in Vikings history. In his six seasons with the Vikings, he threw for over 4,000 yards four times and 30 touchdowns three times. He ranks third in franchise history in passing yards (23,265) behind Fran Tarkenton (33,098) and Tommy Kramer (24,775). He ranks second in touchdowns (171) behind Tarkenton and third in wins (50) behind Kramer (54) and Tarkenton (91).

Based on his stats alone, you would assume Cousins would get a hero’s welcome when he runs out of the visiting tunnel on Sunday. But, as Vikings fans know, Cousins’ legacy isn’t just about the stats.

Cousins signed with the Vikings after they went to the NFC Championship game in 2017. Minnesota signed him as the missing piece for a team with the No. 1 defense and weapons like Dalvin Cook, Adam Thielen, and Stefon Diggs.

In Cousins’ first season, he got off to a blazing start, throwing a bullet to Thielen at Lambeau Field and going blow-for-blow with Jared Goff in a Thursday Night Football matchup against the Los Angeles Rams. But it didn’t last, as Mike Zimmer clashed with offensive coordinator John DeFilippo. The lasting memory is Cousins arguing with Thielen on the sidelines during a season-ending loss to the Chicago Bears in Week 17.

Kevin Stefanski took over as offensive coordinator the following season and put training wheels on Cousins. While Cousins didn’t have the gaudy passing numbers, he did enough for the Vikings to win games. Still, rumors swirled that Zimmer and general manager Rick Spielman were on the ropes entering a playoff game against the New Orleans Saints, and Cousins was staring down a potential lame-duck year in 2020.

If the Vikings lost the game to the Saints, there’s a chance Cousins would have played out the final year of his deal and moved on. The Vikings could have selected Jordan Love or Jalen Hurts in the 2020 draft and paired them with Justin Jefferson, who they selected after trading Diggs to the Buffalo Bills.

Cousins would have been known as the mercenary who didn’t get the job done but also earned the caveat that it wasn’t his fault. Yet two throws in New Orleans – a long bomb to Thielen and a touchdown pass to Kyle Rudolph in overtime – changed Cousins’ legacy in Minnesota and the trajectory of the Vikings franchise.

From that point on, every positive development with Cousins had a negative counterpart.

Cousins earned a contract extension as part of the playoff win over the Saints, but it caused Minnesota to say goodbye to many of their defensive stalwarts. Cousins threw 10 interceptions while guiding the Vikings to a 1-5 start in 2020. However, he willed them back to a 6-6 record before three consecutive losses ended with The Griddy in Detroit.

The 2021 season had more ups and downs. Cousins led a memorable comeback against the Detroit Lions at home, but people only remember it because he shoved Zimmer on the sidelines. After a 3-5 start, the Vikings won back-to-back games to get back into the playoff picture until Cousins lined up underneath the guard in a fourth down in San Francisco.

The Vikings fought their way back to a 7-7 record that season before a loss to Kevin O’Connell’s Los Angeles Rams. However, Cousins missed the following week’s game after testing positive for COVID, costing the Vikings a playoff spot and Zimmer his job.

The Vikings broke through for 13 wins in 2022. O’Connell maximized Cousins, leading him to tie an NFL-record eight fourth-quarter comebacks. But while Cousins orchestrated a 33-0 comeback against the Indianapolis Colts, his season is more remembered for a fourth-and-eight checkdown in a playoff loss to the New York Giants.

Then there was the final season, where the Vikings fell into a 1-4 hole but beat the San Francisco 49ers on Monday Night Football. This, along with the first three quarters of a win over the Green Bay Packers the following week, were the last positive memories Vikings fans had of Cousins before he tore his Achilles on a dropback.

There was nothing wrong with the Cousins era. The Vikings had a perfectly good reason to bring him in; they were a team that could never find a long-term quarterback. But it was six years of spinning wheels, highlighted by memorable highs and defined by soul-crushing lows.

It’s almost fitting that some fans will cheer Cousins when he takes the field on Sunday, while others will boo out of frustration. The Cousins era wasn’t a failure. However, it also wasn’t a success. That’s why fans are so torn.

With the Vikings at 10-2, it isn’t about Cousins or his struggles with the Falcons. At this moment, it’s more about what he represented for a team that never could seem to get over the hump with him at quarterback.