CoolBreeze44 wrote:kekgeek1 wrote:Was reported today that in the interviews with the Vikings KOC wants to keep Cousins as the QB and is really high on Cousins
I don't think that's a good sign. We're paying a quarterback $40 million to not make the playoffs. Something has to change.
Has anyone else here read the article Arif Hasan did on Cousins recently? If you can check it out it's lengthy and maybe some of it isn't earth shattering but I also think it breaks down Cousins in a way I haven't seen before.
It was also interesting Chad Graff in the athletic had an article with a Rams writer who pointed out that they ran play action less this year with the Rams and Graff said the Vikings actually did it noticeably less than they had before. There was some interesting stuff in that one also especially about O'Connell the guy/coach.
For me to be happy with Cousins staying long term, the contract he would agree to would need to show to some extent he wants to win and put a better team around him. In addition I also wonder if he was a part of an offense that really opened things up if he would end up being a more valuable player than he has been. Let's remember all the OCs that have been through this franchise since Kirk arrived. I don't want to make too many excuses but that is a legit thing. What if O'Connell is better than any of them and gets even more out of Cousins and the offense? I think most people believe Klint Kubiak wasn't very good so the offense could certainly improve if Kubiak was below average and O'Connell and whoever he brings in to help coach that side of the ball is good and there for a noticeable improvement. The Vikings led the league in 3 and outs. I wonder where they ranked in terms of oline penalties. There were a lot of those that seemed to kill drives.
All that said I'm really not dying for Cousins to stay. Quite frankly if some team was willing to give some good draft capital for him I would trade him. The only reason I would consider not doing that is if he was willing to agree to a reasonable salary (which is absolutely subjective what that would be). Maybe that's part of why the Vikings might be looking at keeping him as Cousins may have communicated a range of what he is willing to do in terms of salary going forward. A 25 million a year Cousins would certainly be more of a value proposition than say 35 million a year. Anyway we will see what happens.
