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This is just conceived as a question. This is not supposed to be acidic or nasty. Just a question…
Does the Vikings quarterback, Kirk Cousins, show that it is worth $ 28 million a year? That's worth $ 84 million in cash collateral? Is this the kind of player that someone saw when they watched it Sunday night?
The statistics of the match Cousins against Saints will look respectable retrospectively. He was 31 on 41 for 359 yards, two touchdowns and one interception. The numbers roughly matched his figures with those of his last years in Washington.
But the result was the same. In what should have been a game of scoring between two of the best of the NFC, the saints, playing on the road, won quite easily. The final score was 30-20, bBut the latter hit for the Cousins and Vikings took place while the game was out of control.
During most of the game, Cousins sought to get out of his element. And that should not be the case. He was going against the defense of the Saints. The Swiss cheese looks at the defense of the Saints and says, "What's up, Twin?"
Cousins receives the same salary as him for such moments. To watch Drew Brees. Win a big game at home. Transform the season.
Instead, the best you can say is that the Vikings are not in bad shape. They are 4-3-1 and in a division in which no one is leaking. And like his team, Cousins did not badly played but was not excellent.
But you pay $ 84 million for a lot.
He had moments of greatness. A few at least. But just moments. Fleeting, not transformative.
In many ways, these are the same cousins we saw in Washington – and frankly, it's shocking to say because I thought we would see another cousin. With all the weapons at his disposal in Minnesota – Adam Thielen, Stefon Diggs – I thought we would see him explode this season.
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Instead, the numbers are pretty much the same as usual, a little more efficient but on average a little less throwing. And the results are pretty much the same, as usual, around 0.500. Washington, who is 5-2 this season with Alex Smith at QB, has been 24-23-1 in Cousins' last three years. The Vikings, who were 13-3 last year with Case Keenum and others, have a 4-3-1 record this year with the Cousins.
There will always be more context for this type of comparison. There is everything.
When the Saints chose the Cousins on Sunday, you could perhaps blame his receiver for interrupting his journey. But this bullet should never have been launched. This is the kind of throwing that Aaron Rodgers does not do because Aaron Rodgers is careful with football. Cousins are often not. He also took bags that he did not need to take on Sunday. He panicked in the pocket. He had a strange, no-slip race in which one of Saints players nearly stole the football (but Cousins knee was down).
He made good shots. As he always does. He did a lot of bad things. As he always does.
In one way or another, everything eventually happens, and that's what the Vikings look like what they've got.
An average quarterback, super expensive and not worth the money. One of the most remarkably mediocre, incredibly average and remarkably decent quarters of recent football memory. The QB that will not let you down – but it may fall out somehow. Or they might need a push or two. And then you will look at these socks and you will wonder: why did I wear them again?
Cousins is amazingly meh. It is Olive Garden.
And we probably should have known. But keep in mind something important: the Vikings thought that Cousins was the last piece of their juggernaut.
This training was qualified for the title of the conference last year. Yes, they arrived on one of the biggest moat games of all time, but they got there.
They were stacked. And are. But they are not better. At least not so far. In fact, they are not so beautiful. They got worse.
Brees, on the other side Sunday, threw for just 120 yards. If there was one day a game for the Cousins to stand out, that was it.
Hannah Foslien / Getty Images
Look around the league and you'll see a remarkable quarterback game. Aaron Rodgers plays well and keeps the Packers in the three-quarter leg race. Jared Goff has already passed the Cousins to lead a winner. Patrick Mahomes too. Cam Newton is too. Philip Rivers carries the loaders, Russell Wilson the Seahawks. Andrew Luck and Deshaun Watson reappear after injuries. Tom Brady is Tom Brady.
Cousins was supposed to be part of this group this season. Instead, it is so average that it transpires from the margarine.
So let's ask this question again.
Cousins shows he's worth $ 28 million a year? That's worth $ 84 million in cash collateral?
The answer is obvious.
Mike Freeman covers the NFL for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter: @mikefreemanNFL.
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