Kirk Cousins Will Miss the Vikings Preseason Opener

Questions Answered: Primetime Mond-Mannion Battle, Ingram with 1s, Conklin Emergence with Jets
Jul 29, 2022; Minneapolis, MN, USA; Minnesota Vikings quarterbacks Kellen Mond (11), Kirk Cousins (8), and Sean Mannion (14). Mandatory Credit: Matt Krohn-USA TODAY Sports.

Kirk Cousins was sent home prior to the start of the Minnesota Vikings training camp practice on Thursday. It was initially described as an “illness” and “not feeling well”, but head coach Kevin O’Connell did not rule out Covid as the cause. That caused suspicion that Cousins would be announced on Friday to have tested positive for the virus. In fact, that is exactly the case. Kirk Cousins tested positive for Covid and will be out until at least next Tuesday’s practice, meaning he will not travel with the team to Las Vegas for the preseason opener.

At the end of the day, this is not a cause for major concern for a few reasons. In fact, as long as he returns healthy on Tuesday, you could not really pick better days for the starting QB to be out with Covid. Here are the days that Cousins will miss:

  • Friday, August 12th: Normal practice
  • Saturday, August 13th: Walkthrough
  • Sunday August 14th: Preseason Game vs. Raiders
  • Monday August 15th: Off-day

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Cousins was never going to play on Sunday, either. This means that yesterday and today are the only “workdays” that he’s really missing over this five-day stretch. There is no need to panic about Cousins being ready for the regular season because of this, especially considering we saw a similar situation happen last year. You all remember the infamous Jake Browning practice.

I do suspect that Cousins’ absence brings a dark secret into the light, though. That secret is that the Vikings are in desperate need for a backup QB. I discussed this a little bit when the first depth chart released, but the fact that Kellen Mond has not taken the QB2 position by the horns is concerning. It already appeared on Thursday that things did not go well with Sean Mannion and Mond splitting first-team reps.

No matter what, it is now confirmed that we will see a heavy dose of both QBs on Sunday. O’Connell has not confirmed a starter yet, but he did say that Mannion and Mond will split snaps 50-50. Today’s practice likely determines who will take the first snaps with the offense, so we’ll be sure to keep an eye out for that news.

The Vikings open their preseason against the Raiders on Sunday, August 14th with kickoff set for 3:25 PM Central.

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