Kirk Cousins Isn’t A Good Fit In Kevin O’Connell’s Offense
From a statistical standpoint, Kirk Cousins has been one of the NFL’s productive passers. Cousins currently has 1,498 passing yards, which ranks second in the league, trailing only Tua Tagovailoa. Kirk also leads the league with 14 passing touchdowns through the first five games.
Despite putting up excellent numbers, Kirk looks much less comfortable in his second year in Kevin O’Connell’s offense. Kirk often looks frazzled when trying to run a hurry-up offense, and his pocket presence has been more erratic despite the offensive line showing significant improvement from last season. Why is that?
I believe that Kirk Cousins isn’t the greatest fit for Kevin O’Connell’s offense, despite having familiarity with Kevin O’Connell from their time in Washington. This is not to say that he’s a bad fit, or is unable to execute the system. However, I do think he is better suited for those Kubiak-styled offenses that place a heavy emphasis on the marriage between the run game and the play-action passing game.
Back when Mike Zimmer was still the Vikings head coach, Kirk Cousins had the benefit of operating in a run-first offense. Not a lot was put on his plate from a schematic standpoint, for better or for worse.
Kirk was at his best when the Vikings faced teams that couldn’t stop the run because that would open up the play-action passing game. Whenever the Vikings under Zimmer played a good defense, the offense was frustratingly conservative and he had no autonomy to change plays at the line of scrimmage.
From that angle, the decision to replace Zimmer and the offensive coordinators under him who operated these overly conservative offenses with Kevin O’Connell was refreshing. O’Connell comes from the McVay tree, and he wants to create an aggressive passing attack.
That’s not to say he abandons the run completely, but establishing the run before the pass is not his mentality. So while Kirk may have more freedom at the line of scrimmage and is able to be more aggressive, it comes with a higher level of responsibility and pressure.
That pressure was on full display in the final seconds of the Vikings game against the Chargers. Kirk completed a pass to T.J. Hockenson in bounds, but the clock was still moving. The Vikings would’ve had plenty of time to spike the ball in the red zone and assess their options. Instead, they wanted to run a hurry-up play and wasted precious seconds on the clock.
Immediately afterward, Kirk Cousins threw a pass that bounced off the receiver’s hands and was intercepted, ending the comeback attempt. While Kevin O’Connell deserves most of the blame for getting too cute there, Kirk needed to remain composed in a high-pressure situation and failed to do so, and it cost the Vikings the game.
The only way you can get Kirk to be more relaxed would be to run the football more often and more efficiently. That would require a complete shift in coaching philosophy from Kevin O’Connell where the Vikings run a more conservative offense, and nobody in the coaching staff wants that. It would simply lead to a Kubiak-styled offense that has proven to be ineffective against superior teams. At least the current philosophy leads to a more explosive offense.
Even if the Vikings opt to take that route, there’s no guarantee that a rushing attack led by Alexander Mattison and Cam Akers would be good enough to center the entire offense around. Kwesi Adofo-Mensah and Kevin O’Connell made the mistake of assuming they could play moneyball and not prioritize the running back position by waiting until the 7th round to draft DeWayne McBride, who has been a non-factor this season and showed very little in the preseason.
So, if for the Vikings, the best thing they could do to help Kirk is sign an above-average running back, draw up more play-action plays, and put less on Kirk’s plate.
The problem is that Kirk Cousins is 35 years old and is in the final year of his contract. It would be easier for the organization to draft a young quarterback who is better at handling those high-pressure situations, rather than continuing to cater to Cousins.
Tyler has been covering the Minnesota Vikings since 2021. In addition to writing for PurplePTSD, Tyler is a staff writer at Daily Norseman, and a contributor for The Viking Age. You can follow him on X @TylerIrelandNFL