Will Kirk Cousins Ever Stop Being Brought up by Vikings Fans?
Quite frankly, the answer is in a long time from now.
Upon first thought, it would seem as if it would depend entirely on the development of rookie J.J. McCarthy and whether or not he hits the ground running. This isn’t entirely wrong, but no matter how good or bad McCarthy is, Kirk Cousins will be either the failure before him or the one that got away.
In a perfect world, not to slight Cousins, but he wouldn’t be brought up whatsoever. I understand that this is quite redundant since this is an entire article dedicated to talking about him, but I like to deal with reality, and the reality is that the six-year starting quarterback of the Vikings is going to be the litmus test for how good Vikings fans and NFL fans, in general, see J.J. McCarthy.
Of course, in the NFL, context is an entire observable universe, and the Kirk Cousins debate is a constellation within it, but this situation can be whittled down to two main scenarios, with team success holding relevance in both.
Scenario 1: McCarthy Is Any Amount Better than Cousins
From a pure production and box-scoring standpoint, this is arguably the less likely outcome of the Cousins vs. McCarthy debate, which is fine because the Vikings don’t need McCarthy to be the same exact quarterback that the former was.
If McCarthy ends up being any amount better than Cousins, then the narrative is that Kwesi Adofo-Mensah is a genius for seeing that they could move on from the at-the-time 35-year-old quarterback that was in line to make $45 million annually to a 21-year-old National Champion that had all the tools for a guy like Kevin O’Connell to mold.
This leads to discussion amongst fans and potentially some revisionist history about the quality of Cousins’ play during his Vikings tenure, implying the lack of team success in that era fell on his shoulders and his shoulders only.
It is important to note that team success will play a rather significant role in this. Even if McCarthy isn’t better than his predecessor, if the Vikings were to be a more successful team and surpass the second round (the deepest Cousins ever went as a Viking), there would surely be a lot of Cousins slander going around.
Scenario 2: McCarthy Is Any Amount Worse than Cousins
If McCarthy is in the same ballpark as the former Vikings QB, that’s one thing. If McCarthy is a bust and it’s very quickly clear as day, the amount of time you hear Cousins’ name followed by a million reasons why Minnesota shouldn’t have moved on would be almost criminal.
This would surely ramp up those conversations even if Minnesota stayed afloat as a playoff contender through McCarthy’s struggles. “Well, just imagine this team with Kirk Cousins!“
A McCarthy bust would be a lightning rod for those who would live and die by the belief that Kirk Cousins was the guy and that moving on from him would be a move the franchise regrets and would extend the window of hearing Cousins’ name around all corners of the Vikings community ten-fold.
Would Cousins Be Forgotten Even if Minnesota Won It All?
Short answer: no.
It would only fire up the other side of the Kirk spectrum that believed it would be obvious that Minnesota had a better chance in an era of Vikings football that didn’t involve Cousins, and this would likely have Vikings fans compare McCarthy to Cousins for eternity and heavily cloud his solid tenure in Minnesota.
All in all, the real answer is that Kirk Cousins will probably never stop lingering in the back of the minds of Vikings fans everywhere. That isn’t a personal opinion; that’s the fact of the matter.
“Ugh, why do you keep bringing up that loser? He isn’t on the team anymore!“
This is just how the NFL works. Fans are always going to compare a former player to the new ones, especially ones at the quarterback positions that were paid an exorbitant amount of money to have the only return on investment be a singular playoff win almost a half-decade ago.
This is neither a pro-Cousins nor anti-Cousins discourse piece; this is just stating the reality of what will happen. Kirk Cousins will be talked about heavily for the next two or three years while we try to figure out if McCarthy is truly the guy, and if he is, Cousins’ name will slowly dwindle on the lips of Vikings fans until someone just wants to start an argument online.
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