How I Managed to Take the Off-Season One Day at a Time and in the Process Started to Write/Believe Again
Joe Johnson
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Preparedness. That’s the one word that best describes new Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins. He made that very clear during his first press conference as a Minnesota Viking, a press conference in which he pointed out Sid Hartman’s birthday and also mentioned that he had purchased a purple and gold tie earlier that week thanks to the magic of Amazon Prime. So, you have to think that the anxiety that comes from the unfamiliarity surrounding things here in Minnesota is something that he is feverishly fighting to overcome. At the same time and on a much smaller scale, I’m here attempting to fight off the anxiety that comes from being one of (if not) the first and loudest proponents that the Vikings sign the former Michigan State product (and of being a Vikings fan in general). That vocal support came with the assumption that the team would continue what it started in 2017 with the drafting of Pat Elflein at center/guard and with it a general improvement to the offensive line, namely in the interior (especially as the draft was flush with guards this year.)
Despite the fact that the team spent a higher pick on Brian O’Neill with their second overall pick, it feels a lot like the team yet again (over) invested in the defense at the expense of the offense, leaving the (interior of the) offensive line a question at this part of the off-season (to the point that we’re having genuine conversations about moving Remmers to guard after last year’s playoffs showed that that didn’t work, at all) when you’d think that considering the fact that the team just literally spent the most money in the history of the sport on a quarterback, that they’d really want to protect that investment. Now, there’s still a lot of time before the season starts and that means that the Vikings could add a few more faces before all is said and done, but it’s that uncertainty (or unfamiliarity) that makes it hard for me to really get excited for the season and/or really write about anything else that doesn’t end up with me screaming “WHAT ARE THEY DOING!?!”. Now, am I comparing myself to Kirk Cousins? Yes. Am I hoping he reads this and we become Facebook friends? Sure. But it’s actually the fact that both of us dislike uncertainty that has lead me to approach the off-season in a different fashion, and that has actually revived my hope that the 2018 season could very well be the season I foresaw before the draft. Meaning, get ready for hyperbole on the other side of the coin! Or really, just more content in general as I do feel like my writer’s block has been sacked, thanks to the lack of protection on the interior of my psyche.
Again, Kirk Cousins is a man who likes to be prepared. That much was made clear after he performed at the off-season workouts these past two weeks. Outside of how he answered questions before or after practice, he’s also basically building relationships with the players around him and acclimating to new offensive coordinator John DeFilippo’s playbook. Just how far is Kirk Cousins in terms of learning the playbook and learning the timing and eccentricities of the playmakers around him? Well, let’s let Cousins explain that for himself, courtesy of an article by ESPN’s Courtney Cronin.
“I’ve come a long ways in about six weeks, I still have a ways to go and that’s to be expected. No surprise. It’s helped that the organization and the locker room has welcomed me with open arms. They’ve been very accommodating, very supportive. That’s certainly made the transition easy. Not only for me, but for my wife and our family. Continue to be excited to be here. Just got to keep taking steps and keep getting the offense and playbook mastered.”
Cousins bringing up his family is something worth noting as it was that family that he was thinking of back in early February as he basically did a tour of the Minneapolis/St. Paul Metro Area during his visit during the Super Bowl, and it was them that could’ve very well have tipped the scales in the favor of the Vikings when it came time for him to decide which team he wanted to play for (as he did receive a larger offer from other teams but felt like the Vikings were the best fit beyond just football). As even the most ardent defender of Minneapolis knows that we can’t hold a candle to New York. Although, there are two sides to that as the only other team that was in the running for Cousins was The New York Jets and because that team is more than just a good quarterback away from actually winning anything in the AFC East combined with the sheer amount of money they’d have paid Cousins, would’ve meant that the fans and writers would’ve been on Cousins, hard. While no example is needed to really explain an objective fact, just look at the response the NY Post had to Cousins picking Minnesota over the “Best city in the world”:
“Are you kidding? Choosing Minnesota over the greatest city in the world? Choosing a place where fine cuisine is a Juicy Lucy (don’t ask) and high-end shopping is going to Target? Remember, Robert Zimmerman left Minnesota to become Bob Dylan in Greenwich Village. Do you enjoy temperatures below zero all winter, Kirk? Minnesota has 10,000 lakes. You know what comes with 10,000 lakes? About 1,000,000 mosquitoes.
Cousins chose the Mall of America over Madison Avenue. Enough said.”
Sorry. Sidenote. I just found the above too entertaining not to share it. Anywhere, where was I? Oh yeah… When it comes to football you can’t overlook how important this upcoming season is for the Vikings and Cousins. The Vikings gave Cousins the largest contract in the history of the NFL and to say that he has gigantic expectations is putting it mildly. Luckily, outside of basically the Star Tribune’s Michael Rand and myself, most people are fully on the bandwagon that everything is coming up roses in Vikings land.
I understand the irony of the situation. That the person who was one of the first and most fervent proponents of the Vikings landing Kirk Cousins is now one of the first and only people screaming ‘FIRE!’ in a crowded theater partially because of Cousins’ weaknesses (and how the Vikings weaknesses as a team nearly perfectly align with those weaknesses). That while people like the aforementioned Courtney Cronin writes articles with the title of ‘Why Kirk Cousins is Primed for a Career Season with the Vikings‘, which is a relatively huge prediction as Cousins was less than 100 yards from a 5,000 yard season with the Redskins a few years ago, I am sitting here with writer’s block that’s a result of the anxiety that comes from being the “Cousin’s Guy” who sees the season falling apart yet again thanks to the offensive line. Who should be writing about this great news that has come out of OTA’s about Holton Hill, for example, but can’t because it’d really just end up with me wondering where the urgency is at the offensive line position (namely in that they should be signing the poor man’s Joe Berger in Zane Beadles). However I’m going to take the advice of someone I really respect in Luke Braun and basically take a step back and a deep breath, to look at some of the positive news that’s been coming out from OTA’s this and last week and attempt to go with the flow.
I believe in Cousins, clearly, but at the same time I’m realistic and know that he does have his limitations. However, those limitations don’t outweigh his ability (or net positive over the alternative that would’ve been Case Keenum, Teddy Bridgewater and/or Sam Bradford) and if he’s basically what I pitched him as during the intense debates about signing him earlier this off-season (a better and more durable Sam Bradford) then this team should be just fine even if/when the offensive line implodes. Now, that’s a hyperbolic statement as the line is in much better shape than it was at this point in 2015, and there is plenty of time left for (Rick) Spielman and company to add depth from players like the relatively recently released center/guard Zane Beadles, so like most of my panic attacks perhaps in retrospect this’ll be a relatively embarrassing line of reasoning. As really, all the Cousins related news that has been coming out as of late has really been what you’d want to hear/read from a player that’s making enough money to slap his head coach in the face with a bunch of $100 bills. According to the Pioneer Press’ Brian Murphy, Vikings head coach/slap recipient Mike Zimmer said of Cousins this week:
“I think any time you are new to an organization, you feel your way around a little bit, he is doing that some, but he is leading. He is taking charge. He has a lot on his plate right now. He’s doing a good job in that role.”
That role includes really coming into a team that’s got a ton of leaders and becoming a leader in your own right. After the Vikings were absolutely, in my opinion, exposed against the Eagles earlier this calendar year, my dad and I had a frank discussion about the future of the team and the conclusion that he and I came to (mostly he, to be fair) was that this team needed a leader (or at least, a new leader). Off the field Kirk Cousins seems like a pretty laid back and nice guy but on the field, he turns into a different person, a person that really imbues those around him with a certain amount of passion and energy. That passion boiled over during the now famous “YOU LIKE THAT!” moment and it’s something that seems to be a regular thing with Cousins as purplePTSD.com/VikingsTerritory.com Editor Joe Oberle mentioned on the most recent episode of The purpleJOURNAL Podcast that Cousins was very excited during OTA’s, especially after he threw a 51-yard touchdown pass to Stefon Diggs (a la Brett Favre). That’s something that Cousins, Diggs and even Thielen (Who was a recipient of a ton of passes from Cousins that day as well) have been working on this off-season, as the trio has been working out together in Georgia (For some reason). Whether or not that extra time together will pay off remains to be seen (although one has to wonder how Laquon Treadwell felt about not getting an invite), as it was something that a reporter asked Thielen about, to which he replied:
“I know that it doesn’t hurt, I think something like that is just a jump start to a long journey of getting on the same page. I think people, they underestimate how much time, how much effort and how much repetition it takes to get on the same page with a quarterback.”
So at this point, we can all make all sorts of predictions on a sliding scale from doom and gloom to one that predicts something on the level of Favre’s 2009 season in terms of what to expect from Kirk Cousins this season. What we do know now is that the Vikings landed their man and that man is perhaps the best quarterback (all things considered (namely age for those of you who are screaming ‘2009 FAVRE!’ at your monitor) this team has had since Fran Tarkenton and that if you balance that against a defense that has somehow found a way to improve upon itself year after year (that somehow being thanks to the negligence of the offensive line but I digress) with not only first-round picks but also in finding first round talent way late in the draft or in the undrafted free agent pool, then even with an iffy at best offensive line it’s hard not to go into the season with sky-high expectations. So, I am making a pledge that I will try to take the remainder of this off-season one-day at a time in the hopes that all of my fears will end up being either addressed or unfounded. After all, sports are a form of entertainment and shouldn’t be a source of this much anxiety, especially after I basically got everything I asked for (the draft notwithstanding). After all, as I’ve been told by many, many people (and therapists), the Vikings clearly have a plan so I’m going to buy into that idea and stop hitting f5 on my Google News search for ‘Zane Beadles + Minnesota Vikings’ and ‘Can You Buy Xanax without a Prescription?’, so I can live in the now and enjoy the rest of this off-season.
I’m ready to believe again and hope that this article has helped those of you who fall into the same camp as I am will be able to do the same. While also understanding that if things do fall apart we’ll at least be prepared for it.