The Epistemological Underpinning of The Kirk Cousins Divide
K. Joudry
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Few things divide Vikings fans as much as Kirk Cousins.
Depending on who you ask, you’ll learn that he’s either a QB1 whose teams consistently fail him or a schlub who gobbles up cap space like it’s going out of style. The issue, of course, is that both sides hold onto a small portion of the truth. There is evidence to support both (oversimplified) positions.
We thus arrive at the fancy term in the title: epistemology. If you register for a first-year university class in philosophy, you’ll likely have a section devoted to epistemology.
In essence, this is a branch of philosophy that asks how we know what we know. Person A insists that gravity exists; Person B asks how we know this is true. When he points to scientific research, Person A is tipping his epistemological hand. We can know that gravity exists because that’s what science tells us. Indeed, epistemology invites us to consider how we know the things we do, the evidence and logic we used to arrive at our beliefs.
Let’s bring this back to football.
If I go to the pro-Cousins camp, I’ll ask: how do you know #8 is a great NFL QB? Most often, we’ll get a variety of answers that reveal an epistemological filter, the method(s) by which we know something is true. Take statistics, for instance. Kirk Cousins is a great QB for the Vikings because:
- His most recent PFF score is 88.2, 6th-best in the NFL.
- His 103.1 passer rating in 2021 was 4th-best in the NFL, yet another year with a strong passer rating.
- His 1.2 interception percentage is 2nd-best in the NFL; as we all know, avoiding turnovers is massively important. Cousins excels in this regard.
- His 33 passing touchdowns were 9th-best in the NFL; I don’t need to remind Vikings fans how lean things were at QB pre-Cousins. We all dreamed of 33 passing TDs.
All these stats suggest Cousins is indeed a strong option under center. Plus, he never misses a game due to injury. Put the solid statistics alongside constant availability and Minnesota finds itself with a QB1.
Going over to the other side of things, we can ask why Kirk Cousins isn’t the franchise QB the Vikings hoped they were getting. Again, it’s an epistemological issue: how do we know what we profess to know about the Vikings’ QB? There are a variety of reasons:
- After a decade, Cousins is 59-59-2. At what point do we hold him responsible for the mediocre win/loss ratio?
- He’ll have the third-highest cap hit in the entire NFL in 2022, undermining his team’s ability to surround him with the talent he needs.
- Some advanced research suggests he’s not very good in clutch situations (Arif Hasan breaks it down in more detail):
Readers may find themselves scoffing at one of the two positions, and yet each has some merit. There can be little debate about whether Kirk deserves to be an NFL starter. In fact, there ought not be debate about whether he’s a good starter. That one is settled: Cousins is a good NFL QB, someone who rightly finds himself consistently ranked within the top half of NFL QBs.
My recommendation (if it matters at all) is that Vikings fans hold onto their Kirk Cousins positions more loosely. Don’t demonize and caricature the other side. Instead, recognize that we’ve all come to our positions due to some form of epistemological work, a philosophical process that likely has some blind spots. From a position of opinionated humility, make your own case while being generous with your sparring partner.
Doing so will lead to a more united, peaceful fanbase. And who knows, perhaps this is the year when it all comes together. I, for one, would be thrilled to be wrong about my Kirk Cousins opinion.
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