Vikings coach on Kirk Cousins: 'We are fearing an Achilles injury'
Fears that Kirk Cousins suffered a ruptured Achilles tendon became more real when Minnesota Vikings head coach Kevin O'Connell confirmed that their star quarterback is being evaluated for the potentially season-ending injury.
"We are fearing – currently he's being evaluated and will be into tomorrow – we are fearing an Achilles injury. The severity of that, I do not know at this point but I know that's what our fear is in the moment and we'll confirm that as soon as possible," O'Connell said after Minnesota's 24-10 win over Green Bay got the Vikings to 4-4 on the season.
"Every single player in our locker room thinking about our leader, our guy right now. I'm just so proud of him. Proud of the way he's played all season long. Whatever is the case, if we don't have him for one snap or for the duration of our season that will not change the fact of what I believe Kirk Cousins, the level he played to this year and ultimately what he's meant to me and our organization."
ESPN's Adam Schefter is reporting that it is a torn Achilles for Cousins, but an MRI will be needed to confirm injury.
Jaren Hall, the rookie fifth-round pick from BYU, completed 3-of-4 passes and lost a fumble on a strip sack in his brief NFL debut after Cousins went down in the fourth quarter.
If Cousins is out for any period of time, Hall will be in consideration for the starting job, along with backup QB Nick Mullens, who is on injured reserve for at least one more week with a back injury.
Yeah we're going to talk about that," O'Connell said when asked about QB contingency plans. "First and foremost we'll confirm the severity of the injury and then we'll talk internally and get a lot of opinions and thoughts on where we're at. I did think Jaren did a nice job. It's not easy to come in cold – legitimately cold – and get a couple of completions there. The third-down completion to [T.J. Hockenson] was big in the landscape of time and forcing them to use their timeouts."
O'Connell said Hall received complimentary reviews from his offensive peers.
"Every single offensive player said he was very, very good with his communication, snap counts, cadence, all the things," O'Connell said. "I thought Jaren was incredible cool, calm and collected. We'll definitely talk about what the best thing is moving forward but it's going to take our entire football team to rally around Kirk, just like we've had to around [Justin Jefferson] and [Marcus Davenport]."
