How Kevin O'Connell and the Vikings Can Modify Kirk Cousins' Approach
One of the biggest questions — scratch that, the biggest question heading into the 2022 Vikings season is how new head coach Kevin O'Connell can get more out of Kirk Cousins, both with his coaching and the implementation of a new offensive system.
Cousins has been an incredibly polarizing player during his four years in Minnesota. He puts up great numbers and doesn't make many blatant mistakes, but he's also gone just 33-29-1 as the Vikings' starter, with one playoff appearance. Cousins' individual production leaves the door open for reasonable arguments that other factors — offensive line play, defense, special teams, coaching — have held the team back more than he has. At the same time, it's justifiable to argue that Cousins' style of play and various limitations prevent him from elevating a team like a quarterback with his salary should.
One of the valid criticisms of Cousins has to do with the way he makes decisions in the passing game. He has always been a quarterback who goes through his reads, takes what the defense gives him, and tries to minimize risk. At a basic level, those are all good things. But when you refuse to deviate from that approach, it can lead to being overly conservative at times, including in situations where a more aggressive mindset is needed. Things like throwing short of the sticks on third down or declining to give Justin Jefferson a contested catch opportunity — results of Cousins sticking to his philosophy — can hurt the Vikings' offense.
That's where O'Connell and Minnesota's new coaching staff come into play. There's already evidence that as they've installed the offense this offseason, they've made a point to try to get Cousins to be a bit more aggressive with certain reads.
"I remember a concept we had in OTAs in practice, I said no to a route over here and threw a route over here," Cousins said. "And afterwards (O'Connell) said, 'Hey I want you to take that with that look. Don't progress.' And prior to him saying that I would've progressed every time. I said, OK, and we probably ran that play a half dozen times again in the spring and when we got that look I was going to take that option. It's important to understand what he wants and not just play to, 'Well I've done this before so I'll just do this again.' It's more of a, 'How do you want it to look? Let me execute that way.' But that takes time to learn."
If you're a Vikings fan who wants Cousins to take more chances down the field, that's an incredibly important quote. It shows an understanding that what O'Connell wants him to do is more important than playing the position the way he always has.
"It's somewhat philosophy of just, you gain something here, you lose something there," Cousins said. "There's more than one way to do it. ... The bottom line is you need to do it the way the coach wants it done. And I've found when you're coachable and you learn it the way they want it, that's when you have the most success because they're really setting up the whole plan to build off of those coaching pieces."
O'Connell, offensive coordinator Wes Phillips, and quarterbacks coach Shaun O'Hara all came over to the Vikings from the Rams this year. Just six months ago, they won the Super Bowl in large part due to Matthew Stafford's play at quarterback. Stafford and Cousins were often pitted against each other in debates during the three years when they were both in the NFC North, and the conclusion was usually that they were in the same tier as passers.
The biggest difference is that Stafford is noticeably more aggressive and willing to take risks. During the 2021 regular season, he led the league with 17 interceptions (and then threw three more in the playoffs). He also racked up 50 passing touchdowns, roughly 6,000 yards, and a 16-5 record across the regular season and playoffs. Yes, it helped that the Rams have Aaron Donald, Jalen Ramsey, Cooper Kupp, and a bunch of other great players on both sides of the ball. But they don't win the Super Bowl without Stafford playing at a high level — and with an aggressive approach.
The Vikings don't want Cousins to throw 17 interceptions this year. But if they can get him to become a little less risk-averse while still doing what he does well, that could go a long way.
"Kirk’s got a lot of good history, playing in games, playing for a long time, and so a lot of these concepts are similar to things he’s done, or even the same in some cases," Phillips said. "We may coach the read slightly different or the details of it. Maybe for us, it’s more of a high-to-low read, where he’s used to being able to take the underneath — ‘Hey, it’s there, I took it' — whereas we might want to let that thing kind of develop and progress a little bit. He’s been great, especially from the spring and transferring it over to the fall in training camp, he’s been great at kind of adjusting to the way we want to do things, and of course we’re taking input from him, as well, with his experience."
The dialogue between Cousins and his coaches, O'Connell being the most important one, is going to be an ongoing process. They already had a baseline relationship from working together for one season in Washington in 2017, and Cousins said he's seen some things pop up this offseason that he hasn't done since that year. The two are going to meet one-on-one at times throughout the season as Cousins continues to master the offense and as they continue to get on the same page with how they think it should be run.
“We’ve already started doing that, finding a little time here and there throughout the day, but there’s no question, and I think that’s one of the best things you can do, especially as a play caller," O'Connell said about spending individual meeting time with Cousins. "It’s one thing as the head coach, whether you’re on the offensive or defensive side, the quarterback has to be an extension of you as a head coach. Ultimately as a play caller, when we can have that connection we have, and it will be a process, but we’ll find time early in the week or later in the week. Having played the position, if I didn’t like when the coach called a play I didn’t like, I didn’t like that, and I think that’s really important. I might love something, Coach Phillips might love something, Coach O’Hara, but in the end, if the quarterback’s the guy who’s going to be pulling the trigger, doesn’t love something, then you’ve got plenty of plays."
It's a bit of a give-and-take. O'Connell and the coaches want to help Cousins do what he does best. Cousins wants to operate the offense the way the coaches think it should be operated. The key piece is that if O'Connell and company can make Cousins a little bit more aggressive in his decision-making, the Vikings' offense will become that much more dangerous.
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