Kirk Cousins on return to Vikings: 'It's about winning a Super Bowl'

I'm grateful to be back here. Being that it's Veterans Day, I want to quickly mention my gratitude for our soldiers who protect us and give us the freedoms to be able to play professional football. So I don't want to ever lose sight of that privilege on a day like today. Grateful to be back. Certainly a unique feeling coming back into the building today. I want to say thank you to the Raiders for the opportunity they gave me this past offseason and the chance they gave me to play and the way that they handled with Minnesota, handled the last, whatever it was, 24 hours. I'm grateful for them and the people there. And, uh... Certainly. It was tough to leave a building that you've spent some time with the guys and built a rapport, but also knew I was headed to a building that I also know a lot of guys and have a great rapport. Um, I'm grateful to be coming to a team that has a lot of ability as well as a coach that just has a lot of promise here in the back half of the season. So excited to be a part of it and to hopefully contribute the best I can. But really it's about... Trying to go 1-0 this week and putting in the work today to be able to do that. So, I can take any questions you have. Well, I think you imagined it. I don't know if you thought it was going to happen, but here we are. And, you know, grateful for the opportunity. Well, it was a whirlwind yesterday and even this morning, just trying to get everything logistically handled. But we're diving in and going to make the most use of our time. I remember when we traded for TJ in 22. And thinking, you know, I didn't envy him at that time. You know, how much he had to do and how much he had to get caught up on and the effort the coaches put in to help him. And I find myself in a similar role today. Well, I think we're kind of going to find that out more over the next few days. But certainly, you can't play this position if it's not instinctive. And so just trying to make everything as instinctive as you can possibly do so you're just reacting and playing rather than thinking. Yeah, you know, I saw him today and For me, with Justin, it's just a play-to-play. Play in and play out. You're always kind of just going where your reads take you, and Kevin will always do a great job of trying to give him opportunities, and he's always done a great job of making us look smart. And so I think that's what my approach will be again, is you don't go chasing things, but you also understand the player that he is, and you go where your reads take you, and you know that he tends to make you bright when you throw the ball in his direction. I think it was just, you know, really the business of football and the model that the team, you know, had and everything was done the right way. Everything was done the right way. And so I think it was handled well by everybody involved. I don't know. I know a lot has happened over the last three years. And I know that that has to grow you as a person, as a player. And you lean on those experiences, but you've got to go out and do it. And that's what it's going to be all about moving forward here. Yeah, certainly a special place to play, period. It means a lot to play at Lambeau Field, no matter what the circumstances. Thank I think knowing that that was where I was carted off and had thoughts of, is this my last game? And is this my last game as a Viking? To be back there wearing the purple and gold, it has meaning. you. But you have to go make it mean something with the way you play. I think it was a combination of factors. When Clint Kubiak was here with me, we had spent three years together. And in 21, when he called plays, felt very comfortable in that system and with him. And I think that probably just showed through in the first half of the season and enjoyed the group we had there. And I think any time you have good people around you, it puts you in a position to be successful. I went in to get breakfast and have my lift yesterday morning, and I was about halfway into my eggs, and my phone started vibrating, and it said Clint Kubiak on it, and I looked at my teammates, and I said, I have a guess what this might mean, although he calls on occasion, so he said, are you in the building? I said, I am. He said, why don't you come up, and my heart started beating a little faster, and headed up there and talked to Spy Tech and Clint, and had a really good conversation. They were just the pure class that they had been from day one. I mean, I'm not too interested in completely starting over. There was a reason I went to Clint Kubiak, you know, this offseason. I want to play with, going back to my point about you've got to play off reaction and instinct. And if you're thinking, I don't think you can quite be the player that you otherwise would be. So to me, it's important to be able to play at a place that you feel you at least have the potential to do that. I think my whole career has felt like unfinished business. I don't know that I would say today is any different than so many other years or moments where you feel like you've got something to prove, you've got something to accomplish, and there's more to go get. And I think that was why even this winter I felt I wanted to go back and play again was I just felt like there was more meat on the bone. I didn't quite know what that needed to be, but I just felt like there was more to go get, and so we find ourselves here today. It's a fair question to ask. I don't think I can give you a fair answer only because of how early in the week it is. So I got to get to work and I could have a better answer for you later in the week. You know, joy is a good word to use. I think I play my best when there's a lot of joy and I think there's also when there's a little bit of edge. So you try to find that sweet spot. I think that comparison is the thief of joy and there's so much in this league that is all about comparison and where you rank and how do you compare. That's just part of the job, and it's understandable, and it needs to be there. But you understand that if you get caught up in that world, it can take your joy pretty quick. So, um, I've tried, as I've gone through, as Alec asks, what have you learned in the last three years? I think it's about trying to learn how to maintain that joy, despite the fact that you're going to always be in a fishbowl and always be compared. And, you know, that's something. It's always a challenge, but I look forward to embracing that challenge the next several weeks. I need to circle back with him. I haven't gotten there, so we'll have a conversation. I think Mike Parsons will help us, too, in the equipment room. But, yeah, I've got to talk to Jacoby for sure. Yeah, Spy and Clint were very clear, basically trying to put the ball in my court. Thank And I said, well, let me talk to Kevin, you know, and so just wanted to give him a call and get on the same page and thought we had a good conversation. I didn't want to take too much of his time, but, you know, just feel like, similar to Clint, Kevin, Kevin knows me. Kevin knows what I do well. Kevin knows what I don't do well. you. Kevin knows what I can handle. Kevin knows what I can't handle. And I think that helps. I think that helps that not just that he knows your strengths, but that he knows your weaknesses and that as a result, he's going to try to protect you. And not have you do things that he knows, you know what, that's not how Kirk functions. That's not his best chance of success. And I think the fact that he knows me well, the good about me and the bad about me, I think should help us. Well, I think that, you know, it's all about. Winning a Super Bowl. It always has been in every organization when the year begins. We're here to win football games and ultimately win a Super Bowl. So when you say how much of it is about that, I mean, that's ultimately what you're building towards. Now, we can't win the Super Bowl today. We can't win it this Sunday. But, you know, you're on a journey to try to get there. Every year I've been playing this league, that's the journey you're on. So that's certainly where we want to go. I don't You can't live January and February and November. So, you know, it's about just taking the next step. know if And today is about having the best Wednesday we can have and go from there. you can hear me now. Yeah, I don't know that I'm a GM yet. But I've always said that there's really two traits that, to me, stand out above the rest. And this can be debated. And I would agree with someone who tells me I'm wrong, probably. But I think that decision-making and accuracy will always be the two that are going to. Be non-negotiable. Well, I texted him after I went through nine weeks of OTAs and a six-week training camp when I saw he signed. And I said, well, you played that masterfully. And we always talked about, he and I always talked about winning the long game. You know, that guys in this league win the short game here and there and they get some attention for a short amount of time. But I always said it's about winning the long game. And you're going to have your licks and have your issues, but can you win the long game? And Harrison's a guy who's won the long game, and it's a goal of mine in this career. And so when I texted him that, he texted back, I'm trying to win the long game. So that was a good wink to me, and it was good to see him today. You know, it did my heart good to see Justin, to see Brian O'Neill, to see Christian Derrissaw, to see our coaching staff, to see Jeff Anderson, Sam, I mean, the whole crew. I can go on and on. I start naming people, I'm going to leave somebody out, but just a lot of good people here. I don't know. I'm confident that Jacoby and I can have a... Have a healthy, mature conversation and figure this out. You're good, Kevin. Yeah. We're starting over again on the lighter side. Our house didn't even have to list. We sold it pretty quickly. A neighbor, my neighbor who has been talked about here, who's a legend, he said, I have someone to buy your house immediately. So they bought it immediately. It made it easy. Never listed it. And so we did sell it. But my wife is looking right now. They're over across the street in the hotel with my boys, and we're figuring it out. I was hoping they were going to come with me, but I said, what are you thinking, Julie? I know it was her call. And she said, I don't think we can pull the boys out of school and baseball and their friends. And she picked them up from school, and she said, here's the situation. Dad got traded to the Minnesota Vikings. What would you guys want to do? And they looked at her, and they said, let's go. So, they're across the street, and they're ready and excited for the next several weeks. Well, we've got to get a driveway first. I don't have a driveway, so we've got one day at a time, but Julie's handling that. Thanks, guys.