Kirk Cousins' fit in Kevin O'Connell's offense

All right. I don't know if you have heard this yet. You know, stop me if you have. But Kirk Cousins is back with the Vikings. I don't know. They might have flown under the radar for you. No, it's all we've been talking about since Monday night is could Kirk be back? And then Kirk came back. And then we're talking about Kirk starting this weekend. And it's all Kirk, Kirk, Kirk. Is he the savior the last couple of weeks since bringing Ben Gessling here who knows better than I about this enthusiasm. I mean, you were at TCO yesterday, were you not for the Cousins reemergence there? Yes, I was there yesterday for the Cousins reemergence. We got a lot of the old hits. We heard about the the guy shoveling his driveway that we heard about a few years ago and some of the The talks with Jacoby Thomas to get number eight back and a lot of the familiar things with Kirk were back yesterday. It's probably only a matter of time until we see the chains come out. Well, I can't imagine that won't happen. Did you get an update? Is he gonna get number eight back yet? Is that conversation taking place? I can't imagine that he'll be told no. No, I mean, I would think, so Jacoby Thomas, their rookie safety currently has it. I think there'll be a conversation between the two of them. Kirk, I just checked today, is listed on the roster without a number at the moment, so we'll see at practice later this afternoon. But usually the way that stuff goes is you make it worth the guy's while to give up the number. And I think knowing Kirk and how much money he's made for himself over the years, I would imagine he could. So, help a rookie out a little bit in exchange for the number that he wants. He'll probably just give him some of his Kohl's cash. Here you go. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, Kohl's cash. Usually the rookies defer to the veterans when it comes to a number issue. You see that a lot of times. I'm like, nope, here you go. Yeah, there could be that. I'm sure Kirk would offer him a token of his appreciation, let's put it that way. Yeah, in practice this afternoon, will be the first time to see then Cousins back with his former team, and the first chance to see how much he just basically plug and play in terms of right back into the offensive scheme. I mean, what do you expect to see, or what are you going to look for? Well, I mean, we'll see just a little bit of practice at this time of year. But I think in general, when we see him back on the field on Sunday, a lot of this is based on the familiarity with this offense. They want a lot of things to look the way that they have over the years because this system is one that Kevin O'Connell believes in and one that has worked best with a quarterback that can throw the ball on time and can get completions. And you heard O'Connell say it yesterday, if there are completions to be had, Kirk will find them. And you've seen some of that where it's maybe people taking a little longer to read through their progressions or pulling the ball down. I mean, Kyler Murray, I think, was still kind of getting that timing in this offense down to the degree that they wanted it. And they put in some new things. They tried to accommodate some of what he does well. But what they want is a quarterback that can get through things quickly, get the ball out on time, get the ball to Justin Jefferson. On time, I think that's a big part of this. Justin Jefferson is a big stakeholder in where all of this goes. So I think you will see them go back to a lot of the things that they've done in the past with him. And I think. That will be very much the staple of this offense with him again at the helm of it. One of your colleagues there at the Star Tribune wrote about how Cousins may succeed in a system where Murray and Wentz have maybe not. And pointed out that in 26 games playing with Kevin O'Connell, Cousins is a 17 and nine record. Playing for other coaches, he's 76, 76 and two. Yeah. So it's better under O'Connell. Donald, what's the difference? Well, I think you heard Kirk talk about it a little bit yesterday that Kevin O'Connell knows him well enough to know what he does well and what he doesn't do well. I think Kirk has bounced around enough and really, I think for a number of years had not had the same offensive coordinator or the same play caller. Two years in a row and for quite a long time. I mean, I remember him talking about this when I covered him the first time through it. And that level or that lack of continuity makes a difference when you aren't able to stay in exactly the same scheme. He's been in very similar things, but just language, terminology in the offense, and then just the play caller knowing you as well as you want the play caller to know the quarterback has not always been there for him. And with Kevin O'Connell, They go back to Washington when they worked together there. They obviously had the two and a half years in Minnesota. And then you get this next time through it. So there's enough familiarity there that I think Kirk Cousins believes that Kevin O'Connell can unlock some things with him. And they've just been able to connect, I think. On a personal level too, I mean, their families are friends, they're two guys, they're two dads in very similar stages of parenting. And I think a lot of that trust has been built on the field, yes, but probably a little bit more than that beyond it as well. Do you find that Cousins always seems to be one of those starting quarterbacks who very much is in control of the offense on the field? Do you think he's more so than we've seen with Wentz and Kyler Murray this year? It's a great point, I think there is going to be some of that and you probably have to get back to a little of it just because things have changed some in the two and a half years that he's been gone. But they have typically put a lot on him at the line of scrimmage where you'll see him changing plays or changing routes or changing protections. They trust him to do that because he's a 15 year quarterback and he's a guy whose preparation is pretty famous for how diligent it is. Yeah, it's notable for the homework that he does, yeah. Yeah, the study time and the office he used to keep, I think, in Washington, and you kind of see all of these notes he keeps and all of these things. And they, I think, trust him as much as anything at the line of scrimmage, because a lot of what we see go on after the ball is snapped is how we evaluate quarterbacks. But a lot of what coaches evaluate is, how did he read things at the line? Did he get us out of a play that wasn't going to work? Did he get us into a better look? A lot of that stuff that's happening while the commentators are talking on the broadcast is really important to being a successful NFL quarterback. And I think a lot of why these coaches like him is that he does that part of it quite well. And so I think a lot of it will be back on his shoulders. And I think he'll have quite a bit of trust and quite a bit of autonomy to kind of be that extension of Kevin O'Connell that you'll hear O'Connell talk about that he wants the quarterback to be. Do you think we've been seeing less of that this season with our other starters? Well, maybe a little. I mean, I think there's probably, and you see quarterbacks making changes at the line. I mean, the telltale is when you see a quarterback tapping his helmet going can, can, can. That means whatever play we called, we're ditching that and we're going to the second play. So you've seen that with Wentz, you've seen that with Murray. But I think the ability to get to a number of different things. Probably a little more with Kirk because I would assume there's an understanding of that he can get us into different things and get us to different spots. Probably a little bit more on his own than you've seen with these other guys. And so it's always kind of a trust thing where coaches probably open up more of the menu to a quarterback at the line of scrimmage the more Trust and the more history there is together, so it's probably something that's factored in. Now, one of the, I guess, elements of Kirk Cousins' style of play is he's very much a pocket passer. And where we saw him not succeed in past seasons was when that protection broke down and he doesn't scramble as much. And it's noted that his mobility is not what Kyler Murray's is, This is, for example, How is the offensive line right now set up for him to succeed in that pocket passer situation? Yeah, it's a good question. I think some of it is you've seen a lot of that interior pressure. Then that was something that affected Sam Darnold. That's certainly something they've tried to fix in the last couple of years. One of the things that Kirk has always done really well is be able to stand in the pocket and withstand a hit. But you don't want your quarterback getting hit a lot, especially when he's 38 years old. And anybody who watched Quarterback, the Netflix documentary in 2022, can remember all of those shots he was taking to the ribs that year. And that's not something you want Your quarterback playing through that often. He can succeed while doing it, but that is, I think, a big question is how do they protect him with that pressure coming at him? That's a change that left guard with Donovan Jackson hurt. Blake Brandel, first year as a center, Will Fries has struggled. So You do need that interior line to hold up for him for this to work as well as they hope it will. All right, and then let's finish up by circling back to where we started. And that was with the news conference yesterday, where he comes out and answers a lot of questions. And one of them was about getting the phone call when he was at the Raiders facility and he saw Clint Kubiak and he's like, I have a feeling what this is about. Did you get the sense, I mean, I think I did, that he really didn't wanna leave. A lot of that is you don't wanna uproot your family. Yeah. And I get that. How do you think he's feeling about all this? Well, I think there, and he mentioned it too, talking to his wife, Julie, about what are we gonna do? Cuz the kids had gotten settled in Las Vegas, and they've gone from, I think his kids are like nine and seven, and they've gone from Minnesota to Atlanta to Las Vegas back to Back to Minnesota in. A couple of years, and that's a lot for any family. And I think as players get older, you will hear that factor into these things. How does the family perceive it? So I think he was comfortable there playing for Clint Kubiak and Andrew Janocko, their offensive coordinator, two guys that he played for in Minnesota. And you're kind of getting into that rhythm. But he also, I think, said, if I'm going to get traded, I want to be back in Minnesota. Family loved it here. He loved playing for O'Connell. It's familiar. Throwing to Justin Jefferson is not a downside to the job that way. So it is part of life in the NFL. But I thought it was interesting that he said yesterday when his wife asked the kids, what do you want to do? Do you want to stay here or go? And they said, let's go back to Minnesota. That makes a lot easier, this is a good place to do it. Yeah, because part of it was they put the ball in his court, to use another sports metaphor I guess, but that you have to give approval of this to go, and he did. Yeah, he did. And he said at this point in his career, he's not terribly interested in starting over. And he's certainly not doing that here, whether it's the offense, knowing his way into the building, if he can get back in his old neighborhood with his neighbor, John, that used to shovel his driveway. I mean, I don't know that that'll happen, but there's a lot of things for him that will feel very familiar here. Yeah, and you expect to see him starting? Sunday, I think we all do, right? Yep, yep. I think as long as they're able to get him up to speed and knowing how diligent he is in preparation, I think they'll feel good about it. I expect he will start, which would be kind of a full circle moment. The last time we saw him play was when he got carted off Lambeau Field three years ago, could get a chance to come back and put the purple and gold on at Lambeau again. That'll be fun to watch. All right, thanks for your time today. I know you got a busy afternoon on ahead, so appreciate it. Always fun. Thanks for having me. You bet, Ben. Appreciate it, Ben.