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Despite getting off to an 0-2 start, Kirk Cousins has been one of the biggest bright spots for the Minnesota Vikings. His play has had its ups and downs over the last few years, but he’s been consistently good since the quarter way point in 2020.
At times Cousins’ style of play has been frustrating. It’s always been clear that the talent is there, but the lack of mobility in years past has been one of the biggest downfalls to his game.
Early on in 2021 that aspect has shown signs of improvement, scrambling for 35 total yards, finding ways to escape collapsed pockets, and throwing a touchdown to Justin Jefferson after creating more time with his legs.
On top of starting to look slightly more agile navigating the pocket, Cousins finds himself in elite company over his last 16 games. Over that time span he’s had a passer rating of above 90 in every game, and only one Hall of Fame quarterback has done it for a longer stretch.
This obviously doesn't mean that Cousins is on the same level as Peyton Manning, but it’s impressive that he’s the only other quarterback in NFL history to play this consistently over a full season span.
After his strong performance in Arizona which included a passer rating of 122.4, Cousins passed another time span of Manning's, along with another Hall of Famer in Steve Young.
Through the first two games of 2021 Cousins has thrown for 595 yards and five touchdowns while completing 71.6 percent of his passes. It was mentioned earlier that the record doesn’t reflect how well the Vikings’ quarterback is playing, but Cousins put the team in a position to win in back-to-back weeks prior to a late game fumble by Dalvin Cook and missed field goal in Arizona.
There have certainly been games in Cousins’ tenure in Minnesota that fall on the blame of his arm, but that is yet to be the case in 2021. The Vikings have to dig themselves out of a hole just two weeks into the regular season and they’re going to need Cousins' play to continue if they want any chance at turning the year around.
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