Kirk Cousins was signed to the highest paying contract in NFL history at three years and $84 million fully guaranteed. Obviously, the Vikings feel he was a big piece needed to make a run at the Super Bowl in 2018. Cousins is a polarizing quarterback with some feeling he’s a top ten at his position and others thinking he’s middle of the pack at best. With that in mind, what should we expect from Cousins in 2018?
What to Expect from Kirk Cousins
Let’s start with comparing Cousins with Case Keenum. After all, the Vikings were able to put up and impressive 13-3 record and made it to the NFC Championship Game with Keenum. Logic would follow that adding a better quarterback to any team would increase chances.
So, the question is how much better is Cousins than Keenum?
Looking at stats, Cousins typically throws for 4,000 or more yards, 27 touchdowns, and 13 interceptions while Keenum’s best season was 3,500 yards, 22 touchdowns, and seven interceptions.
On the surface, the stats don’t look much different but Keenum’s are his best performance by a large margin while Cousins’ are an average over his three most recent seasons. Keenum’s 2017 isn’t that far off from the Kirk Cousins average season. However, Keenum has never performed close to what he did in his career previous to 2017.
It’s unlikely that a journeyman that struggled in his previous stints as a starter repeats that performance again. Cousins is unlikely to put up numbers that really “wow” us in comparison to Keenum but he’s likely to perform slightly about 2017 Keenum levels over the next three seasons.
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