2019 NFL Season

[pdub]

In other news, that AFC West trash conference just went 4-0 this week, with 3 of the wins v CnBs NFC North.

[holidaysmore]

Goes to show, other than Miami and the Jets anything can happen in the NFL.

[NewtonHawk11]

Something I really haven’t understood.

Chiefs have had their entire offense healthy for like 10 minutes of game play. And still 6-3.

They’re likely fully healthy on Sunday. And defense has undoubtedly improved.

Chiefs stock is definitely going up.

[Geezer]

Pats going down.

[pdub]

So you’re sayin there’s a chance.

[holidaysmore]

So this will pretty much start the national media 'the pats are old, the demise is here' and the pats responding with the tired cliche of 'it is us against the world routine'. Fantastic.

Yesterday was fun. Really fun. Certainly helped to erase the memory of an absolute stinker of a KU football game.

[CrimsonNBlue]

Suck it CnB

Yikes. North kind of got exposed yesterday.

Game was fun. Good battle.

[holidaysmore]

I've seen reports, players mentioning it, and local talk radio harping on it but was there that many Skol folks out at the Sacred Acre yesterday? I was speaking to someone in the marketing dept for the Chiefs who said the Vikings game was the hottest ticket on the schedule.

[CrimsonNBlue]

I was impressed by how many Vikings fans there were. Most opposing fans I've seen there by far, but I don't get out there much.

It seemed to me that there were more Green Bay fans in town last weekend, but not by a lot. It was a hot ticket, but I'm sure GB would have been even higher had Mahomes played.

[NewtonHawk11]

Suck it CnB

Yikes. North kind of got exposed yesterday.

Game was fun. Good battle.

It was a battle for sure. Chiefs defense stepped up. Minnesota needs to move on from Cousins, now.

[CrimsonNBlue]

Very much disagree, respectfully.

[jfish26]

I was impressed by how many Vikings fans there were. Most opposing fans I've seen there by far, but I don't get out there much.

It seemed to me that there were more Green Bay fans in town last weekend, but not by a lot. It was a hot ticket, but I'm sure GB would have been even higher had Mahomes played.

There's going to be a lot of red in Nashville this weekend. Half my dang neighborhood seems to be going.

[jfish26]

Very much disagree, respectfully.

You really want to keep rolling with Cousins? He sure seems to have a very low ceiling, making a Super Bowl a very difficult proposition.

[pdub]

What other options do they have?

[CrimsonNBlue]

Very much disagree, respectfully.

You really want to keep rolling with Cousins? He sure seems to have a very low ceiling, making a Super Bowl a very difficult proposition.

I'm not a big Cousins fan. He's too risk averse to make a big play and he fumbles way too damn much.

That said, he is the biggest target for uninformed fan hot takes because of his contract. And, his contract is certainly why I do want to keep rolling with him through 2020, when the fully guaranteed money expires. You're paying the money anyway, so moving on from him now is insanity.

The contract really sucked at the time but it was also put in place before all the other QB's got paid. He's currently the 7th highest paid QB in the league and soon enough will be 10th behind Mahomes, Watson and Prescott. Of course, Brees and Brady are on veteran's discount contracts.

And, there are several worse QB's that have won a super bowl. Cousins was the best QB in October by a long shot. The Vikings, despite a sleepwalking rush yard game against the Redskins, are currently 3rd in scoring in the NFC.

Consider his performance this season: After Thursday’s win, NFL Research floated a comparison between the first halves of Cousins in 2019 and NFL MVP Patrick Mahomes in 2018 that might have seemed farcical a month ago: Cousins has the better completion percentage and yards-per-attempt average, with an identical touchdown-to-interception ratio (4.33) to Mahomes’ first half last year and a passer rating (115.2) only a 10th of a point behind.

I didn't like how he played last season, but the numbers are better than one would think: 70% completion percentage; 4,298 yards; 30 TD's; 10 INT's.

I don't think he's an elite quarterback at all but he's capable enough that there is 0 issue in playing him in 2019 and 2020.

[jfish26]

Very much disagree, respectfully.

You really want to keep rolling with Cousins? He sure seems to have a very low ceiling, making a Super Bowl a very difficult proposition.

I'm not a big Cousins fan. He's too risk averse to make a big play and he fumbles way too damn much.

That said, he is the biggest target for uninformed fan hot takes because of his contract. And, his contract is certainly why I do want to keep rolling with him through 2020, when the fully guaranteed money expires. You're paying the money anyway, so moving on from him now is insanity.

The contract really sucked at the time but it was also put in place before all the other QB's got paid. He's currently the 7th highest paid QB in the league and soon enough will be 10th behind Mahomes, Watson and Prescott. Of course, Brees and Brady are on veteran's discount contracts.

And, there are several worse QB's that have won a super bowl. Cousins was the best QB in October by a long shot. The Vikings, despite a sleepwalking rush yard game against the Redskins, are currently 3rd in scoring in the NFC.

Consider his performance this season: After Thursday’s win, NFL Research floated a comparison between the first halves of Cousins in 2019 and NFL MVP Patrick Mahomes in 2018 that might have seemed farcical a month ago: Cousins has the better completion percentage and yards-per-attempt average, with an identical touchdown-to-interception ratio (4.33) to Mahomes’ first half last year and a passer rating (115.2) only a 10th of a point behind.

I didn't like how he played last season, but the numbers are better than one would think: 70% completion percentage; 4,298 yards; 30 TD's; 10 INT's.

I don't think he's an elite quarterback at all but he's capable enough that there is 0 issue in playing him in 2019 and 2020.

Fine - if you take "now" literally (as "start start someone else next week"), sure I agree. But I suppose I took it more as "conclude as an organization that this isn't your guy."

I think now's definitely the time for that.

[CrimsonNBlue]

For sure, you definitely can't extend him. Best case scenario is a playoff win, or dare I say it, a conference title beating overrated San Francisco (No Brady or Mahomes in the NFC) and then you get the succession plan.

Getting rid of Cousins and the god-awful Xavier Rhodes leaves you with a very talented young team and $45 million in space.

[CrimsonNBlue]

Cousins only has the 3rd worst contract in Minnesota behind Xavier Rhodes and Andrew Wiggins.

[NewtonHawk11]

All I know is I saw him go 19-38. Couldn’t hit a WR or RB for an easy pass in the flat.

That defense and skill guys are too good for a QB like that.

[CrimsonNBlue]

Execution was all wrong yesterday. I'm pretty grumpy with the staff and, yes, the QB for that performance.

- I really don't think there was a contingency plan for playing without Thielen, and that is just unacceptable considering he was Q all week.

- Cousins had a 72% completion percentage going into the game and was missing easy targets that kept us behind schedule all day

- Dalvin Cook had 71 yards rushing. 0 (!!!) of them came before contact.

- From my seat it didn't look like the Vikes practiced outside last week.

- Taken an ill-advised TO on last drive.

- That is the only time I can recall a Mike Zimmer defense giving up that long of a TD run.

Just really poor execution all around.