Probably in the minority with this, but.....

Quarterback

Not much has changed since we broke down Kirk Cousins in November, but his flaws came to particular light as the season stretched on.

He’s improved in passer rating but in doing so has revealed the inherent flaws in the statistic, particularly its emphasis on completion rate. Completion rate by itself has a minimal impact on winning percentage, especially after one accounts for yards per attempt.

Among all qualifying quarterbacks, Cousins has the lowest yards per completion. One big reason for that has to do with the fact that Cousins has one of the lowest average depths of target among quarterbacks, meaning he throws shorter passes than most of the other quarterbacks in the league.

Generally, when we see a low depth of target combined with a high pressure rate, we can blame the fact that the offensive line may be giving up pressure so quickly that the passer has to get rid of the ball quickly — but Cousins has the 14th-longest time to throw by SportRadar’s measure and 15th-longest time to attempt by Pro Football Focus’ measure. With 38 qualifying quarterbacks, that’s in the top half.

Very often, Cousins will take advantage of the moments he does have time in the pocket to check down. He ranks 25th in deep-passing percentage, and he doesn’t rack up many intermediate attempts either. That’s not because Vikings receivers have difficulty getting open downfield — Stefon Diggs and Adam Thielen are perhaps the best duo in the NFL — but because he wasn’t willing to take chances with them.

Next Gen Stats has a measurement called “Aggressiveness Index” that looks at how often quarterbacks throw at receivers into tight windows, with a yard or less of separation. Cousins was the fourth-least aggressive quarterback among the 32 with at least 270 passing attempts.

Given the prodigious ability that both Diggs and Thielen have with contested catches, this is a bit of a waste and represents significant lost opportunities. It would have been smarter for the offense to sacrifice a chance at some completions for a chance at more yards. (This might be part of the reason that the Vikings were the worst team in the NFL at engineering comebacks, standing alone as the only team without a win via fourth-quarter comeback this season.)

That plays a role by itself, but so does Cousins’ methodical nature — one that treats every down the same. Without adjusting his approach for the context of the down or the game, the Vikings offense couldn’t ratchet up their aggressiveness when necessary, often taking easy completions the defense was happy to give up.

The combination of his caution and consistency have resulted in a shockingly high turnover total — tied for third among all players in the NFL. Four of his turnovers have been returned for touchdowns, meaning that even his safe approach has resulted in disastrous consequences — leading the league in turnover touchdowns allowed.

Because short passes result in a higher likelihood of return touchdowns, even as they reduce overall turnover rate, Cousins’ predictability on safe passes has caused big problems for the defense. That’s why the Vikings have the largest difference between total points allowed and defensive points allowed. When only looking at points allowed from rushing touchdowns, passing touchdowns and field goals, the Vikings defense ranks fourth — with only 16.7 points per game (excluding extra points).

When looking at total touchdowns and field goals, once again excluding extra points, the Vikings defense ranks ninth at 18.9 points per game. The Vikings are the only team with a difference greater than 2.0 points from non-defensive scoring.

These errors pile up. The Vikings lost their first matchup against the Bears by 5 in a game where Chicago returned an interception for a score. The Saints also had a pick-six and a 54-yard fumble return that led to another touchdown in their 10-point win over Minnesota in October.

The offense has made it easy for the Vikings to fall behind. Once that happens, they have significant difficulty catching up. Much of that is on their shiny new acquisition at quarterback.

Carolina Panthers quarterback Cam Newton and Minnesota Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins both missed the playoffs, but they came in on opposite ends of the spectrum in an anonymous survey of 85 defensive players from 25 different teams conducted by The Athletic.

Newton received the most votes as the league's most underrated quarterback, while Cousins topped the list of the most overrated ones.

Philip Rivers and Alex Smith rounded out the top three in the underrated category, while Russell Wilson, Mitchell Trubisky, Drew Brees and Lamar Jackson notched multiple votes.

Eli Manning was the runner-up as the most overrated signal-caller, although Joe Flacco, Matt Ryan, Matthew Stafford, Tom Brady, Derek Carr, Andy Dalton, Dak Prescott, Jameis Winston and Sam Bradford all received multiple votes.

Kirk Cousins has 36 career wins, of those wins, 12 have been on game-winning drives. Meaning, Kirk has pulled out a win for his team in roughly 1/3 of his wins and 1/9 of his starts. Let's stop the "clutch" narrative.

Other Viking QBs against teams with a winning record:

Culpepper: 16-21
Favre: 7-8
Ponder: 6-12
Bridgewater: 4-8
Keenum: 5-4
Bradford: 3-5