Are we being totally fair to Cousins!

The offensive support NFL teams provide their quarterbacks can be a sensitive subject. The Green Bay Packers’ decision to draft a quarterback in the first round without securing receiver help for Aaron Rodgers set off alarms. Tom Brady’s departure from the New England Patriots to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers compels us partly because Brady might fare better with his new team’s superior receiving talent. As the Dallas Cowboys work toward a new contract for Dak Prescott, skeptics question how the quarterback would fare without so many Pro Bowlers surrounding him on offense. Elsewhere, under-talented teams such as the New York Jets simply want to give their young QBs a chance.

We illustrate these disparities in quarterback support by ranking the 32 teams by how many starts they have received over the past four seasons from Pro Bowl players at running back, wide receiver, tight end and offensive line. To qualify, players had to be named to the Pro Bowl initially, not as replacements. Starts are counted only for those seasons when the players were Pro Bowlers. The four-year period aligns with when Prescott, Jared Goff and Carson Wentz entered the league.

The Pro Bowl obviously is not a perfect measure of player performance, but this exercise captures massive disparities between haves and have-nots. The Steelers and Cowboys have had Pro Bowl players account for more than one-third of starts at those positions. At the other extreme, the Jets have not gotten a single start from a Pro Bowler at those positions during the time frame in question (including even injury replacements to the Pro Bowl). Brady’s Patriots also rank well down the list.

The entry for each team shows:

- Player-by-player starts made from 2016-19 by offensive non-quarterbacks voted to the original Pro Bowl rosters that season
- Percentage of starts made by Pro Bowlers (640 is the max possible per team, which represents the 10 non-quarterback positions multiplied by 64 games played over four seasons)
- Where teams would rank if we counted starts made by injury replacements to the Pro Bowl
- Where teams ranked on offense over the four seasons in question
- Which quarterback has started the most games over that span

Remember, all starts and stats refer to the past four seasons only, 2016-19.

20. Minnesota Vikings (46)


Pro Bowler                  Position            Starts As Pro Bowler
Adam Thielen      WR 32

Dalvin Cook                   RB 14

                                                       46/640 = 7%

Non-qualifying Pro Bowl starts (23): TE Kyle Rudolph 16, FB C.J. Ham 7
Ranking if non-qualifying starts were included: 18th
Offensive PPG rank: 17th
QB with most starts: Kirk Cousins with 31 (18-12-1, .597)

First-round pick Justin Jefferson replaces Diggs and should benefit similarly from the Vikings’ strong play-action game, but the offense will presumably go through Thielen and Cook. Minnesota hasn’t had a Pro Bowl offensive lineman since Matt Kalil was named as a replacement for Washington’s Trent Williams following the 2012 season. The Vikings tried to land Williams by trade before the draft and used a second-round choice on tackle Ezra Cleveland.