Post by ukvikings on Feb 9, 2022 19:38:17 GMT -6
The internet loves to argue about whether Kirk Cousins is good or not. I’ll solve the debate: Yes, he’s good. That’s really the wrong thing to focus on here. The Vikings will be asking whether he’s good enough to overcome a massive cap hit that will hinder the ability to fix all of the things named above. History would tell us that the answer is no. In Cousins’ seven years as a starter, he operated an offense that ranked above 10th in the NFL only once (eighth in 2019). And as the Vikings’ defense fell apart over the last two years because they were too cap strapped to rebuild it effectively.
Will a $45M cap hit limit spending? Yes, absolutely it will. But that hasn't happened. That cap hit is in a league year that hasn't started yet. Cousins cap hits by year have been:
2018: $24 M
2019: $29 M
2020: $21 M
2021: $31 M
Did that $31M in 2021 hurt? It was magnified by the fact that it came in a year where the salary cap went down, so let's look at the spending on defense that offseason:
- Added Dalvin Tomlinson for $10.5M / year
- Added Patrick Peterson for $8M / year
- Rolled in Michael Pierce's tolled contract at $9M / year
- Added Sheldon Richardson for $3.6M / year (later reduced, but this was the signing number)
- Added Brashad Breeland for $3M per year
- Added role players: Xavier Woods, Nick Vigil, Mac Alexander, Everson Griffen
- Gave Harrison Smith a 4 year / $64M extension
The defense got everything they could ask for even during Cousin's most expensive year.
Did Cousins break Daniel Hunter's Spine?
Did Cousins tear Anthony Barr's pec muscle?
Did Cousins give Michael Pierce asthma to make him miss the 2020 season?
Did Cousins trade for Yannick Ngakoue, then dump him while he was the team's sack leader?
Did Cousins beat up Jeff Galdney's girlfriend?
Did Cousins drop Brashad Breeland's PFF score from 67 with the Chiefs to 47 with the Vikings?
Did Cousins tear Hunter's pec?
Did Cousins give Barr's knees arthritis?
Did Cousins bench Cam Dantzler for ... reasons?
Cousins has his flaws (namely that he's a robot within the offense and checks down too often); but the defense fell apart because Zimmer's scheme wasn't good enough, the team couldn't develop players (also on Zimmer), and players didn't perform up to expectations.
Overpaying on a DT and CB in the 2nd/3rd tier of free agents along with cheap fillers could also be used to prove the point that Kirk(and other big contracts) did effect their ability to sign free agents. We were in a win now season but couldn’t sign a top tier free agent due to cap space to improve what Zim tabbed his worst defense ever.
I’m cherry picking admittedly but I distinctly remember not being able to be competitive with an offer to the top DEs(Hendrickson and Lawson). Granted Lawson got hurt, but 4/60 for a guy like Hendrickson that has back to back seasons of at least 13.5 sacks would’ve been a whole heckuva lot more valuable than Tomlinson that we have a 7.5 mill void year waste next year. Pinching pennies due to bad contracts like Kirk and others cost us top flight free agents and hurt us in future years.
... and neither is this Chris guy.