Cousins Gets 1-year, Fully-Guaranteed $35 Million Extension.
Apr 18, 2022 10:29:32 GMT -6
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Post by mngopher35 on Apr 18, 2022 10:29:32 GMT -6
They may have scored more but if so it is because that's the way the game is trending. Compared to the rest of the league is a better way to show that Cousins didn't actually help us generate more points despite the massive cap hits spent on him. In only one of the 4 years since Cousins have we actually had a better ranking in points per drive than the year before he came here (2019, playoff season). Every other year has been worse from that standpoint despite paying way more for him, our offense has averaged about 13th-14th in the league in points per drive it seems since him.
The better option is paying less for other QB's who can produce decent results too but allow us to improve other areas. If you mean is my goal to go back when he was a 2nd year player then... Well the results from Cousins haven't been that much better seeing as we were 13th in points per drive with Teddy. I want to take a shot on improving from this production while also not paying top cap hits for it. If we get a Teddy level player that shouldn't be an issue for anyone pushing for Cousins level mediocrity.
We already spent 40 years experimenting with paying less for QBs who don’t produce as much and I don’t need to remind anyone how filled the trophy case was through that time.
Points per drive is a stat I don’t care about. If you run a lot like we used to then you have fewer drives. If you pass more then your drives are historically shorter on average and if your defense is good then you get more drives per game.
At the end of the day the game is decided by the total points scored not by points per drive. So if you can show me we are scoring fewer points per game I will give you that. Otherwise our biggest holdback going back the the KAO was that our offense didn’t score enough. From what I gather Kirk has something like 135 TDs in 4 seasons and 35 ints. Under Teddy it was like 14 TDs a year and around 9 ints. It takes some twisted statistical gymnastics to make a point that those two data sets are equal.
As far as salary goes yeah , he is expensive. His first contract was more than I would have paid and I wasn’t a fan of signing him. But the increased production have shown that we got improved long term production for the money. There is absolutely no way if we took the production we got at the position in the past and applied it to the teams the last 4 years that our record would have improved.
Alright, you don't have to care about points per drive but it doesn't change how important of a metric it is at the same time. The total points is based on the points per drive in a sense but it just doesn't account for pace at all. That's really the main difference it is just breaking down the total points you reference by how many opportunities you had. It's not like given our offenses the pace factor changes a ton though. We have still averaged about 13th in point per game over that span with Kirk then and only had one year ranked in the top 10 (which is what we were with Keenum). The offense has largely been around average since Kirk got here but he has had incredible weapons around him like JJ or Diggs, Thielen, Cook and other role players as well. We have tons of talent on that side of the ball and in some seasons have seemingly been going backwards with Kirk despite his cap hits.
There is a reason Gardner Minshew isn't a starting QB right now. You seem to be focused on basic stats which have often been used to hype poor QBs (isn't Bortles very high on the td in a single season list?). Others are focused on actually winning football games which includes more than basic stats from a single player. The context is the issue and Cousins fails when it comes to situational football over and over. His numbers are inflated by a great situation and the results have been poor because he didn't elevate us like he was supposed to. I wasn't saying Teddy had as good of individual stats but the team/offense had similar results despite the difference in stats is the point. There are just a chunk of people who overrate Cousins due to them without considering the full context.
I don't understand how his time here would make someone go from thinking he was too expensive and didn't want him to defending tripling down haha. 1 playoffs in 4 years and the production actually hasn't been improving much on offense as was shown despite incredible weapons around him. He is expensive and basically average when it comes to winning football. There is a reason everyone outside the chunk of homers all view him the same way. You don't have to care about the full context and focus more on basic stats but most understand basic stats without winning aren't overly meaningful (that's part of why a Minshew isn't starting right now).
At the end of the day I think most know all of this though, it shouldn't really be needed to go to this level. You are doing exactly what I was saying earlier which is why these circles will never end. The reality of who Cousins is and how good the team has been with him is much different than what a chunk of Vikings fans believe. It will be the same circles until he is gone because his defenders are so dug in despite all the evidence. National media, local media, national fans and a chunk of Vikings fans all see one thing. His defenders somehow see another and despite what has played out will keep the circles going anyways. It is what it is, I don't blame the new regime and agree they need time. I just can see who Cousins obviously has proven to be over time and disagree with that decision (and think Wilfs were moreso ones to push it).
... and neither is this Chris guy.
