Extend Cousins or ... ?

I think you are struggling with the concept that points per drive isn't some convoluted stat that I just made up. It is a more accurate representation of how well (or poorly) a defense did in preventing another team from scoring.

Let me go slow with an example.

The 2006 Colts defense defended the fewest drives in the league that year at 155. On each drive, they averaged giving up the most yards of ANY team in the league that year, but since the offense kept them off the field more than Philly and NO that season, they ended up defending 27 fewer drives that year. Of course Philly and NO will give up more yards defending so many more drives. More points too. On top of that, your PPG stat includes points given up when the defense wasn't even on the field. A pick six counts against the D in your stat, which makes no sense.

So here you go again, ranks in PPD:

2021
points 22nd.
Yards 23rd.

2022
Points 24th
Yards 27th

2006 colts.
Points 28th
Yards 32nd

2011 giants
Points 24th
Yards 22nd

2016 Falcons
Points 28th
Yards 26th

2022 chiefs
Points 21st (.02 or a single TD on the season away from the Vikes)
Yards 16th

3 defenses in or winning the SB that were worse than the Vikings in 2021 and 2022, and 1 that was nearly as bad winning it all just last season. Again though, that isn't the bar the 2021 and 2022 Vikings set under Kirk Cousins, the bar was winning a single playoff game.


Yeah, the salary cap can be tricky for some so let me go slowly on this one as well.

Kirk Cousins is making a set amount for playing this year. We know exactly what he will make and his contract does not go beyond this season outside of void years. QBs like Mahomes, Allen, Jackson, Hurts, Watson, Jones, Stafford, Herbert and Wilson have contracts that go beyond this season when the cap will just continue to grow. So in 2031 when Mahomes is set to make 52 million against the cap, that will be a much lower percentage of the cap than 52 million would be this year. That makes comparing Cousins contract to his a very apples to oranges comparison. It would take someone going through and making a guess at what the cap will be each year of these QBs contracts (which you can only do accurately up to the year 2026 and even that is pushing it) then calculating the cap % of each year averaging that out and comparing it Cousins this year to get an apples to apples comparison. Feel free to do that as I would be interested in those numbers. My guess is Kirk's 15.6% is probably higher than Mahome's percentages, so a real bargain.