It's up to Kirk Cousins to prove he's not an $84 million bust

Yahoo ^ | December 12, 2018 | Dan Wetzel

[C19fan]

Last January, Case Keenum threw 20 incompletions, threw two picks, and threw away what felt like a Super Bowl in the cold of the NFC championship game in Philadelphia.

The Minnesota Vikings saw their quarterback get outdueled by Eagles backup Nick Foles, dashing the dream of hosting the Super Bowl. Afterward, the franchise focused on a single thing – get a quarterback, just about any quarterback, at just about any price.

All the other pieces were there, they believed.

So they went out and got Kirk Cousins, for $84 million over three years, convincing him to come to Minnesota because of how close the Vikings were to winning everything.

[dirtymac]

It would help if he had some people on offensive that could either catch a ball thrown to them or someone who could run the ball. Putting this all on Cousins is not a true reflection of the team. Balls were hitting receivers in the hands or bouncing off their chest and they would drop the ball. Seattle’s defensive line spent more in the Vikings backfield than their own team.

[Borges]

Drew Brees has been putting up inflated numbers in a pass-oriented NFL these days

I've heard people say the same thing about Peyton Manning.

[Red Badger]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2018/12/11/seahawks-get-away-with-bobby-wagners-illegal-field-goal-block-win-over-vikings/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.802ad115c6ff

[sanjuanbob]

Your link is from the Washington Post. Does that mean that Trump paid off the referees?

[Red Badger]

No, it was just handy...................my wife thinks the refs are paid off by the Mafia to make one team win or lose, whichever team will bring them the most money................

[Alberta's Child]

You won't get an argument from me on that. That's why I don't compare statistics from one era to another. I compare players against their peers who play around the same time.

There are 9 NFL quarterbacks with 50,000 or more career passing yards. FIVE of them are still active, and only two of them (Marino and Elway) retired before 2000.

[discostu]

There are good times to go conservative, when the clock becomes your primary opponent. But that’s late. Never with less than 10 minutes left. Especially if you’ve got a crap run game. It’s especially damning of McCarthy how many 4th quarter wins Rogers has where the team had a lead in the 3rd. Rogers probably got back nearly half the leads McCarthy lost.

[grey_whiskers]

He looked too much like Paul Ryan in those insurance commercials.

[dirtymac]

I believe that would have been a missed called on the part of the umpire/referee/judges. “Illegal” acts take place on the field all of the time; pass interference, holding, etc. . Some are called, some are not, some are missed called. So the lineman committed a “penalty” as opposed to cheating. He was flagged for this penalty but was overridden by the umpire. Bad call yes but does not constitute a blanket charge of cheaters. Just the same as intentionally committing pass interference in the end zone and getting away with it.

[Borges]

The correlative is the paucity of dominant running backs. Frank Gore is 4th on the all time list. Adrian Petersen is in the top 10. They will retire soon and then there is no one even close. People don’t run the ball any more.

[depressed in 06]

It is up to someone in the Viking organization to prove they are not complete idiots. Cousins is a genius.

[Alberta's Child]

Great point. Emmitt Smith’s career rushing record and Eric Dickerson’s single-season record might be considered unbreakable at this point.

[RainMan]

The answer may be simpler than you think ... A franchise QB does not guarantee a Super Bowl. What a franchise QB does is put your team in a position to get to the playoffs. Once in the playoffs, you will most likely be going against other Franchise QBs. As far as winning the Super Bowl, there can be only 1 each year, but that does not mean there can be only 1 franchise QB.

Maybe what would be better would be to define what a franchise QB really is? Wikipedia says “In professional sports, a franchise player is an athlete who is not simply the best player on their team, but one that the team can build their "franchise" around for the foreseeable future. The term may be used alongside a particular position name to describe a player, such as a "franchise quarterback" in American football.”

However, if you look at my caveat that a franchise QB gets your team in a position to be in the playoffs, then said QB should be able to show continued success in getting to the playoffs … so lets set a bar of a minimum of 10 playoff wins. Next, they should have a winning record in the playoffs, and when you do that … guess what … there have only been 24 “franchise QBs” in the history of the NFL. Notice Rogers, Brees, Wilson are all on the list, and the others you mentioned are not.

Name	Wins	Losses	Total Games	Winning %
Bart Starr	9	1	10	0.9
Jim Plunkett	8	2	10	0.8
Terry Bradshaw	14	5	19	0.737
Troy Aikman	11	4	15	0.733
Tom Brady	27	10	37	0.73
Joe Montana	16	7	23	0.696
Kurt Warner	9	4	13	0.692
John Elway	14	7	21	0.667
Joe Flacco	10	5	15	0.667
Eli Manning	8	4	12	0.667
Russell Wilson	8	4	12	0.667
Roger Staubach	11	6	17	0.647
Ben Rothlisberger	13	8	21	0.619
Phil Simms	6	4	10	0.600
Ken Stabler	7	5	12	0.583
Steve Young	8	6	14	0.571
Aaron Rodgers	9	7	16	0.563
Donovan McNabb	9	7	16	0.563
Bob Griese	6	5	11	0.545
Fran Tarkenton	6	5	11	0.545
Brett Favre	13	11	24	0.542
Drew Brees	7	6	13	0.538
Jim Kelly	9	8	17	0.529
Payton Manning	14	13	27	0.519

Note 1, I sorted on winning %.

Note 2, Every loss means they got their team to the playoffs another year. You lose you are out.

Note 3, Payton Manning had a reputation of never being able to win the big game. This list sorted this way shows why he had that reputation.

[big'ol_freeper]

[Steven Scharf]

Dania Patrick not even close to be the first woman to race in NASCAR.

As per wiki

NASCAR has seen varying levels of participation by female drivers throughout its ranks since the sanctioning body’s inception in 1949. Sara Christian competed in the inaugural NASCAR race at Charlotte Speedway (she had Bob Flock finish the race).[2] In the second official race, at Daytona Beach and Road Course, Christian was joined by Ethel Mobley and Louise Smith, with Mobley finishing first out of the 3, in 11th.[3] Through the 1950s and 1960s, female racers made only a handful of starts in NASCAR’s touring series. Betty Skelton Erde wasn’t technically a NASCAR driver, but she drove the pace car at Daytona in 1954, and was clocked at a speed of 105.88 mph (170.40 km/h) on the sand, setting a stock car speed record for women.[4]

No woman had raced NASCAR in a decade when Janet Guthrie started the 1976 World 600,[5] finishing 15th, ahead of Dale Earnhardt.[6] In 1977, Janet Guthrie, would become the first woman to lead a Winston Cup Series race under caution, at Ontario Speedway. In 1986, Patty Moise would become the first woman to lead in a Busch Series race.[7]

[Steven Scharf]

You really can’t compare Bart Starr’s playoff record with the rest of the group. Most of his playoff games were one and done, win or lose.

Interesting that in this conversation there has been very little mention of Tom Brady.

If Tom wins the Superbowl, he will be 30 and 10 for 75% win record putting him 3rd on your list.

I assume you meant 10 playoff games in your last paragraph.

[EdnaMode]

The Redskins could still use him though.

[Rummyfan]

Dan Marino...good QB, nice guy. Same vein as Phillip Rivers.

Maybe this is Rivers' year?! They are winning a lot of close games - ala last night. And I gotta love a guy with nine kids.

[Rummyfan]

Better question:"How many good QBs have they had since they came into the league." Answer: Exactly one (1)... (F.T.)

They got a great year out of Randall Cunningham at the end of his career, and would have made the Super Bowl if Gary Anderson had made a FG.

They also got a great year from Favre at the end of his career and would have made the Super Bowl if he hadn't thrown an INT in OT...

Is that a pattern?!

[daler]

The Vikings are to football what the Cubs USED to be to baseball.

It's almost surreal, the creative ways they've come up with to disappoint their fans over the last 50+ years since coming into the league.