Coherent. Precise. Difficult. Sustainable. Cerebral.
That’s Kirk Cousins in a nutshell, according to Minnesota Vikings general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah, speaking Tuesday at the NFL Combine in Indianapolis.
“He’s an incredibly consistent passer,” Adofo-Mensah said. “I don’t think people realize that essentially every game has a built-in outcome based on factors that they can’t control. And I think what you know about Kirk is that when the odds are modified in his favor he gets the most And I don’t think people appreciate that skill enough He’s an incredibly consistent and incredibly accurate pitcher Tough He’s durable he plays every game He stands there and takes those shots when those throws are a little bit harder to He’s an incredible player. Really cerebral.”
Did you catch that part in the middle where he says Cousins is a stallion “when the odds turn in his favor”?
A few minutes later, a follow-up question was asked about Cousins’ ability to succeed when the odds are not in his favor. Adofo-Mensah, whose responses are as smooth as the stones Cousins keep in a glass vase to remind him of the delicacy of life, brought up a Superman reference that one of his mentors taught him.
“He talked about the quarterback needing to know when to be Superman and when to be Clark Kent. A lot of times you can be bad at being too Superman. It’s not just what happens when the game crashes, but your ability to get us to the next one,” he said.
“As a quarterback, you hold all of our hopes, our dreams, our livelihood with the ball. We want someone to take that risk, but also understand the importance of making smart decisions. So it’s just a matter of putting it all together and figuring out which way gives you the best path forward.”
Adofo-Mensah’s comments about Cousins being great “when the odds are in his favor” may well be related to comments made by new head coach Kevin O’Connell during his press conference. opening, in which he said that “part of our job” is to set up the offense in a way that maximizes Cousins’ talents.
But that still leaves the door open to questions. Maybe Adofo-Mensah is happy to work with him and maybe even restructure and extend Cousins’ contract. Or maybe he talks about himself at every opportunity he gets in an effort to increase his business value.
Remember, O’Connell had a lot of praise for Cousins, but left some leeway when it came to committing to him.
O’Connell said he “expected Kirk to be a part of what we do,” which would have been a step towards confirming Cousins as his man, but then he didn’t. did not give a definitive answer when he was asked point-blank about Chard Hartman’s Cousins on WCCO Radio Last week.
“I can tell you that training camp is way off my mind in terms of what any position can look like. I appreciate the question, but I think we have to look at things in the short term to see how we build this stuff for what’s coming in the season. Training camp will obviously be a big part of that as we progress towards that first game of football,” O’Connell said.
The Combine is only getting stronger, so there could be a slew of Indy rumors this week, and then the football world will go crazy for a week or two when the league’s new year kicks off on March 16.
