Kirk Cousins Encouraged by Kevin O’Connell to Take Advantage of His Ability to Prolong Plays

Kevin O’Connell, coach of the Vikings, was questioned about quarterback Kirk Cousins twice during a #PFTPM interview on Tuesday.

Which of his better qualities does he not receive enough recognition for? Second, what more can he do in 2023 to get better?

O’Connell focused on one factor in response to the second query: Cousins’ confidence in his ability to make plays with his legs.

“I think he showed it at times last year.” “But that athleticism to maybe not impact the game the way some of the great athletes that are playing quarterback in the NFL right now impact, but there are some plays where I think he doesn’t give himself enough credit for his ability to extend.”

“I think back to that red-zone scramble for a touchdown against the Cardinals last year on a critical third down or even keeping drives alive, stealing a first down. When I call a bad play and he’s got nobody there to convert, he finds a way to extend the play and maybe use his legs to either get that first down or extend a play and make a playoff schedule with his arm.”

“I think he’s capable of doing those things and I think he’s — that’s going to be something his comfort, his understanding year one to year two you just have that much more awareness of not only where your eleven guys are on the field, but defensively how it all works together and you can continue by any means necessary to attack whatever voids and vacancies may be out there for us on each individual play.”

Kevin O’Connell

O’Connell said that he remembered some of the significant throws Kirk made a year ago in pivotal situations that helped us win several football games. When we win 13 games, you can look back and see throws that, in his opinion, only some guys are consistently making while playing in this position from an NFL pocket and being able to accomplish the things that we need him to do, which are many.

Further, O’ Connell stated that those two factors are the beginning point. From there, we can discuss many things, such as Kirk’s capacity for information processing, his knowledge of defenses, and his capacity to run the show and serve as one of our team’s prominent leaders. 

“Well, to me he’s got two things that are main requirements that I believe to play quarterback in the NFL.” “He’s extremely accurate and he’s tough and durable. I don’t know if you can really, quantitatively put that second part into a statistic. I can just tell you that he’s played a lot of football in his career.”

“He consistently is out there every Sunday competing to win football games and can handle the rigors of playing the quarterback position in an NFL offense where we put a lot on his plate. He has a ton to do with our success as an offense and then you can just never undervalue the ability to throw the football at a world-class level and put it where you want to put it location-wise.”

Kevin O’Connell

O’Connell made two constructive remarks. We’ll have to wait and see if Cousins stays as Minnesota’s quarterback after 2023. He can improve on his first season working with O’Connell and demonstrate to everyone on the team why Cousins ought to continue holding the position he has had since 2018 through what will be his sixth season in Minnesota.

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