Looking back at how the Vikings got to the point of picking JJ McCarthy with a first-round selection (and hoping he takes them to the promised land)
I’ve always been incredibly fascinated by NFL teams’ quarterback histories. Maybe that’s because every time you go back through them there are always lots of gems and a few “I forgot that guy played here!” moments.
Kirk Cousins fits in a weird place. He wasn’t a one-hit wonder and he wasn’t Tarkenton. He wasn’t a character or an underdog story. He wasn’t without big/exciting moments but he didn’t have enough of them to make the many millions worth it. Where do we begin with the dominos that led to McCarthy? The Big Bang moment has to be Teddy Bridgewater’s injury. Up to that point the Vikings believed they had found their man. While Bridgewater’s stats page wasn’t flashy, he graded out as a mid-pack quarterback by PFF over his first two seasons and he played exactly the way Mike Zimmer wanted, avoiding turnovers, coming through in some key moments to get them to 11 wins in 2015 and leading the locker room.
Even with the magical Keenum story playing out brilliantly, it’s hard not to wonder if either Bridgewater or Bradford were given the same set of circumstances how that season would have played out. It’s not insane to think that either QB could still be here if they were healthy. Bradford is currently only 36 years old.
While Cousins played very well in 2019 and had a terrific game against the Saints in New Orleans, there was plenty of reason to think that they should let his contract situation play out through 2020 rather than extending him. His price tag and the fact that the group of players who led them to the 2017 NFC Championship game was corroding made it reasonable to think the Vikings should let things play out in 2020 and risk the possibility of Cousins leaving.
Still the Vikings stuck with Cousins in the following draft. In this case it was the right move. The 2021 QB class turned out to be the exact opposite of 2020. Zach Wilson, Trey Lance, Justin Fields and Mac Jones all currently play for different teams than the ones who drafted them. It’s worth asking whether Jones or Fields would have done much better in Minnesota with the quality of receivers and offensive coordinators they would have inherited but neither had more than flashes in the NFL.
Again there was a chance to completely bail on the season and try to pick as high as possible. When Cousins went down with an Achilles injury in Week 8 against Green Bay, the Vikings could have traded Danielle Hunter and stuck with the QBs on their roster and let the season slip away. History repeated itself though. They allowed the Green Bay win to convince them that the playoffs were still possible and chose not to tear it down to the studs at the trade deadline.
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