The Minnesota Vikings have officially made it to the NFL Scouting Combine for this week’s festivities. During the week, you will get general managers and head coaches speaking at the podium talking to the media.
Sometimes with these press conferences, you get some good quotes but other times it’s just a bunch of coach speak without really giving anything juicy.
Whenever Vikings general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah speaks, you always get something good whether it be insight on how he will handle personnel decisions or team building as a whole.
During Tuesday’s press conference, he gave a very interesting answer regarding the quarterback decision breaking it down from an analytical perspective.
“Let’s go full numbers, we talk about necessary and sufficient conditions in math; a necessary condition is having a starter level quarterback, a quarterback above a certain threshold. Now that doesn’t mean for-sure you’re going to win, thats not the only thing you need, but that is one of the things you need. Having a good level quarterback is a necessary condition.
Kirk (Cousins) meets that threshold, we know that. Okay well now, how do you build the rest of the team around him to make sure you can win in that way? Different quarterbacks require different things around them, but we know that for sure, (Kirk Cousins) meets that threshold. How long does he meet that threshold? Those are things we need to answer. Is there a chance to add somebody maybe with diferent skillsets? These are all questions we gotta answer so there’s not one right way but I do know one thin, he is good enough, he meets that first threshold. Thats a question a lot of people can’t answer with a yes, so we have to make sure we treat that in the proper importance that it is.”
There are layers to this. Adofo-Mensah said that Cousins meets that threshold of starting quarterback to win in this league, but also made a pointed statement in speaking of his age. How long does he meet that threshold?
With Cousins set to turn 35 and that age historically being the drop off for quarterback play, is that a signal to looking toward the future? NFL Network’s Tom Pellisero reported that there wasn’t interest in another one-year extension.
Could they be willing to move on after 2023 or will a long-term extension at decent money be in the cards? Time will tell, but I would lean towards the Vikings not committing long-term to Cousins.
