Can Kirk Cousins get better at improvising when things go awry?

Kirk Cousins turns 33 years old on Thursday and, yes, the Vikings quarterback still calls himself a "work in progress" when it comes to making "off-schedule" plays when all heck breaks down around him.

So how does a nine-year NFL veteran go about improving in that area? How does he and his coaches script a way in practice to get better at playing off-script in a game?

"That is a really good question," Vikings offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak said. "That's something we talk about all the time."

Certain quarterbacks just seem to have the knack. The best of the best right now is, of course, Patrick Mahomes in Kansas City. Cousins has his strengths, but impersonating Patrick Mahomes is far from one of them.

"You kind of take two steps forward, one step back," Cousins said. "But I'll always try to get better in that area."

Is that even possible? When the offensive line breaks down — as it almost certainly will numerous times with prized left tackle Christian Darrisaw sidelined and right guard still a huge question mark — can the more robotic Cousins get better at improvising? Does he even have that club in his bag?

"He does, yeah; he does," Kubiak said. "It's part of his game that can improve, and he's working to improve on it.

"I think back to last year with our first game against the Packers, the first play of the game. I think it was the first play of the season. He took off running and made a big play to Adam [Thielen]. And I think back to that Tampa Bay game, getting a lot of match coverage, he took off and made some plays with his legs. It's a tool in his toolbox that we've got to keep using, and he's improving at it."

Kubiak said the Vikings structure team periods in ways that help Cousins work on improvising.

"It starts with the way Coach [Mike] Zimmer has a slower whistle at practice," Kubiak said. "He lets us get out of the pocket, he lets us complete plays and work on some scramble drills, which has been really beneficial.

"[Quarterbacks] Coach [Andrew] Janocko drills it with them every day — he incorporates an off-schedule component in there — so I think it's practice, but I think ultimately it's in the practice settings against the defense when Coach lets us play and finish."

Cousins, of course, doesn't want to abandon his primary strength — the arm strength and accuracy that's made him the third-most accurate passer in NFL history (67.0%) behind only Deshaun Watson (67.8%) and Drew Brees (67.0%).

"Don't forget what got you here," Cousins said. "What got you here was going through your reads, being a great decision-maker, throwing with accuracy, having precision, being able to go through a progression.

"So, if you just say, 'I'm going to change that and take off and run,' you kind of lose what got you there. It's more of a, 'Can I find that perfect balance?' And the nature of that balance is you're always going to feel like you're a little bit too much this way or a little bit too much that way. If you're always working on it, I'd like to think you're going to be in the right place."