Kirk Cousins has a certain amount of wisdom as the second-oldest of the 14 starting quarterbacks in this year's NFL playoff field.
NFL playoffs again put the spotlight on quarterbacks, from rookie ones to an ageless one
From Brock Purdy to Tom Brady, there's a wide range of QBs who can carry their teams to those who are complemented by them.
January 14, 2023 at 1:56AM
The 34-year-old Viking kind of shrugged — politely, of course — when asked this week to imagine what 23-year-old rookie seventh-round draft pick Brock Purdy of the 49ers is going through as the unexpected starter on the league's hottest team the past five weeks and again in Saturday's wild-card weekend opener against Seattle.
"It's a team game," said the guy who's been trying to pound that into our thick melons for a decade as his career record lingered around .500 before rocketing upward in a 13-4 season that has his No. 3-seeded Vikings hosting the No. 6-seeded Giants on Sunday. "I think [Purdy] has done a phenomenal job."
One could sense a respectful "but" coming.
"To win however many in a row just shows that they have a really good football team," Cousins said of San Francisco's 10-game winning streak. "That's really what it's all about."
Quarterback is a big piece, obviously. But it's far from the whole puzzle.
Purdy's counterpart Saturday is 32-year-old Geno Smith, the third-oldest playoff QB. If quarterbacks were all that mattered, Smith and the Seahawks would be sitting at home watching Russell Wilson and the Broncos in the postseason.
Instead, the early returns on last year's blockbuster trade looks thusly: Denver is awful, looking for a new head coach again and worried about striking an overzealous deal that guaranteed the 34-year-old Wilson, who was terrible this season, $245 million. Meanwhile, Seattle is in the playoffs and owns the fifth overall draft pick via the Broncos. Smith had a career year on a cheap one-year deal and is likely to earn NFL Comeback Player of the Year for no other reason than he's coming back from nine seasons as a disappointing second-round draft pick of the Jets.
If Seattle upsets the 49ers, Smith would become the first quarterback since Rich Gannon in 2000 to win his first playoff start at least 10 years into his NFL career.
Saturday night, two more quarterbacks making their playoff debuts face off when the Chargers' 24-year-old Justin Herbert plays the Jaguars' 23-year-old Trevor Lawrence in a game that features the sixth-youngest QB combo (48 years, 45 days) in postseason history.
Then there's ageless Tom Brady, 45. He's looking to extend his NFL records for playoff wins (35) and Super Bowls won (seven), yet he's a sub-.500 QB this season (8-9) and a home underdog versus the Cowboys on Monday night. Not because Dak Prescott is a better quarterback. Prescott, 29, has a grand total of one playoff win, but his t-e-a-m can run the ball and play great defense that torments the passer and takes the ball away.
The other playoff quarterbacks are Baltimore's Tyler Huntley, 24, filling in for the injured Lamar Jackson. 26; Buffalo's Josh Allen, 26; Cincinnati's Joe Burrow, 26; Kansas City's Patrick Mahomes, 27; Miami's rookie seventh-round pick Skylar Thompson, 25. replacing the injured Tua Tagovailoa, 24; the Giants' Daniel Jones, 25; and Philadelphia's Jalen Hurts, 24.
The fact Mahomes, Burrow, Hurts, Allen and Herbert are all under 28 means the NFL is in great hands for years when it comes to superstar quarterbacks to thrill us. Just remember what Kirko said and don't forget that each one of them also has a very good team surrounding him.
Mike Conley was in Minneapolis, where he sounded the Gjallarhorn at the Vikings game, on Sunday during the robbery.
