A simple but smart tweet from Anand Nanduri a couple days ago stuck with me: "Something that should be discussed more: The Chiefs had a perfectly fine QB in Alex Smith and traded up for Patrick Mahomes anyway. The Eagles had a perfectly fine QB in Carson Wentz and drafted Jalen Hurts anyway. Good enough isn't good enough."
Super Bowl quarterback lesson for the Vikings: Good enough isn't good enough
Two things can be true at the same time: Kirk Cousins is a good quarterback who can help the Vikings win, and Cousins is a QB very unlikely to help the Vikings reach the Super Bowl.
February 9, 2023 at 6:03PM
It presents us a clear path not only to talk about this year's Super Bowl but to contextualize the Vikings' current — and perhaps future — quarterback situation.
La Velle E. Neal III and I talked about the notion as it relates to Kirk Cousins on Thursday's Daily Delivery podcast.
But let's get into it with even more context now with five focused thoughts:
1. Kansas City acquired Smith before the 2013 season and went to the playoffs three times in four years between 2013-16. Smith was 41-20 as a regular-season starter in those years. But even with that stability, they drafted Patrick Mahomes No. 10 overall in 2017. Smith played another year — his second consecutive Pro Bowl season — before he was traded. Mahomes took over in 2018 and became a star.
2. Wentz has become a bit of a punchline lately, but let's not forget that he was an MVP candidate in 2017 before getting hurt and an above-average QB statistically in both 2018 and 2019 for the Eagles. Philadelphia drafted Hurts in the second round in 2020 anyway, even with Wentz still in the fold. Hurts took over as a starter in 2021 and has been dynamic this year with his run-pass option.
3. Mahomes and Hurts are the prototypes for what brands of QBs generally get their teams to the Super Bowl these days. Both can make plays with their legs, an element that gets treated with the blanket statement "off-script." Mahomes is an elite MVP-caliber player and worth his massive contract. Hurts is an ascending piece of a very good team, whose rookie scale contract allows the Eagles to spend money in other areas and achieve tremendous depth.
4. Cousins is neither of those things. He's an above-average QB whose strength is playing on-script, not off-script. And his $30 million-plus cap hits leave the Vikings with less flexibility to build a superior roster around him.
5. Given all that, if the Vikings are going to attempt to follow the script of these Super Bowl teams but still want to remain competitive in 2023, Drafting a QB in a couple months might not be feasible because the Vikings lack draft capital, have a lot of holes to fill and this isn't considered a very good draft for quarterbacks. But if they are serious about winning a Super Bowl at some point, they need to take a swing at drafting their QB of the future either this year or next year, and Cousins cannot be on the roster beyond 2024. That means either a one-year extension to ease Cousins' cap hit in 2023 or letting him play out the final year of his deal this year. Any other course of action is a risky proposition at best and an invitation of perpetual mediocrity at worst.
When he was hired after the disastrous 2016 season to reshape the Twins, Derek Falvey brought a reputation for identifying and developing pitching talent. It took a while, but the pipeline we were promised is now materializing.
