"With Kirk Cousins you have to ignore what you had to pay to get him because he will never play up to what you paid. He is not a $30m-a-year quarterback"
Thursday 13 December 2018 17:11, UK
NFL.com analyst and former player Bucky Brooks has told Sky Sports that Minnesota Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins "will never play" up to the level of his lofty price tag.
The former Washington Redskins QB joined the Vikings in the offseason in a then record three-year, $84m deal in search of clinching a maiden Super Bowl.
However, having reached the NFC Championship game last season, Minnesota have stuttered to 6-6-1 this year, sitting precariously placed as the final No 6 seed for the playoffs in the NFC.
Speaking on the latest Inside the Huddle podcast, Brooks said: "With Cousins, you have to ignore what you had to pay to get him because he will never play up to what you paid.
"He is not a $30m-a-year quarterback. When you get into that big money, you expect your quarterback to be able to erase some of your flaws as a team and Cousins doesn't do that.
"I thought this was a great fit for him because he was going to a team that I thought would protect him from himself.
"The Vikings have talented playmakers on the outside, a big-time tight end, running back, running game - he was going to get heavily compensated, but could still play as a game manager. What we're seeing is Cousins isn't that guy that is a transcendent talent."
However, Sky Sports' Jeff Reinebold believes that the Vikings offensive woes cannot be solely blamed on the 30-year-old quarterback, with Minnesota aware what type of player they were purchasing.
"Blame can never be just one guy or just one position," Reinebold said. "There is a lot of blame to go around in that situation in Minnesota; that's an underachieving football team.
"You paid a bunch of money to bring in Cousins, he was supposed to be the key and I think he has dealt with the pressure.
"But, you have got to look at history and one of the things that Kirk Cousins has struggled with is making big plays to win marquee games. You look at his Monday Night Football record, it's 0-7.
"But they had to pay market value for the player. It is tough to put it all on him."
Monday night's defeat by the Seattle Seahawks left the Vikings' season in the balance, and offensive coordinator John DeFilippo ultimately paid the price for Minnesota's poor showing as he was sacked following the loss, primarily for failing to run the ball enough.
The Vikings are ranked 30th in the NFL for rushing this season, managing just 85.4 rushing yards-per-game this year as opposed to the 122.3 they managed in 2017.
Also, on third-and-five or shorter plays this season, the Vikings have chosen to run the ball 13 times and called 67 passing plays, resulting in one quarterback scramble and the rest being passes or sacks.
Brooks believes that DeFilippo's inability to run more plays that head coach Mike Zimmer wanted him to cost him his job.
"I felt like it was coming," Brooks explained. "Mike Zimmer has been adamant about running the football more.
"When he took that to the press and let the media know that he wanted to run the ball and then you look at the Vikings and they didn't show a strong commitment to the run, throw in a couple of losses and you know it is only a matter of time before John took the bare end of that.
"The one thing you want to do if you're the head coach, and if you are eventually going to get fired, you want to go out doing it your way.
"If your offensive coordinator is not playing the style of ball that is your vision, then you have to let him go because I am going to get him before he gets me, and he was eventually going to get Mike fired if he didn't change his ways."
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