Murphy: Vikings players deserve a veteran replacement for Cousins

Brian Murphy writes that the Vikings can’t give up on 2023 even with their starting QB down

By Brian Murphy

You won’t have Kirk Cousins to kick around anymore, just as he was feeding that sticky “Kick Me” sign into the shredder.

It wouldn’t be a Vikings season without crisis management keeping the bunker lights burning at TCO Performance Center and desperation churning among the faithful who can’t seem to buy a break with this forlorn franchise.

Eyes were downcast and heads knowingly shook Sunday after Minnesota’s polarizing quarterback tore his right Achilles tendon near the end of a thorough two-touchdown victory over that empty vessel known as the Green Bay Packers.

All that hammering-and-tonging just to level set in a once-lost season feels like peak irrelevance after morale collapsed like a cheap tent on Mount Everest.

The Vikings gave tribute to their fallen brother in solemn postgame remarks that sounded more perfunctory than promising. Everyone knows a torn Achilles is game, set, match on a fellow warrior’s season.

They also paid lip service to the collective effort it will take to maintain the brick-by-brick momentum they stacked the last month to salvage a season in intensive care yet again.

Four wins in their last five games, including an impressive takedown of the suddenly vulnerable San Francisco 49ers, should have had the Vikings sailing into a soft schedule with postseason redemption top of mind.

Instead, they are marinating in uncertainty and limping into Tuesday’s NFL trade deadline with potentially conflicting emotions roiling the front office and locker room.

Second-year general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah faces the most important week of his tenure. The moves he makes or doesn’t, and the rationale behind those decisions, likely will impact the Vikings for years.

Not offering the 35-year-old lame-duck quarterback an expensive contract extension was prescient. Moreover, Adofo-Mensah doesn’t have to spend any political capital moving on from the experienced Cousins and investing in an unproven prospect. The MRIs and extended rehab will take those bullets.

But winning draft day in April cannot risk losing the locker room in October. Adofo-Mensah owes his 52 other employees a competitive chance to continue the remarkable journey they’ve already been on for eight weeks.

A roster that coalesced around its 35-year-old quarterback leader has lost its aw-shucks alpha dog and the swagger Cousins injected into this resilient team with his surgical play in the pocket.

Now is the time for bold action, not risk aversion. Not with fifth-round rookie Jaren Hall in over his head and backup Nick Mullens and his 17 career starts on injured reserve because of a back injury he suffered before Week 5.

The sidelines are riddled with veteran passers idling behind an inexperienced franchise quarterback in Carolina (Andy Dalton) and in New Orleans (Jameis Winston), though Minnesota’s negotiating leverage is pretty much goo.

Other proven free agents are probably gazing at their investment portfolios or raking leaves waiting for that Hail Mary phone call.

Matt Ryan played in a Super Bowl. Carson Wentz got a ring rehabbing from knee surgery. Nick Foles and Joe Flacco each started one and won.

Hard truths made them unemployed quarterbacks, so let’s not kid ourselves that riding shotgun in a plug-and-play classic car will drive second-half success.

But the pro-rated price is right. Besides, when you’re hungry, there’s no time for nitpicking dents or expiration dates in the discount bin. Just leave Josh Freeman out of it this time, eh?

Pushing stacks of 4-4 chips into the pot when a half-dozen other contenders have healthier hands and quarterbacks seems like a fool’s errand at face value. But there is something primal about how this Vikings defense has rebounded after an awful start and everything prime time about this receiving corps that says to hell with the odds.

Cousins’ accuracy, acumen and production behind a fiercely protective offensive line reminded everyone how lethal he can be just when you think his window of opportunity was painted shut. Which makes the irony so cruel that he came up lame at Lambeau without a defender anywhere near him.

Watching him dialed in with tight end T.J. Hockenson, receiver K.J. Osborn and rookie wideout Jordan Addison makes those early season turnovers and lost opportunities even crueler considering what might have been vibes that always stalk the Vikings.

That they are 3-0 without star wide receiver Justin Jefferson might be the second Minneapolis Miracle.

Not to overlook the resurrection on defense coordinated by Brian Flores. His blitzing schemes and disguised threats have left opposing quarterbacks Bryce Young, Justin Fields, Tyson Bagent, Brock Purdy and Jordan Love seeing ghosts.

All it takes is a thousand-yard stare and visions of a serviceable quarterback setting up behind a roving wall of protection and dicing secondaries by hitting pass catchers who seem to get open at will to envision a string of 17-10 victories through the holidays.

Those 52 souls who could have mailed it in after opening the season with three straight losses have earned that cavalry coming over the hill.

What is that if not process-driven, Kwesi?