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Kirk Cousins is an average quarterback. Mike Zimmer is a slightly above-average head coach. The numbers prove this.
Kirk Cousins' numbers
Kirk Cousins is a fourth-round, 102nd pick who became a starting QB in his third year in the league after Robert Griffin III suffered multiple injuries
Cousins played 110 games, starting 105. Attempted 3,711 passes, completing 2,489—67.1% of them—for 28,723 yards, 7.7 yards on average per throw, with 192 touchdowns and 84 interceptions. His QB rating is 98, and his record is 51-52-2.
Cousins has played four games in the postseason, starting three of those. He attempted 116 passes, completed 72— at 62.1% —for 774 yards, 6.7 yards on average per throw, with three touchdowns and one interception. In the postseason, his QB rating was 86.6, and his record was 1-2.
By the numbers, Cousins is below average. He doesn't have a positive record, and the QB is not clutch in the postseason.
Mike Zimmer's numbers
Mike Zimmer has been the Minnesota Vikings head coach since 2014. It is his first experience as the HC. His first coaching job was back in 1979 with the Missouri Tigers Football.
In 1995, as a defensive backs coach for the Dallas Cowboys, he won Super Bowl XXX.
As a head coach, in the regular season, Zimmer has a record of 64-48-1—.571. In the postseason, Zimmer's record is 2-3—.400.
These are not great numbers, but they are not terrible ones either. The winning record is a good show that Zimmer is slightly above average.
Kirk Cousins or Mike Zimmer, who is the bigger problem for the Vikings?
It is easy to blame the head coach when things go sour. It is easy to point the finger and say Zimmer is not doing his job by not giving Cousins what he needs to shine.
Especially after Zimmer went public to say that he and Cousins are now watching games and training tapes together for the first time since the two started to work together in 2018.
How can the HC take so long, four years to be more precise, to watch tapes with his QB? The answer is simple: he knows what Cousins can do, and more importantly, he knows what Cousins can't do.
As the starting QB, Cousins should act as the team's role model. More than the others, he should care more about helping the team win than anything else. By caring more about himself and his personal ideology, Cousins sends a message that winning is not his priority, he is. If the franchise QB doesn't care about winning, why should the rest of the team care?
Mike Zimmer is a problem for the Vikings, but at least the coach is trying to do the right thing. On the other hand, Kirk Cousins is a problem and doesn't care—this explains why the former is slightly above average while the latter is below average.
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