Vikings Fans Are FIRED UP...

Vikings fans are fired up even more about Kirk Cousins' return to Minnesota after he took to the podium for his Vikings reintroduction to address everything from the trade itself to the system familiarity, as well as being back with Justin Jefferson to pick right up where they left off three years ago. We're going to break down all of that in this episode of Vikings Digest, but first, we are on our way to hitting 6,200 subs before we kick off against the Green Bay Packers on Sunday afternoon, so if you're part of the 88% of viewers who are not yet subscribed and you want to stay up to date on all things Vikings, make sure to hit that subscribe button and the bell icon so you don't miss any of the episodes when they drop. This is going to be a very big game for the Vikings at Lambeau on Sunday afternoon, a game in which they are only at a 41% chance of winning on Kalshi right now. And on Kalshi, you're trading directly against other users, not the house like traditional sportsbooks. You're buying yes or no contracts on the outcome of events across sports, politics, or even the weather. For example, if you were to place a $25 trade on the Vikings to win Sunday afternoon, that would give you a payout of $58.53. Or now that Justin Jefferson has Kirk Cousins back in the building, If you wanted to take a $25 trade on Jettis to get two plus touchdowns in that game, that would give you a payout of $335.28 off a $25 trade. So if you are interested in trying out Kalshi, use the link in the description or pin comment and use code DIGESTNFL to get $55 added to your account instantly when you trade your first $25. With that, let's just hop right into it, which is that Cousins retakes the Vikings podium. As he had a really good press conference yesterday that we had a lot to cover yesterday with. We had Nolan Teasley presser, we had the Kevin O'Connell presser, and then we had the Kirk Cousins presser. As a lot of Vikings fans were very happy to have him back in the building and to really just get this offense back on track to really try and commit to trying to make this team a Super Bowl contender. As far as his opening statement, it was awesome just to have Kirk Cousins back in the building. Saying I'm grateful to be back. Quite a unique feeling coming back into the building. Knew I was headed to a building that I also knew a lot of guys and have a great rapport. I'm grateful to come to a team that has a lot of ability as well as a coach that just has a lot of promise here in the back half of the season. So excited to be part of it and to hopefully contribute the best I can. Really, it's about trying to go 1-0 this week and putting in the work today and be able to do that. So a lot of people were super happy about him and a lot of people asked him if he thought this was going to be possible. Which he did state as well. See, and I think you might imagine it. I don't know if you thought it was going to happen. But here we are and grateful for the opportunity. And I know a lot of Vikings fans are going to be very happy to see Kirk Cousins possibly on the field on Sunday afternoon. As far as his game status, Kevin O'Connell said that's up in the air. And we'll get to what Kirk Cousins said on that in a second. But overall, having him back in Minnesota is so great for what they have in their aspirations this year. A lot of people say, well, Kirk Cousins took it as far as he could go. But when he was with Minnesota before, he didn't have the defense he has now. He didn't have the offensive line he has now. He had the offensive weapons, but he did not have the protection to be able to get them the ball. Now that he has that and has still shown that he has gas left in the tank, he has more meat on the bone, like he even said, where he can keep going and keep contributing and lead this team to where they tried to get to a couple years ago. As far as Minnesota being that landing spot for Kirk Cousins, he said, I'm not too interested in completely starting over. There was a reason I went to Clint Kubiak this offseason. Want to play with going back to my point about how you go play off reaction instinct. If you're thinking, I don't think you can quite be the same player, otherwise you would be. So to me, it's important to be able to play at a place that you feel that you at least have the potential to do that. And that is where this helps with the familiarity, where he talked about why he went to, obviously, why he went to the Raiders. Clint Kubiak was there, had some really good years in Minnesota with him. We tried to carry that over the Raiders and they had really good success as well. So now as far as him having a choice with where he wanted to go, it was a no brainer to go back to Minnesota. As what I love that the Raiders did. They gave him the choice of choosing whether to stay in Las Vegas and mentor Fernando Mendoza until he was ready or go back to Minnesota where he can have a chance to really push for a Super Bowl and be starting for a lot longer because we knew at some point Fernando Mendoza was going to take over that Raiders job. We just didn't know when. But right now, the situation arise where they had Cousins capital brought up a little bit more where we only had to give up a third. They still brought up his capital more and shows that he can contribute to a team and they have confidence in Fernando Mendoza to move on. As far as his choice from the Raiders. He said spying Clinton very clear basically trying to put the ball in my court. I said well let me talk to Kevin so just wanted to give him a call get on the same page thought we had a good conversation and this is where I know a lot of Kevin O'Connell haters are going to get very mad because of what Kirk Cousins had to say about the trust that he has in Kevin O'Connell. He said Kevin knows me he knows what I do well knows what I don't do well he knows what I can handle and knows what I can't handle and I think that helps not just that he knows your your strengths, but then he knows your weaknesses. And that, as a result, he's going to try to protect you, not have you do things he knows isn't the best chance for success. And I think the fact that he knows me well and the good about me and the bad about me, I think, should help us. And I absolutely love this quote because it goes to show that when Kevin O'Connell has the right quarterback, he knows how to be a good coach. We saw it with Sam Darnold. We saw it with Kirk Cousins. We saw some flashes of it with Kyler Murray, but not enough to really convince us. Saw maybe week one with Carson Wentz, but that was it. Max Brosner, last night, looked pretty alright where that Kevin O'Connell offense was actually starting to move the ball. Again, it was garbage time against a lot of the Bills backups, but still, he was at least moving the ball. But now you bring Kirk Cousins back in here where he has this faith in Kevin O'Connell to know that he's going to put the receivers in the right place. And that he has the trust in Kirk Cousins to get the ball delivered to those guys. He's not going to put Kirk in a situation or a play call that's going to put his weaknesses in danger of being exposed even further. He is going to play call to his strengths. And I absolutely freaking love that. And the thing too that I also really love on top of what he said about Kevin O'Connell was what Kirk Cousins had to say about the big question of unfinished business. And this is where an absolute banger comes in here, folks. Saying, I think my whole career has felt like unfinished business. I don't know what I would say today is any different than how so many other years or moments where you feel like you've got something to prove, you've got something to accomplish and there's more to go get. I think that was why, even this winter, I felt like I wanted to go back and play again, but it just felt like there was more meat on the bone. I didn't quite know what that needed to be, but I just felt like there was more to go get. And so, we find ourselves here today. And I love that, where Kirk Cousins coming off that torn Achilles, a lot of people, when that Achilles injury happened, thought he was done. We knew that that was probably going to be his last snap for the Minnesota Vikings. He was hoping it wouldn't, and after his injury, the city really rallied behind Kirk Cousins, I gotta say, where he felt more loved. after his injury than before it because they were just showing the impact that he had on this team and they wanted to run it back for one more year but they saw the potential and trying to go get a younger quarterback and have a franchise star for a couple more years didn't know how that Achilles injury was going to be and when we saw what he did with his first year in the Falcons he had a couple good games but you could tell he was still recovering from that Achilles injury so yes while Minnesota ended up going in a big-ass circle all the way back to Kirk Cousins I do think everything Everything happens for a reason, and we got Kirk Cousins. At a better time now than if it was after his Achilles injury. Because we saw in Atlanta, he struggled a little bit. He was doing really well at times. But then down the stretch, he kind of started struggling a little bit. The mobility wasn't there as much as it is a little bit back now. So he got benched for Michael Penix Jr. And then he goes to the Raiders. He's doing absolutely very well where he's still more of a pocket passer. But he still is able to at least be more confident in his dropbacks than he was that first year coming off the Achilles injury. So I really like what Kirk Cousins is doing here, and I think that with Minnesota being in the position that they're in, getting Kirk Cousins back at even more full health than he was after that Achilles injury if they had tried to keep him in the building, and a lot more expensive as that too, mind you, as well. So there's a lot of benefits here to having Kirk Cousins back in the building at this point rather than for the past couple of years where we went through all that turmoil. Sometimes you've got to wade through the bad to get to the good, and that's what Minnesota did in this scenario, at least for now. As far as getting up to speed, Kirk Cousins was also addressing that aspect. I think we're going to find over the next couple of days, but certainly you can't play his position if it's not instinctive. And so just trying to make everything as instinctive as you possibly can do. So you're just reacting rather than thinking. And as far as week 10 goes, he did say that it's a fair question to ask. I don't think you can have a fair answer only because how early in the week it is. So I got to get back to work. And so I got to get to work and I could have a better answer for you later on in the week. And I know a lot of Vikings fans are hoping that Kirk Cousins can start on Sunday afternoon. We would be looking at Max Brosmer if he's not up to speed. So that is going to be very, very scary if Minnesota can't get him up to speed. But I have full confidence that he absolutely will because he knows this system. And at the end of the day, he is the quarterback that he is. He's a 15-year vet. He knows how to adjust and be ready for game day. So I absolutely have faith in that. And somebody else who's going to be hoping he's on the field is Justin Jefferson, where Kirk Cousins was asked about his relationship with Justin Jefferson. Saying, I saw him, and for me with Justin, it's just play to play. You're always just kind of, you kind of just go where your reads take you, and Kevin will do a great job of trying to get him opportunities. He's always done a great job of making us look smart. As well as saying that, and so I think that's my approach will be again, is you don't go chasing things like he did in his first couple years in Minnesota. You also understand the player that he is. You go where your reads take you, and you know that he tends to make you right when you're throwing the ball in his direction. And of course, we've seen the best years of Justin Jefferson. We're with Kirk Cousins as his quarterback. He almost got 2,000 receiving yards in a single year because of Kirk Cousins. He had a great year with Sam Darnold, but when you look at the numbers he was putting up with Cousins, it was absolutely magical, and I hope that they can go right back to where they were a couple of years ago and just pick up like a day hadn't passed and just get right back to it and get Jeddas back to being the dominant wide receiver one in the entire NFL like we know that he is. But the big batter that I think was absolutely hilarious that they touched on in the press conference was Kurt Cousins number because we all know right now Jacoby Thomas is number eight for the Minnesota Vikings when he was asked about it yesterday said I need to circle back with him. I haven't gotten there. So we'll have a conversation. I think Mike Parsons will help us too in the equipment room. But yeah, I got to talk to Jacoby. I'm confident that Jacoby and I can have a mature healthy conversation and figure this out and they did as just before recording this video. It was announced. that Kirk Cousins will wear number eight and Jacoby Thomas has switched to number six. So they were able to get to an agreement. Kirk Cousins, number eight, is back in Minnesota wearing number eight. Cannot wait to see it, especially his first home game on November 29th against the Falcons. There is going to be an earthquake in Minneapolis. I feel like you're going to be able to hear all the way from here in Windsor, Ontario, just across from Detroit, Because that Vikings fan base is going to be loud and rocking. And they're probably going to be traveling to Mexico City as well amongst a lot of Niners fans. to try and also make that game feel like a home game, but it'll be very tough. Let us know your guys' thoughts down in the comments below of Kirk Cousins' introductory presser, as well as all the other factors that play into it as far as how you think he will impact this offense if you think they will be a lot better, a little bit better, around the same level, or do you think they will be astronomically better to the point where that will be what gets us over the hump and gets us to the Super Bowl. Let us know down in the comments below as that's going to do it for this episode of Vikings Digest. Again, thank you guys so much for liking, subscribing. Hitting that bell icon so you don't miss the episodes when they drop. And thank you to CallSheet for sponsoring this video. But for now, I've been your host, Griffin. Take care.