Kevin O’Connell breaks silence on Kirk Cousins’ Vikings future after Achilles injury
Kirk Cousins is officially finished for the season, and that's not something head coach Kevin O'Connell needs or was expecting. The quarterback suffered a torn Achilles on Sunday and will not be able to return for the remainder of the year. With the Minnesota Vikings trending upwards, this is a terrible blow.
Cousins is a pending free agent at the end of this year. He's been with the Vikings for three seasons now, and his future is unclear. Via NFL.com, O'Connell spoke on Cousins' future:
"Yeah, you guys know how I feel about Kirk. Kirk knows how I feel about Kirk. I think he was playing as well as anybody in the National Football League and one of the hardest parts about coping with this ... [is] the fact that he was experiencing his best season in the National Football League."
The team was trending upward, and O'Connell hope that they can continue doing that. They defeated the Green Bay Packers on Sunday, and the head coach conceded that wins like that are going to be harder to come by without their quarterback:
"It's going [to be] a challenge, but one that we've got to accept and try to thrive."
O'Connell also admitted that the team is having internal discussions about where to go now. Obviously, they'll need to sort the position for the time being, but the 2024 season is looming:
"I know he's going to be a free agent after this season, but Kirk knows how I feel about him and that will be something that hopefully works itself out."
Kirk Cousins will be 36 by the time the next NFL season rolls around.
Vikings add Joshua Dobbs in wake of Kirk Cousins injury
Even if Kirk Cousins takes the miraculous recovery route that Aaron Rodgers is currently on for the same injury, he won't be back this year. There's just not enough time.
In the meantime, the Arizona Cardinals traded quarterback Joshua Dobbs to the Vikings as a potential stopgap. Kyler Murray is returning soon, and the Cards won't need Dobbs as a starter.
O'Connell said:
"This immediate solution that we found provides us with a really quality player at a time when we were able to go out and get that player without potentially leaving the world of the future and the now. We were able to accomplish the goal of both, and I think help our football team."
Whether or not he or Jaren Hall is the full-time starter still remains to be seen.