EAGAN — When Kirk Cousins goes home after OTA practices at TCO Performance Center, he pulls out flash cards. He’s found its the best way to master a completely new offense.
“Trying to memorize plays and terms and formations and protections and just the rules around all those things so it becomes instinctual,” Cousins said following practice on Tuesday. “You feel like an eighth grader studying for a quiz in school the next day the way you go home each night and study, but that is really what it does take.”
It isn’t the first time that Cousins has needed to harken back to his middle school study strategy. When he was a rookie, he used the flash card method. He did it again when Washington hired Jay Gruden in 2014 and when he joined the Vikings and John DeFilippo’s offense in 2018.
Coming into the offseason program, Cousins wasn’t completely unaware of Kevin O’Connell’s McVay-style offense. When he would watch the Los Angeles Rams on TV, he’d watch for different elements of plays that he recognized from playing with McVay in 2016 and try to take notice of parts that might be different.
“It’s amazing how much things have evolved,” Cousins said. “Looking back to when I was with Sean McVay in 2016. Sean’s offense… has gone a long ways over the last five years. There’s been a lot of changes. The league changes…There’s foundational undertones that are similar, but I’ve just learned it all as if it’s new and just have to learn it as the 2022 Vikings offense.”
While Cousins is learning from his fifth new offensive coordinator in five years, this challenge is different. The Vikings’ offense under Kevin Stefanski, Gary Kubiak and Klint Kubiak were essentially speaking the same language and now he has to learn a whole new set of words to the point where he’s fluent. Still, Cousins said the bones of most NFL offenses are similar.
“There’s only so much you can change,” Cousins said. “At the end of the day you do have these staple foundational pieces that are pretty consistent across the league.”
One thing Cousins has to his advantage is the same teammates beside him as the last few seasons. He’s played with Adam Thielen and Dalvin Cook for the entirety of his career as a Viking, Garrett Bradbury and Irv Smith Jr. since 2019 and Justin Jefferson the last two seasons.
“It’s more difficult to learn a new system and learn new teammates,” Cousins said. “I’ve done that too and I’d much rather be in a place now where yes I’m learning a new system but I know what Justin Jefferson can do. I know what Irv Smith can do. I know what Brian O’Neill can do. I know what Dalvin can do. So that’s kind of fun because you feel like hey we’re all learning this together.”
The Vikings have another week of OTAs and then mandatory minicamp from June 7-9 to continue the installation of the offense and set the stage for training camp.
