Start or sit Kirk Cousins in Week 2 fantasy football?

Traveling back in time must be great. It should also be quite expensive and not affordable in the long run, so don’t expect Minnesota to keep doing it as the season unfolds. If you think I’ve turned mental, just take a look at what the Vikings did in Week 1 under new offensive coordinator Kevin Stefanski: 49 offensive plays (Atlanta logged 67), 10 passes thrown, 38 rush attempts. You read it right. Minnesota threw the ball in only 20% of their plays. This was common in 1975, not in 2019. Truth be told, though, the Vikings took the lead just three minutes in, scored their second touchdown with more than eight minutes remaining in the first quarter, and never looked back. Kirk Cousins limited his passes to the extreme, completed eight of 10 attempts with a score, and called it a day. Oh, and he even rushed for another touchdown too!

This was definitely an aberration of a game and something that should not happen again going forward, let alone on a weekly basis. We knew Minnesota was going to feature a run-heavy offense, but Week 1’s numbers are a complete outlier. Even with that, let me be a little concerned about Cousins’ fantasy potential this season. The Vikings have two above-average receivers in Adam Thielen and Stefon Diggs. Both of them will be there for Cousins to hit with passes and more than probably complete the reception and go for yardage. Cousins himself is not an incredible quarterback, but he’s put up more than 4,000 yards in four consecutive seasons, always throwing 25 or more touchdowns and fewer than 13 interceptions. But even if he ends averaging 20 pass attempts per game and keeps up a high completion rate, his outcomes will be really limited purely due to lack of volume. Risky fantasy situation and too much of a gamble to take.

Fantasy Impact: Coming off an easy win against Atlanta to kick-start the season, the Vikings travel to Green Bay this week. And you know who will be traveling all the way out of my lineup? Kirk Cousins. The Packers don’t have a good offense. They have a somewhat good defense, though, but I can see something similar to what happened in Week 1 repeating it here to a certain extent. Minnesota could take the lead, have Dalvin Cook put on another massive performance, and — literally — run with it. Even in the best of scenarios, Cousins’ upside must sit around 150 yards in 15 attempts for one or two touchdowns at most. With a floor of 10.0 DKFP and a ceiling not much higher, I can’t advise benching someone more than on Cousins this weekend (and forever, maybe).

Recommendation: Sit