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Cousins will be playing his fifth season with the Minnesota Vikings this fall. He doesn’t light up the metrics in fantasy football, but he is consistently a solid producer. He doesn’t bring with him a rushing upside that is desired from a starting quarterback in fantasy but has such a good supporting cast that he has a high enough floor to make him a worthwhile addition in later rounds.
Minnesota finished the 2021 season with an 8-9 record and in second place in the NFC North. Cousins is under contract through the 2023 season and isn’t expected to be a free agent until ahead of the 2024 season.
2021 season statistics & fantasy finish
Passing: Cousins completed 372 of his 561 passing attempts for a 66.3% completion percentage. He threw for 4,221 yards with 33 touchdowns and seven interceptions.
Rushing: Cousins isn’t known for his mobility and only rushed 29 times for 115 yards and one touchdown.
Fantasy: Cousins finished as the overall QB11 with 300.34 fantasy points on the year. He scored 18.8 fantasy points per game which was the 12th most in the league.
Minnesota Vikings offseason moves
The Vikings didn’t do much to address fantasy football relevant positions in the NFL Draft. They continued their recent trend of shoring up their secondary by selecting Georgia S Lewis Cine in the first round and Clemson CB Andrew Booth Jr. in the second.
In free agency, they signed wide receiver Albert Wilson, linebacker Jordan Hicks and outside linebacker Za’Darius Smith. Cousins will largely have the same players surrounding him as we head into the new season as Justin Jefferson, Adam Thielen and Dalvin Cook remain his main targets.
2022 best case scenario
The best case for Cousins is that he is able to continue being an accurate passer and that Jefferson ends up taking a step forward under Kevin O’Connell to be even better than he already is. Due to his lack of rushing though, Cousins would have to have an absolute monster year to sneak into the top five for fantasy quarterbacks. The best-case scenario is that he finishes as a top seven or top eight quarterbacks.
2022 worst case scenario
The worst case scenario is that his accuracy starts to leave him and he sees his touchdown numbers drop while his interception numbers rise. If Minnesota decides to lean more heavily on Cook in the run game, and the defense is able to maintain leads, the ball may get taken out of Cousin’s hands more than he is used to.
2022 prediction
I think that Cousins is going to sneak back into the top-10 of fantasy quarterbacks. If the offensive line can keep him upright more often, he will have a lot of opportunities to sling the ball around. When you are throwing to guys like Jefferson, Thielen, Cook and a healthy Irv Smith Jr., you have a positive outlook for good production. I think we see Cousins’ interception numbers tick up, but that he will still maintain a high enough touchdown total to make him worthy of a mid-round draft pick.