NFL Reactions: Buyer's Remorse?

Sports media will feature several big NFL stories in its agenda this week, but there might be none louder than the mounting indictments against the Vikings and specifically Kirk Cousins after Minnesota managed to flail off the playoff path.

Despite spending a fully guaranteed $84 million on Cousins' three-year deal, the Vikings struggled through the season's second half and lost their wildcard spot to an Eagles team that was declared toast at multiple points this year. This has provoked a number of critical assessments of Cousins, with plenty of reception even for the idea that Cousins bears some ultimate culpability for Minnesota's failed ambitions. This might just be a case of lashing out in a pained state, especially since it was a Bears team playing for nothing that knocked the Vikings down for good.

After a 4-2-1 start to the year, in which Cousins threw for 14 touchdowns to three interceptions, the Vikings finished 4-5, and Cousins went on to throw just five touchdowns to four interceptions in Minnesota's four losses after the Week 10 bye. He also averaged fewer than 202 yards passing per game in the final five weeks, which might sap one's faith in the assumption that the issues might be solved with time.

The surface optics of this outcome are not good given Cousins' salary and the fact that the team went 13-3, making it to the NFC Championship Game, with Case Keenum as its primary quarterback last year. You will see some imply that Cousins is the sole cause of the discrepancy between the outcomes of the last two seasons. Whatever Cousins' limitations, and regardless of whether Minnesota signing him will prove a mistake, pinning the blame on Cousins alone is silly. This team has several issues.

The most obvious issue is the offensive line, which seemed to leave Cousins even more stressed than his injury-ravaged line from Washington in 2017. The same line managed to often neutralize the elite Dalvin Cook, and for Cousins it meant difficulty in executing downfield targets. The defense also dealt with injuries it didn't in 2017, with rookie first-round pick Mike Hughes suffering a season-ending injury in Week 6 while the starting corner tandem of Xavier Rhodes and Trae Waynes both missed time while playing hurt in other games. Even linebacker Eric Kendricks missed the last two weeks.

Even more than the offensive line or defense, though, the change that tanked Minnesota's fortunes in 2018 had nothing to do with the Vikings. What doomed them was the emergence of Matt Nagy's Bears, who improved from 5-11 to 12-4, winning the division despite heading into the year ranked fourth in the NFC North in most places. Chicago went from 16.5 points scored per game in 2017 to 26.3 points per game this year, and Vic Fangio's defense went from good to best in the league. Cousins was not some disappointment in any fair sense, he just didn't improve the Vikings as much as the Bears improved themselves this offseason.

If one person must take the blame for Minnesota's collapse, then let it be Mike Zimmer. Zimmer enjoys a favorable reputation around the league, but his personality becomesj abrasive when you're losing, and he hasn't exactly accomplished much, either. Zimmer's scheming is simple on defense – the Vikings dominated on defense in recent years from simply having better players. Zimmer is good for that much – he's good at developing defenders, especially at corner, but even that just segues into the fact that he's mostly just an upjumped positional coach rather than an accomplished schemer or supervisor.

• I have to admit I don't know the exact significance of this, but the Jaguars voided the remaining guarantees in Leonard Fournette's contract, saying that his one-game suspension for fighting against the Bills in Week 12 gives them grounds to do so. If there's specific language in Fournette's contract granting Jacksonville that privilege, then it's pretty surprising that his representation allowed it into the contract. If there is any ambiguity about the interpretation of the contract language, then Fournette figures to challenge that interpretation somehow.

No matter which way it heads, the situation is politically tense between Fournette and the Jaguars, and perhaps team Executive Vice President Tom Coughlin specifically. Coughlin ripped into Fournette and T.J. Yeldon following Sunday's loss to Houston, saying the two showed an insufficient level of interest in the circus unfolding in front of them. The scale of Coughlin's disgust doesn't seem proportionate to the offense in this case, which makes me wonder if he was letting out pent-up prior grievances more than he was earnestly angered at Fournette's sideline pep in a game he was sitting out anyway.

Fournette has been criticized for his weight this year, and it's been implied that his hamstring troubles are related to gaining bad weight. I have no idea how fair that may or may not be, but if Coughlin buys those premises then it might explain his impatience with Fournette. Particularly if the NFL or some other arbiter don't overrule Jacksonville's attempt to negate his remaining guaranteed money, it would seem like Fournette might go on the move. If so, it's bad news for guys like Le'Veon Bell and Tevin Coleman in their negotiations.

• Zach Zenner is another interesting free agent running back, and after overtaking LeGarrette Blount on merit he might get a real shot at a fantasy-significant role this offseason. He ran for 237 yards (4.7 YPC) and three touchdowns in the last four weeks, and he's a competent pass catcher at over 220 pounds.

• Granted, Zenner didn't have to work too hard against the Packers on Sunday. Even before Aaron Rodgers left with his concussion, you could tell Green Bay was utterly hopeless. It was a showing that's basically inconceivable for a Week 17 contest at Lambeau against another NFC North team. It's imperative that the team hire someone who might install a vaguely modern offense.

• Deontay Burnett's numbers look like garbage-time noise given the 38-3 outcome, but I wouldn't dismiss him. He's not much worse of a prospect than recent emergence cases like Robert Foster and Trent Sherfield, and that's despite carrying an incomplete prospect profile after a hamstring injury left him unable to run a clean pre-draft 40. Burnett is skinny at 6-feet, 186 pounds, but he was super productive at USC. He's extremely young, having just turned 21 in October, yet in his final two years at USC he caught 142 of 211 targets (67.3 percent completed) for 1,736 yards (8.2 YPT) and 16 touchdowns in 26 games. He'll likely add some weight at minimal speed sacrifice, and on the Jets he gets to play with the same quarterback he worked with at USC.

• The Panthers are a very dumb team. The Saints are not dumb. The Saints laid down their arms and dared the Panthers to sabotage their own draft position, and Ron Rivera's shortsighted leadership embraced the opportunity.

• I guess it worked out fine enough, but it seems borderline insane of Dallas to play Dak Prescott all game to the tune of 44 passes and four carries in a meaningless game against the Giants. That's particularly true given that Ezekiel Elliott was a healthy scratch. Blake Jarwin probably had the best game of his career, but he might have a meaningful role in 2019 if Dallas doesn't add pro-ready tight end talent. Jarwin finishes his second season with 27 catches for 307 yards and his three touchdowns on 36 targets. A catch rate of 75 percent on 8.5 YPT is a job very well done at tight end.

• The Buccaneers needed to fire Dirk Koetter, but they remained committed in their hostility toward progress by retaining GM Jason Licht. It will be interesting to see if they pursue Todd Monken as Koetter's replacement, as that would be an almost exact recreation of Koetter's scenario of usurping Lovie Smith after the 2015 season.

• Spencer Ware (hamstring/shoulder) did not play against Oakland on Sunday, which I would chalk up to him still being injured. Damien Williams deserves to be the lead guy, but Ware is much better than Darrel Williams and should displace him when Kansas City sets up after the bye.

• The Panthers basically refused to play any running back other than Christian McCaffrey this year, aging him with excessive snaps and touches even while C.J. Anderson wasted away on the bench. With 299 yards rushing and two touchdowns in the last two weeks, Anderson certainly seems like a player the Panthers could have used.

• The game between Baltimore and Cleveland was great, both for its immediate quality and for the foreshadowing it offered. Lamar Jackson is 22 and Baker Mayfield is 24 in about three months, so the showdown from Sunday should repeat itself many times. Jackson got the last laugh in this initial meeting, with C.J. Mosley making a brilliant interception to stop what looked like it would be a game-winning drive for Mayfield.

He tempts a fair number of turnovers, but Mayfield's passing abilities are plainly rare, and he has an uncommon ability to sense the coverage and anticipate his route runners against the coverage. Playing in Baltimore may be the toughest setting in the league for a quarterback, and Mayfield made big play after big play all the same.

Jackson isn't developed yet as a passer, but this game was maybe his best as far as that goes, and as a runner he flashed his demoralizing speed and elusiveness by running for 90 yards and two touchdowns on 20 carries. He had a third rushing touchdown called back on a dubious hold call. Everything he does as a runner is based on reading the defense, so I'm really not sure if there's a way to scheme against Jackson's rush threat. Both of these guys might be top-10 fantasy quarterbacks going into 2019.