Getty/Vikings Kirk Cousins and Kellen Mond will be unavailable after a COVID-19 outbreak on Saturday, July 31, 2021.
NFL fans have been calling back to when the Green Bay Packers blindsided Aaron Rodgers in last year’s draft by selecting his future replacement Jordan Love in the first round.
Kirk Cousins attests the Minnesota Vikings practiced no such malice when the team selected Texas A&M quarterback Kellen Mond in the third round of the 2021 NFL Draft.
“There was good communication through the process,” Cousins told local media on Wednesday. “Kellen’s been great, working hard and picking up our offense quickly. It’s been a good process, and we’re building this thing now to keep ramping up as we get closer to September.”
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Cousins’ Climb as an NFL QB Informing His Mentoring of Mond
While Cousins is capping a decade in the NFL this upcoming season, he has only been a starting quarterback for six years.
Cousins’ climb to becoming a starting-caliber quarterback came with its share of roadblocks and learning lessons as a fourth-round selection in 2012.
Cousins, drafted as the backup to first-round pick Robert Griffin III and ahead of third-string veteran Rex Grossman, who played in Super Bowl XLI with the Chicago Bears, gleamed as much as he could from Grossman and continues to pass on the favor to younger quarterbacks on the depth chart.
“I do the same thing I’ve done with Nate Stanley, Jake Browning, Nate Sudfeld when I was in Washington — you’re an open book. You’re helpful, and you’re there and make yourself available. I had Rex Grossman when I was a rookie and Rex had played in a Super Bowl and won a lot of playoff games and started a lot of games in the NFL and was in Year 10,” Cousins said. “(Grossman) was a big part of my early development as a football player, and I really took every word that he said to heart because I felt he had been there he had done that he knew what it should look like and I held onto his every word. I’ve been there and want to certainly be that same resource whenever possible.”
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Cousins Offers Mond’s Biggest Hurdles of His Rookie Year
Cousins reflected on his rookie year in 2012 and likened the experience of being a rookie quarterback to that of a sponge.
“The big piece right now (for Mond), and I lived it in 2012, is being able to take in the volume of offense that’s being thrown at you,” Cousins said. “The terminology is likely new. The plays, at times, are likely new. Processing that volume taking in that volume to where you can go out and play off instinct is the focus as a rookie quarterback in OTAs and that’s where I think he’s focused.”
Mond was throwing with the third-stringers at OTAs on Wednesday, however, his confidence appeared to be growing with each throw, Inside the Vikings’ Will Ragatz reported.
Justin Jefferson attested that Cousins has offered Mond encouragement throughout the steep learning curve of the adjusting to the NFL.
“Even at practice, (Cousins is) keeping up (Mond’s) confidence,” Jefferson said. “Congratulating him on a good ball and good play. Studying things with him, Kellen definitely is looking good at practice also.”