Vikings Get Brutal Update on Cousins Ahead of Crucial Packers Matchup

The Minnesota Vikings were dealt a devastating blow Friday when news broke that quarterback Kirk Cousins will be sidelined for team’s biggest game of the season.

The Vikings (7-8) travel to Lambeau Field on Sunday, January 2 for a rematch with the Green Bay Packers. After falling by a touchdown to the Los Angeles Rams in Week 16, completing a sweep of the Packers was crucial to Minnesota’s postseason hopes. Swooping in to dash those hopes is the same culprit that has ravaged the rosters of teams around the NFL in recent weeks — the COVID-19 virus.

Cousins was designated to the reserve/COVID-19 list on December 31. His status as an unvaccinated player makes the news even more catastrophic for the Vikings. Adam Schefter, NFL insider with ESPN, broke the news Friday morning via Twitter.

“Vikings’ QB Kirk Cousins tested positive for COVID, sources tell ESPN,” Schefter wrote. “As an unvaccinated player, he’s out Sunday night vs. Packers.”

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Mannion, Cook Back for Vikings as Cousins Leaves Lineup

If the Vikings have any hope of taking down the Packers now, it will come on the arm strength of backup quarterback Sean Mannion.

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Minnesota activated Mannion off the reserve/COVID-19 list Friday, per the Vikings’ team website, the same day it sent Cousins there. The backup QB’s availability is the only silver lining after the team lost Cousins and designated wide receiver Adam Thielen to the injured reserve list (IR) for the rest of the year with an ankle injury, all within a matter of three days.

Third-string quarterback Kellen Mond will back Mannion up at Lambeau Field Sunday, while the newly-signed Kyle Sloter will fill in behind Mond.

Running back Dalvin Cook, who is also unvaccinated and was forced to miss last week’s game against the Rams following positive COVID-19 results, will return to the lineup against the Packers this weekend, as well.

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Cousins Essentially Removed Himself From Vikings Lineup

Schefter added Friday that Cousins self-reported symptoms to the team, essentially placing himself on the sideline through his honesty and concern for the well-being of teammates.

“Vikings’ QB Kirk Cousins had symptoms, self reported and then tested positive,” Schefter wrote on Twitter.

While his actions are admirable, it can also be argued that if Cousins was truly concerned about his team he would have been vaccinated before the season even began. If Cousins were inoculated, that would not have guaranteed a negative test Friday. The highly transmissible Omicron variant is surging across the country, wreaking havoc on professional sports and causing positive tests in people who have not only been vaccinated, but also received their booster shots.

Still, Cousins’ decision to remain unvaccinated does matter. Vaccinated players in the NFL can return more quickly than others, as soon as their viral load levels are below the contagious threshold. Cousins will be mandated to sit out 10 days per current league protocol, which means he has no chance of returning against Green Bay.

In line with his character, the Vikings quarterback was never dishonest or ambiguous about his misgivings around the coronavirus vaccination. Before the season, Cousins said he would not be vaccinated. He added, however, that he believed strongly in the league’s virus protocol and its ability to protect him.

“I do believe that as a leader of the team, it’s very important to follow the protocols to avoid this close contact because that is what it’s going to come down to. Did you have a close contact? So I’m going to be vigilant about avoiding a close contact,” Cousins said in early August. “I’ve thought about it, because I’m going to do whatever it takes.”

However, Vikings head coach Mike Zimmer, who during the preseason was at odds with Cousins and other key Vikings players over their decisions to remain unvaccinated, refuted his quarterback’s assertions that the NFL’s virus protocols were important to him.

“I haven’t talked to him not about whether he should or shouldn’t get vaccinated,” Zimmer told Dan Bareirro on KFAN two days prior to Cousins’ protocol comments in early August. “I’ve talked to him about some of the protocols, which he doesn’t believe in.”

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