Another week.

Another debate with Kirk Cousins again serving as lightening rod.

Mike Freemen rope-a-doped Viking fans into engagement with this well-timed  and well executed tweet.

Cousins is one of the most the marvelously mediocre, stupendously average, remarkably decent quarterbacks in football.

— mike freeman (@mikefreemanNFL) October 29, 2018

As this tweet harmlessly made it’s way around Vikings Twitter, Freeman had a hay-maker cocked in the chamber.

Vikings QB Kirk Cousins Already Looking Like an $84 Million Flop https://t.co/Zcfu4BBjXc

— mike freeman (@mikefreemanNFL) October 29, 2018

As any fan base would, we immediately circled the wagons around our #QB1.

https://twitter.com/BHeintzSKOL/status/1056942619861901313

5,042 yards
32 TDs
8 INTs

These are the numbers Kirk Cousins is on pace for this year

He is far from the problem for the #Vikings

— Adam Patrick (@Str8_Cash_Homey) October 29, 2018

Only fools are down on Kirk cousins. https://t.co/ZQH26XNoRh

— Edwin von Brodmarkle (@Nemock7) October 30, 2018

As Eric Eager stated on this episode of the  podcast, the problem with the Kirk Cousins conversation is that it requires nuance because “he can be both good and overpaid”. Max Kellerman makes a similar argument in the clip below.

Season to date, Kirk Cousins ranks 2nd in Yards (2521), 9th in passer rating (102.5), 12th in QBR (65.2), 12th in PFF grade (82.8), 19th in TD rate (4.7%), 20th in Yards per Attempt (7.6), and 11th in Yards per Attempt (7.7) while being one of the most pressured quarterbacks in the league.

"Kirk Cousins was under pressure on 49% of his snaps against the Saints on Sunday Night Football. The Vikings continue to flirt with that unsustainable volume of pressure on their QB." @PFF_Sam's Monday morning takeaway.

— PFF (@PFF) October 29, 2018

In my article (Re)Defining Franchise Quarterback, I explored how the following four factors impact quarterback performance:

• Receiving Weapons Quality (PFF grade weighted by % of team yards)
• QB Pressure Rate
• Team Points Allowed Per Game
• Team Yards per Carry

What I found is that the quality of a quarterbacks’s receiving targets is by far the most important factor to consider when looking at his surroundings’ impact on performance.  While Kirk Cousins has been pressured at a ridiculously high rate, the fact that he’s throwing to Adam Thielen and Stefon Diggs has allowed him to perform at a high level even while facing more pressure than he did in previous seasons (much like Sam Bradford and Case Keenum before him).

From 2013-2017, Kirk ranked 8th for his performance relative to his supporting casts in Washington. Season to date, Kirk remains in Tier 3 ranked 10th overall which puts him comfortably ahead of Alex Smith, Case Keenum, and Sam Bradford’s 2018 performances.

Kyle Segall probably summed this whole Kirk Cousins fiasco up perfectly

Ok, this is a bad take. Savior he is not, but hes also not a "flop". Theres LOOOOOTS of room in between those 2 spots, and hes somewhere there. https://t.co/AvEGdOfKFu

— KJSegall (@KJSegall) October 29, 2018

No Kirk Cousins isn’t in the elite QB tier with Brady, Brees, or Rodgers.

Kirk isn’t playing better than Mahomes, Rivers, Goff, Wilson, or Luck.

Kirk Cousins is a (slightly) overpaid, top 10 NFL QB and that is a-OK.

QB Performance Relative to Expectation (2018):