Vikings lose Cousins to COVID list before game with Packers
Kirk Cousins has never missed a game in the NFL to injury.
His first unplanned absence, due to COVID-19, could not have come at a worse time for the Minnesota Vikings.
The Vikings placed their starting quarterback on the COVID-19 reserve list Friday, two days before their most important game of the season at Green Bay.
Cousins, who is unvaccinated, couldn’t be cleared in time to play even if he were feeling fine. The NFL recently reduced the required quarantine period to five days for asymptomatic players.
The Vikings (7-8) are one game out of the last wildcard spot in the NFC with two weeks to go. The Packers (12-3) are in control of the top seed and a firstround bye.
The Vikings activated backup quarterback Sean Mannion from the COVID-19 reserve list, putting the seventh-year veteran in line to start at frigid Lambeau Field on Sunday night. Rookie Kellen Mond, who was drafted in the third round, has not developed quickly enough this season to be considered.
“Sean is extremely bright. He studies like crazy. He’s a great competitor. He’s put in his time. He’s earned this opportunity, and I think he’ll be ready,” coach Mike Zimmer said after practice on Friday.
Mannion started one game for the Los Angeles Rams in 2017 and one game for the Vikings in 2019, when Cousins was held out of the final regular-season game as a precaution prior to the playoffs.
“He’s got a big-time arm. He is going to do exactly what the coaches tell him. He is so reliable in that regard. I’ve got a lot of respect for him not only as a person
but as a player,” said Packers coach Matt Lafleur, who was Mannion’s offensive coordinator with the Rams in 2017. “They’ve still got multiple playmakers on that offense, whether they do it through the air or on the ground.”
After Minnesota’s last game, a 30-23 loss to the Rams, Cousins acknowledged the predicament of the case numbers climbing within the team like all across the league.
“It’s in our building. It’s going to be in our building. It’s going to spread. We’ve just got to be disciplined to keep our distance and make sure that to the best of our ability we don’t get it,” Cousins said, “but it is going to be difficult.”
Cousins has 30 touchdown passes and seven interceptions this season and is fourth in the NFL in passer rating (101.3). He is 29 yards passing short of hitting the 4,000 mark for a sixth time in seven years as a starter. Cousins is in his fourth season with the Vikings, who have him signed for 2022 with a $45 million salary-cap charge.
Mond and recent addition Kyle Sloter are the other quarterbacks on Minnesota’s roster. When Mond tested positive in training camp, Cousins had to sit out five days as an unvaccinated close contact.
Zimmer didn’t hide his frustration in August with the players who remained unvaccinated, expressing resignation that they would miss games at some point during the year. Plenty of vaccinated players have tested positive and had to sit out, of course, but the rate of infection by the virus among unvaccinated people is much higher.
Unvaccinated players must continue to test daily. Any player, regardless of vaccination status, must test while they have symptoms. Zimmer said he was not sure about symptoms for Cousins.