Minnesota
Minnesota Vikings’ Kirk Cousins plans to be ready for OTAs in the spring after Achilles
MINNEAPOLIS — Kirk Cousins plans to be ready to return for practice in the spring wherever he ends up playing next season.
Cousins continues progressing from a torn Achilles tendon that ended his season after eight games. He’s set to become a free agent following six years with the Minnesota Vikings but the team wants him back and the feeling is mutual.
“My expectation is that I’ll be able to practice during OTAs as normal,” Cousins told the AP on Wednesday. “But the question will be, is it worth it? And so you have to weigh that a little bit. But my goal would be that I’m saying I can go and you guys are going to have to stop me because I feel that good. If I’m not allowed into the full-team drills, I know I can do basically a full-speed practice on the field next to it is pretty much my goal.
“But 7-on-7, there’s nobody around you. It’s a safe drill. So at a minimum, I would think that’s a drill that, as a pocket-passing quarterback, would be very doable. And that’s kind of the beauty of the Achilles injury is that you can get back and you can get going again in a way that isn’t as crippling as if it was a back injury or something that’s a little more critical, like your shoulder or your elbow.”
Cousins called his recovery “a real positive process” and said the healing is on track. He spoke with Aaron Rodgers prior to having surgery. Rodgers tore his Achilles tendon in the first quarter of the first game and was able to return to practice just 77 days later but he wasn’t cleared to play and the New York Jets were out of the playoff race anyway.
“He obviously kind of blazed the trail with being able to get back on the practice field so quickly and kind of set a high bar,” Cousins said. “I think he’s given me and a lot of people who have torn their Achilles a lot of hope and encouragement that it can be a quick return and you can be back to your old self without really too much lost time. Hopefully both of us are playing next year and we don’t even remember that we tore it a year ago.”
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Cousins threw for 2,331 yards with 18 touchdowns and five interceptions, finishing third in the NFL in passer rating (103.8). He led the Vikings to a 4-4 record before he was injured. The team went 3-6 with Joshua Dobbs, Nick Mullens and Jaren Hall starting in his place.
Vikings general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah already said he wants Cousins to return and plans to offer him a new contract. Coach Kevin O’Connell and star wide receiver Justin Jefferson also made it clear they want Cousins in purple and gold.
“I appreciate their support, and the feelings are mutual in terms of being so grateful that I’ve gotten to play with Justin and been coached by the great coaches I’ve had,” Cousins said. “So, it goes both ways. And, I think that’s part of the feeling in Minnesota for a while has been we have a good locker room and we all really enjoy the group we have and the work we’ve done together.”
Cousins, who turns 36 before next season, can’t be franchise-tagged. He said winning will be his priority as he determines his future.
MORE: Minnesota Vikings QB Kirk Cousins admits low spice tolerance in new ad: “Honey barbecue is my ceiling”
“That will kind of always be the priority but what’s interesting is how unpredictable winning can be,” he said. “There are teams every year that you think should be in the Super Bowl, and they don’t even make the playoffs. And then there’s teams that you think had no business making the playoffs and they’re making it to the second or third round.”
Cousins, a favorite among fans and teammates, has been showing a fun side to his personality in recent years from going shirtless with a thick gold chain around his neck to singing a duet with Kelly Clarkson in a tribute to Tom Brady at the “NFL Honors” show last year.
Now, Cousins is swapping his helmet for a chef’s hat, partnering with Tostitos to give fans a chance to win a Super Bowl experience that includes tickets to the game and and a VIP reservation at Tost by Tostitos with tableside service by the four-time Pro Bowl QB.
“I’ll be showing up to prepare and serve the food at the restaurant, so it should be a lot of fun,” Cousins said.
A rest area along Interstate 94 in Minnesota has been closed to trucks until about Independence Day to accommodate an almost $3 million improvement project.
The eastbound I-94 Enfield rest area between St. Cloud, Minnesota and the Twin Cities between Wright County Road 8 and Highway 25 is now closed to cars and commercial vehicles as crews resurface the entrance and exit ramps, and update nearby sidewalks.
According to KNSI, the full closure is just the first phase of the project. The rest area will reopen to passenger vehicles only the week of May 11th. During that time, the truck parking area will remain closed as crews repave the lot.
The truck parking lot will reopen the week of June 30th, right around Independence Day. During that time, the passenger vehicle area will be shut down to allow for the resurfacing of the lot. The Minnesota DOT expects the rest area to be fully open by late July. The entire project is expected to cost $2.9 million.
Drivers heading east on I-94 are encouraged to use the Big Spunk Lake rest area near Avon, or to drive a little farther out to the Elm Creek rest area.
Could a UCLA baseball team that’s perfect in Big Ten play get better?
Bruins coach John Savage thinks so, which is a frightening prospect for the rest of a seemingly overmatched conference.
While Savage’s top-ranked Bruins completed a three-game sweep of Minnesota on Sunday with a 5-2 victory at Jackie Robinson Stadium — stretching their Big Ten winning streak to 21 games — he said there’s more upside to be realized.
“Offensively, we just really couldn’t get a lot going,” Savage said after his team went 1-for-5 with runners in scoring position and stranded six baserunners. “We just weren’t able to put a lot together, but when that pitching and defense shows up every day, it gives yourself a chance to win, and that’s kind of what we did all three games, really.”
Those elements were so good Sunday that they overshadowed Roman Martin’s solo homer in the third inning and Will Gasparino’s two-run shot in the sixth.
Bruins left fielder Dean West made three superb catches — two leaping and one diving — and four relievers combined to give up only one run in 4 ⅔ innings. Closer Easton Hawk needed only six pitches to record a 1-2-3 ninth inning while notching his third save in as many days.
Savage credited Minnesota’s pitching after the Golden Gophers (22-17 overall, 5-13 Big Ten) held the Bruins (36-3) to an average of five runs during the series and said many of his team’s offensive struggles were situational.
“We have very, very good offensive players — some of them are in … little ruts right now, but that’s OK,” Savage said. “These guys play a lot and get a lot of at-bats; there’s a lot of ups and downs.”
When it comes to UCLA’s conference record, it’s all been up.
What it means
UCLA’s sweep is further evidence that the Bruins aren’t getting complacent because of their record.
“This culture is really solid, and these guys truly believe in one another and they’re playing for the team,” Savage said. “We’re very fortunate to have this group, and so they love playing together, so there’s no complacency and there’s no reason to because we haven’t done anything; I mean, you’re 36-3, that’s great, but at the end of the day it’s about getting better and playing your best baseball the next 75 days.”
Turning point
Spotting a dominant team an early lead is never a good idea.
That’s what happened when the Bruins struck for two runs in the bottom of the first inning.
West led off with a single to center field, took third on Roch Cholowsky’s double to left and scored on a balk. With one out, Martin hit an RBI infield single off the pitcher’s glove. UCLA was up 2-0, and the Golden Gophers could never catch up.
Did you see that?
Minnesota did not like it when Gasparino admired his home run by lingering in the batter’s box before commencing his trot around the bases.
There was consensus in both dugouts because Savage also didn’t care for it.
“I thought he probably stayed in the box a little too long for me,” Savage said. “That’s kind of not who we are, and they didn’t like that; I wouldn’t like that either, really.”
MVP
West saved multiple extra-base hits with his catches.
Which was his favorite?
“Probably the diving one,” West said. “I think that was the coolest one. I got to leave my feet and make a play on it.”
Up next
The Bruins will open a five-game stretch of nonconference games when they host Hawaii on Tuesday evening at Jackie Robinson Stadium.
Of the many terrible roster decisions Minnesota sports teams have made over the past 30 years, the worst of the bunch may have been trading Randy Moss to the Raiders for the No. 7 pick in the draft and linebacker Napoleon Harris.
Why are we bringing up a trade that happened 21 years ago? Because the New York Giants traded defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence to the Cincinnati Bengals for the No. 10 pick in this week’s NFL Draft. It was the first time a non-quarterback has been traded for a top-10 pick since the infamous Moss trade in 2005.
Minnesota traded Moss for the Raiders’ first-round pick, Harris, and a seventh-round pick on March 2, 2005. The Vikings used the No. 7 pick on wide receiver Troy Williamson, who never panned out in the NFL. He had 24 catches for 372 yards and two touchdowns as a rookie, 37 receptions for 457 yards and zero touchdowns in 2006, and just 18 catches for 240 yards and one touchdown in 2007.
Williams led the league with 11 dropped passes in 2006. Minnesota traded him to the Jacksonville Jaguars for a sixth-round pick after the 2007 season, where he played in 10 games over two seasons and totaled just eight catches for 64 yards. He was cut before the start of the 2010 season, and that was a wrap on the former South Carolina speedster’s NFL career.
Moss didn’t put up jaw-dropping numbers with the Raiders for two seasons, but he set an NFL record with 23 touchdown catches in 2007 with the New England Patriots. He caught 47 touchdowns in 48 regular-season games with the Patriots from 2007 to 2009.
Whether it was trading Moss to the Raiders, the Timberwolves sending Kevin Garnett to the Boston Celtics — or drafting Ricky Rubio AND Johnny Flynn over Steph Curry — or the Twins cutting David Ortiz and watching him become one of the greatest players in MLB history with the Boston Red Sox, Minnesota sports teams have a long history of making terrible decisions.
The Bengals, meanwhile, gave up the 10th overall pick for one of the best defensive tackles in the league. They’ll likely get great production from Lawrence, while the Giants are now under pressure to get the 10th pick right. New York also holds the No. 5 pick in Thursday’s first round of the draft.
By the way, the Vikings had two picks in the first round of the 2005 draft. After taking Williamson, they used the No. 18 pick on defensive end Erasmus James. He was just as much of a bust as Williams, playing in 23 games in three years with the Vikings. He had four sacks as a rookie, but injuries wiped out most of his 2006 and 2007 seasons before he was traded to Washington for a conditional seventh-round pick.
James was cut by Washington in December 2009, marking the end of his NFL career.
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