Cowboys Ex Coach Rips His 'Star' QB: Report

Should a coach be able to blame his QB when things go south?

FRISCO - NFL head coaches take on the responsibility of leading their team to wins and accepting blame for losses. That's been the job since the beginning of the league, and it's maybe even more true today.

So when a coach places blame for failure somewhere else, it's notable, and it reportedly happened in Minnesota, per The Athletic.

Kirk Cousins and Mike Zimmer

Kirk Cousins and Mike Zimmer

The Athletic reports that while former Dallas Cowboys defensive coordinator Mike Zimmer was head coach of the Minnesota Vikings, he "openly complained in coaching meetings about Kirk Cousins" last season, and that "some of Zimmer's top lieutenants echoed the sentiment." 

Per the report, Zimmer didn't think that Cousins made enough "winning plays" and do enough to make his teammates better, or take enough chances to win games.

While it's true that a team can only be as good as its quarterback play, the head coach in most cases is the one to take the fall when the signal-caller can't get the job done.

Zimmer served as coach of the Vikings from 2014 until he was let go at the end of the 2021 season after going 74-59-1 during that time. In 2018 the Vikings signed former Washington free-agent quarterback Kirk Cousins to a fully guaranteed, three-year contract worth $84 million.

Kirk Cousins and Mike Zimmer

Kirk Cousins and Mike Zimmer

In the report, Zimmer claims that Cousins performed well enough much of the time, but at key moments, he couldn't get the job done. 

Since Cousins entered the league 10 years ago, he has one career playoff win. In four seasons with the Vikings, Cousins has led Minnesota to the postseason just once.

Zimmer is now gone from Minnesota while Cousins remains. The Vikings hired former Washington assistant Kevin O'Connell, who served as Washington's quarterbacks coach during Cousins' last season there, to replace Zimmer. 

Cousins is only under contract through 2022, and who knows if O'Connell will decide to retain him. But for now, at least, it seems as if another coach has taken the fall for a quarterback's sub-par play.

And as a final note: This is par for the NFL course when a team says goodbye to a coach; "leaks'' that make somebody look bad, when all a long, maybe it's not all that abnormal for a head coach to be critical in meetings of a highly-paid QB that didn't help the team win enough games.