There are stars to be found in the final rounds of the NFL draft. They're just not easy to spot.
Dallas quarterback Dak Prescott and Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins both were taken in the fourth round and went on to become Pro Bowl passers.
12. MINNESOTA VIKINGS (8-9)
LAST SEASON: The Vikings lost their first two games in crushing fashion to eventual playoff teams Cincinnati and Arizona and never truly recovered, not spending a single week above the .500 mark.
The Minnesota Vikings have committed to quarterback Kirk Cousins for the next two seasons, banking on further improvement under new head coach Kevin O'Connell.
The Vikings announced their agreement in principle with Cousins on a one-year contract extension Sunday — the latest high-leverage deal that Cousins has successfully bet on himself with and the clearest sign yet that the Vikings aren't interested in a teardown under new management.
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — New Minnesota Vikings general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah worked eight years on Wall Street, in between economics degrees from Princeton and Stanford.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — It's difficult if not impossible to downplay the importance of having a top-level quarterback to win a Super Bowl. Or even get to it.
Sure, there are exceptions such as Jared Goff, Nick Foles and Rex Grossman, though Foles played like a superstar in early 2018.
CHICAGO (AP) — The Chicago Bears hired Minnesota Vikings assistant Andrew Janocko as their quarterbacks coach on Thursday.
Janocko joins new coach Matt Eberflus' staff after spending the past seven years in a variety of roles under Mike Zimmer in Minnesota, most recently as the Vikings quarterbacks coach this past season.
EAGAN, Minn. (AP) — Kirk Cousins will be the Pro Bowl injury replacement for Aaron Rodgers for a third time.
The Minnesota Vikings quarterback was added Monday to the NFC roster. The all-star game will be played Sunday in Las Vegas.
SCOREBOARD
The wild-card round of the NFL playoffs begins next weekend with six games over three days.
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Minnesota Vikings coach Mike Zimmer had no interest in reflection, still stung by several narrow losses in his eighth year that kept his team out of the playoffs and rendered irrelevant this season-ending win over Chicago.
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The mostly quiet crowd in Minnesota for a game without meaning or purpose for the playoffs came to life in the fourth quarter as the Vikings rallied past the Chicago Bears 31-17 on Sunday.
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — With Kirk Cousins cleared from COVID-19 protocols, the Minnesota Vikings plan to play their starting quarterback in the meaningless final game against Chicago along with the rest of their regulars who are healthy enough for action.
GREEN BAY, Wis. (AP) — The Minnesota Vikings’ offense didn’t show much sign of life without Kirk Cousins around.
By the end of Sunday night, the Vikings’ playoff hopes were dead.
Two nights after their starting quarterback was placed on the reserve/COVID-19 list, the Vikings fell 37-10 to the NFC North champion Green Bay Packers.
GREEN BAY, Wis. (AP) — Cornerback Cameron Dantzler has joined the list of Minnesota Vikings unavailable for their Sunday night game with the Green Bay 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.
While the Green Bay Packers have dominated the NFC North lately, there’s one division opponent they’ve struggled to solve.
The Minnesota Vikings have won their last two matchups with the Packers and are the only NFC North team to beat them during Matt LaFleur’s three-year coaching tenure in Green Bay.
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The Minnesota Vikings have had one of those nail-biter seasons, and there's not much left to chew on with their chance of making the playoffs now in low-percentage territory.
The math problem won't be any easier to solve without Adam Thielen.
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Justin Jefferson said he could sense a lack of energy among his Minnesota Vikings teammates the moment he entered the locker room Sunday morning, and the feeling carried over into a lackluster first quarter.
CHICAGO (AP) — The Minnesota Vikings have little margin for error and plenty of room to improve as they try to secure a playoff spot.
Not that Kirk Cousins needed a reminder. Or, for that matter, coach Mike Zimmer.
After Adam Thielen was injured on Minnesota’s sixth offensive play Sunday, Kirk Cousins naturally focused on his other standout receiver, Justin Jefferson.
Jefferson responded with career highs of 11 catches and 182 yards, but the Vikings wasted that performance in a gut-wrenching 29-27 loss to Detroit.
DETROIT (AP) — The Lions finally found a victory when Jared Goff threw an 11-yard touchdown pass to Amon-Ra St. Brown as time expired, lifting previously winless Detroit to a 29-27 win over the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday.
DETROIT (AP) — Jared Goff dropped back, looked left and let the football loose that Amon-Ra St. Brown squeezed tight as he sat in the end zone.
SANTA CLARA, Calif. (AP) — On the biggest play of the game, the Minnesota Vikings had no idea where to go.
The confusion led to a wasted timeout and then a missed fourth down that played a key role in a 34-26 loss to the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday that prevented the Vikings from climbing over .500 for the first time since 2019.
MINNESOTA (5-5) at SAN FRANCISCO (5-5)
Sunday, 4:25 p.m. EST, Fox
BETTING LINE: 49ers by 3, according to FanDuel SportsBook.
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Greg Joseph made a 29-yard field goal as time expired to give the Minnesota Vikings a 34-31 victory over the Green Bay Packers on Sunday, finishing a classic back-and-forth with Aaron Rodgers by making sure the three-time NFL MVP didn’t get to touch the ball last.
SCOREBOARD
Monday, Nov. 22
Giants at Buccaneers, 8:15 p.m. EST. The Bucs (6-3) and Tom Brady are riding a two-game losing streak. The 44-year-old Brady has lost three games in a row only once, in 2002, his full season as Patriots starting quarterback.
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Green Bay's defense toppled star quarterbacks Kyler Murray, Patrick Mahomes and Russell Wilson in impressive fashion in the past three games, picking up the slack for an offense that's used to carrying the Packers.
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Much to coach Mike Zimmer's consternation, the Minnesota Vikings have made quite the habit of these white-knuckle, high-stress finishes.
EAGAN, Minn. (AP) — The lack of involvement for Justin Jefferson was so glaring in Minnesota's two recent losses that coach Mike Zimmer made a point to pull him aside last week and assure him the ball was coming his way.
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — With their window tightening for playoff contention, the Minnesota Vikings finally won a close game against a winning team by simply letting loose.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. (AP) — Mike Zimmer said earlier in the week that his Minnesota Vikings still had plenty of fight. On Sunday they proved it, and possibly put their season back on track.
The Vikings bounced back from two straight close losses and one of the most tumultuous weeks of Zimmer's eight-season tenure with a 27-20 victory over the Los Angeles Chargers.
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — For all their setbacks over the first six weeks, whether self-inflicted or unlucky, the Minnesota Vikings emerged from their bye in a favorable position.
They were settled to play Dallas in their cacophonous stadium Sunday for their first prime-time game since before the pandemic.
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Cooper Rush's first NFL start was a statement victory for the surging Dallas Cowboys with starting quarterback Dak Prescott stuck on the sideline.
With every opportunity to outlast the fill-in for the first-place team on the other side, Kirk Cousins and the Minnesota Vikings withered down the stretch.
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The NFL season has already featured 22 games with a winning score in either the final minute of regulation or in overtime, the highest six-week total in history.
The Minnesota Vikings, for all their problems and setbacks, have been able to play right along with the rest of the clutch teams in the league.
NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman let out a faint cough and assured those seated at least 6 feet away that it was allergies, not COVID-19. He had tested negative for the coronavirus three times in the previous week.
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — As Kirk Cousins rolled to the right out on third down in overtime of a game the Minnesota Vikings badly needed to win, Justin Jefferson and Adam Thielen were covered.
K.J. Osborn was open on a crossing route, so Cousins delivered a difficult throw on the run and off balance.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Minnesota Vikings coach Mike Zimmer said he wants his team to find a killer instinct.
For now, he’s happy to settle for another win.
The Vikings (3-3) squandered an 11-point lead in the final 4:41 of regulation, then got a 27-yard touchdown pass from Kirk Cousins to K.J.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — So much for the Minnesota Vikings' second-half scoring woes.
Kirk Cousins threw for 373 yards and three touchdowns against the league's top-ranked pass defense, including a 27-yard touchdown pass to K.J.
CLEVELAND (AP) — There figured to be an adjustment period for Cleveland's rebuilt defense, necessary time for so many new players to mesh — a work in progress.
Well, it may be over.
For the second straight week, the Browns' defense dominated during an old-school 14-7 win over the Minnesota Vikings in coach Kevin Stefanski's return to his pro football roots on Sunday.
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Needing one big play downfield to stall the Cleveland pass rush and potentially come back to steal a win against the Browns, Minnesota Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins lofted a deep pass to Adam Thielen in the fourth quarter.
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — After winning the NFL's Coach of the Year award in his first season with Cleveland, Kevin Stefanski now has a victory over his old team in Minnesota to highlight the start of his second year.
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Kirk Cousins and the Minnesota Vikings have taken a while to find comfort with each other.
The high expectation that comes with his huge contract, an uneven first three seasons with the team and intermittent skittishness during pass protection breakdowns have been contributing factors.
EAGAN, Minn. (AP) — Kirk Cousins took the shotgun snap and had the Seattle Seahawks’ pass rush immediately closing in. The Minnesota quarterback lofted a pass into the middle of the field while backpedaling, a potentially scary situation for a team nursing a 10-point lead and looking to win its first game of the year.
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — As more and more time passes from those back-to-back Super Bowls the Seattle Seahawks reached, their defense less and less resembles those dominant groups.
They let another game slip away on Sunday — and this time, a long winning streak against Minnesota too — because they simply couldn't stop the other team from scoring.
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — After two narrow losses to start the season, Kirk Cousins and the Minnesota Vikings found a foolproof way to avoid the type of harrowing finish that has haunted them more often than not.
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Kirk Cousins moved last week into fourth place on Minnesota's career list for games started by a quarterback, even though it might seem as if he just arrived with the Vikings.
GLENDALE, Ariz. (AP) — The Minnesota Vikings put together a near-perfect final drive, picking their way down the field while managing the clock so they would get the final play of a wild game in the desert.
EAGAN, Minn. (AP) — The Minnesota Vikings switched specialists again right before the regular season, signing former Pittsburgh punter Jordan Berry and releasing Britton Colquitt on Thursday.
The Vikings also signed quarterback Sean Mannion to the practice squad for another backup option to Kirk Cousins, after he was released by Seattle this week.