Building an offense around Kirk Cousins

[fiestavike]

As we give OC duties to a new coach, I have been thinking, 'how can we build a championship offense around Kirk Cousins this season?'

My idea centers on recognizing how good a trio we have in Diggs, Thielen, and Cook.

It also centers around three under appreciated players being utilized correctly: CJ Ham, David Morgan, and Mike Remmers.

One last preface, its going to require us to be a bit unconventional in order to have any chance to compete for a championship this year, in with that aim in mind, here's what I propose as our base offense.

QB: Cousins
WR1: Diggs
WR2: Thielen
RB: Cook
TE: Morgan
LT: Reiff
LG: Jones
C: Elflein
RG: Isadora
RT: Remmers/O'Neill
FB: Ham/TE2: O'Neill

Using this personnel should help us keep opposing defense in base 4-3. There can be no alternative to finding a way to run the ball, and I propose a commitment to running off tackle and getting our athletic Tackles out into space. We did this a lot last year with Shurmur, especially when combining David Morgan and Aviante Collins as TEs 1 and 2. The combo of 6 OL plus Morgan helps the offense dictate what sort of defensive looks we will see. Meanwhile, the combination of Diggs and Thielen on the outside helps keep those defenses honest. If they want to cheat someone up, it means one on one coverage, and it should not be a difficult read. Diggs and Thielen are good enough to get open against anyone, and they are also excellent at fighting for contest catches (something Keenum gave them ample opportunity to do with his short, lofty deep passes. Kirk doesn't need to try to hit them on the run and risk over throwing them, he needs only to give them a chance and they'll reward him more than often with big plays. Creating easy reads for when our guys are in one on one coverage, should allow Kirk to get it out quick and minimize pass blocking deficiencies, as well as batted passes at the line.

In order to help the run game, and scheme our WRs open, another good wrinkle would be to put both Diggs and Thielen on the weak side of the formation. This provides more space to run on the strong side, but if defenses are cheating too much pre-snap, you can use crossing routes to scheme Diggs and Thielen open, especially when combined with play action passing. Using Morgan and Ham as outlet on these plays would be effective. Both are underappreciated in their athleticism and ability to make an impact as skill position players. If we can run the ball, dictate the defensive personnel, and create as much pre-snap decision making as possible to hep Kirk, I think it gives the Vikings their best chance at success this season, and for the remainder of the Kirk Cousins era.

Last, once he's healthy, I'm rolling with Chad Beebe when we go 3 wide. He is so much better than Laquan Treadwell.