Minnesota Vikings: 3 Bold predictions vs. Falcons, Week 1

Cousins will thrive behind new-look line, with new weapons

The final bold prediction while looking ahead to Minnesota’s matchup against Atlanta in the season opener on Sunday at US Bank Stadium involves the Vikings’ highly-paid and second-year quarterback Kirk Cousins.

Cousins, who played in his first season in Minnesota in 2018, finished the year with 425 completions on 606 attempts to gather a completion percentage of 60.1 percent in all 16 games. With 30 touchdowns and 10 interceptions, Cousins tallied 4,298 total yards, the second-highest mark of his career behind throwing for nearly 5,000 yards with the Washington Redskins in 2016.

One of the biggest things, when it came to Cousins’ play a season ago with the Vikings, was the fact that he was playing behind a below-average offensive line while dealing with a young promising running back in Dalvin Cook that was experiencing injury issues throughout most of the year.

Now with a new-look offensive line following the addition of a few new faces among the front line during the offseason, mixed with having a fully healthy Cook, new tight end weapon Irv Smith Jr. to pair alongside veteran Kyle Rudolph and a dynamic wide receiving group headlined by the duo of Adam Thielen and Stefon Diggs, Cousins is bound to have a breakout season which could begin in the first game of the year on Sunday.

With more time and an array of weapons to play with among the offense, Cousins will thrive within the offense while taking on the Falcons at home to begin the fresh season.

The first sign of this is the fact that this will likely be an offensive-heavy game between the Vikings and Falcons, with both teams having the ability to air out the ball at any point in the game.

Another reason behind this is the fact that Atlanta has traditionally had a below-average defense which has allowed opponents to run up the score and in return turned the game into an offensive shootout. In 2018, the Falcons ranked 27th in the NFL in total passing yards allowed and 29th in touchdowns allowed.

There are a lot of interesting things to look at and analyze between Minnesota and Atlanta heading into Sunday afternoon’s game in Minneapolis, but keep an eye on Cousins and how he performs within this offense in the first matchup of the new year.