Cousins Building Better Chemistry with ‘Trustworthy Target’ Kyle Rudolph

[Viktor]

He added: “I think the more years together tends to develop that.”


Thanks to Rudolph’s extension, the two will be able to continue working together, along with Minnesota’s other tight ends.


Three of Cousins’ touchdown passes Wednesday afternoon went to tight ends. The second of the day was an impressive grab by Tyler Conklin, who is entering his second NFL season.


The Vikings also added Irv Smith, Jr., when they selected the Alabama standout in the second round of the NFL Draft. Cousins said that Smith has checked all the boxes since joining the team.


“He’s worked hard, he’s shown that he can roll. He’s got great movement skills, and he’ll do whatever is asked of him. He’s a great teammate, and I think he is who we hoped he would be as a player and as a person. That’s really all you can ask for,” Cousins said. “Then it becomes just a day-to-day grind of teaching him the offense. Little things, like when I say, ‘set, hut,’ and then expect him to know that means he steps off the ball on certain plays.


“He’s just a little slower to step off the ball, because it’s brand new to him,” Cousins continued. “So, I got to pull him off to the side and say, ‘Hey, make sure when I say ‘set, hut,’ you’re stepping off quickly. I don’t want to wait for you.’ With Tyler Conklin or Kyle Rudolph, that’s just an instinctual thing. Little pieces of the offense, things like that that we just work through every day that we’re out here.”


There has been a lot of talk about the Vikings implementing more 12 personnel this season under Offensive Coordinator Kevin Stefanski and with the influence of Assistant Head Coach/Offensive Advisor Gary Kubiak.


Cousins acknowledged the importance of having a pair of dynamic tight ends to work with. He pointed out that it allows a team to better disguise plays.


After having mostly former quarterbacks as his position coaches over the years, Cousins said it’s been interesting and beneficial to work with Vikings quarterbacks coach Klint Kubiak, who played safety at Colorado State University.


“He thinks of the game a lot of times as a safety, and it’s a great resource to have,” Cousins said. “Kevin [Stefanski] was a safety in college [at Pennsylvania] as well, so I asked him, ‘What’s your eye progression? What does do for you?’ You realize as a safety or as a corner, as a linebacker, you have to have your eyes on your gap and in the backfield just as much you have on the guy that you’re covering. When you have tight end set, that’s really hard. That’s really tough on your gap discipline and then where your eyes need to be.


“If you have athletic tight ends who can also block who are versatile players, that gives us as a team a lot of opportunities to have a scheme that put defenses in a difficult place to defend us,” he added.