We know what the absence of Kirk Cousins on Sunday is going to do to the Minnesota Vikings’ playoff chances. . .render them just about non-existent. However, Cousins’ absence on Sunday night will ensure that a streak that probably isn’t exactly one to be proud of is going to continue.
With Cousins not being able to take the field on Sunday night in Green Bay, it means that the Vikings will continue their long. . .loooooooooooooooooong. . .streak of not having a quarterback start all of their regular-season games in consecutive seasons. The streak goes back to the 1972 and 1973 seasons, when Fran Tarkenton started every game for Minnesota. Tarkenton started 13 of 14 games for the Vikings in 1974 (with Bob Berry getting the other), starting the streak that continues to this day.
Cousins had only missed one start for the Vikings prior to this game, that being the 2019 regular-season finale that saw the Vikings bench pretty much all of their starters because they were locked into the #6 seed in the NFC playoffs.
I don’t have an exact count of the number of quarterbacks that the Vikings have been through since they had a quarterback start all of the team’s regular-season games in back-to-back seasons. But whether it was Tommy Kramer, Daunte Culpepper, Brett Favre, or anyone else, the Vikings haven’t had a quarterback start all of the team’s regular-season games in nearly four decades, and now it will be at least two more seasons before any quarterback gets an opportunity to stop that streak.