Vikings still have their looming Kirk Cousins dilemma to solve

Who is Kirk Cousins?

Better yet, ***** what ***** is Kirk Cousins?

Franchise quarterback or fraud?

Clutch player or a stat compiler who comes up small in the big moments?

The Vikings quarterback — who’s in his 12th season, ninth as a starter and sixth in Minnesota — is one of the most confounding players in the league.

His numbers are consistently terrific. He’s completed 66.9 percent of his passes in his career, thrown for 39,197 yards with 268 touchdowns to just 110 interceptions and has a passer rating of 98.0. In seven of his eight seasons as the Minnesota starter, he has thrown for more than 4,000 yards.

This season, only Buffalo’s Josh Allen has thrown more TD passes (17) than the 16 Cousins has, and Allen has played one more game. Only Allen and Tua Tagovailoa have thrown for more yards than Cousins’ 2,057 this season. That has Cousins on a pace for a career-high 4,996 yards.

His numbers are indisputable. Yet, there always seems like something’s missing, and it’s difficult to put a finger on exactly what.

It’s what makes the Vikings’ decision on what to do with him in the future so confusing. Cousins is in the final year of his contract, and before the Vikings went on their current winning streak, there was heavy speculation he may be traded before Tuesday’s trading deadline.

Now that the Vikings have climbed back into contention for a playoff spot, those trade rumors have significantly subsided, and Cousins likely will not be moved. This leaves open speculation about what they do with him after this season — particularly if Minnesota fails to make the playoffs or is again one-and-done in the postseason.

The lack of playoff success is a thorn in the Vikings’ side. Their fans are still smarting from last season’s playoff loss to the Giants and Daniel Jones despite having won 13 games and the Giants scraping in with a wild-card berth.

So, if we’re going to celebrate Cousins for his gaudy stats, then we have to question his performances in the biggest games. In his seven seasons as a starter in Minnesota entering 2023, Cousins has led the Vikings to the postseason just twice and won one game, owning a 1-2 record with them. Overall, he’s 1-3 in the postseason in 12 NFL seasons.

In prime-time games, Cousins is 12-19 after the Vikings’ 22-17 win over the 49ers on Monday night. Yet, in 31 career prime-time starts, Cousins has a 69 percent completion rate, which is fourth-best behind just Drew Brees, Josh Allen and Aaron Rodgers. In those games, he’s thrown for 8,262 yards, an average of 267 per game and thrown 55 TDs to just 28 INTs.

These numbers represent a microcosm of the Cousins conundrum. His numbers are excellent, but the results are not.

On Monday nights, Cousins is 3-10. Yet he has thrown for 3,252 yards with 19 TDs and 12 INTs in those games. Hardly horrible numbers.

Fortunately for Cousins and the Vikings this week, they play the Packers at 1 p.m. Sunday.

Last week, Cousins led the Vikings to their third win in four games after an 0-3 start without his best offensive weapon, receiver Justin Jefferson, who was out with an injury.

Interestingly, on an episode of the Netflix series “Quarterback’’ last season, Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes, considered the best quarterback in the NFL, raved about Cousins (who was also a part of the series) suggesting that he’s one of the most “underrated’’ quarterbacks in the league.

“If you look at Kirk over here, man … wins every year, puts up great stats, did it in Washington, does it in Minnesota,’’ Mahomes gushed.

Mahomes was right about the stats Cousins “puts up.’’ He wasn’t so accurate about the “wins every year’’ part. Cousins had a record of 26-30-1 in six seasons in Washington and brought the team to the playoffs once, losing the only postseason game he got to. He’s just eight games over .500 for his career in the regular season (75-67-2).

“Talk to any other quarterbacks in the league,’’ Mahomes said of theory that Cousins is underrated, “and they’re going to say the same thing.”

If that’s the case, then they’re either grading very generously or they’re not paying enough attention.