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News | Minnesota Vikings – vikings.com

State of the Vikings: Quarterbacks

EAGAN, Minn. — The Vikings had plenty of turnover at perhaps the most important position in all of sports.

Minnesota brought in Kirk Cousins to be the franchise quarterback moving forward, while also acquiring backup Trevor Siemian in a trade with Denver. There are numerous new faces under center in Minnesota, and the expectation is that the position can take a stacked roster to new heights in 2018.

Returning player: Kyle Sloter

New additions: Kirk Cousins, Trevor Siemian, Peter Pujals

Stat from 2017: Cousins threw for 4,093 yards and 27 touchdowns with Washington in 2017, the third straight season he has eclipsed 4,000 passing yards and 25 touchdowns. Only Chargers quarterback Philip Rivers has hit those same marks over the past three seasons.

View the best images of the Vikings quarterbacks throughout the 2018 offseason program at the TCO Performance Center.

From the position room: Vikings quarterbacks coach Kevin Stefanski is in his 14th season with the Vikings. This is his second as the quarterbacks coach. He's also been coached tight ends and running backs during his tenure in Minnesota.

With plenty of new faces in the quarterbacks room, Stefanski is now tasked with helping the likes of Cousins and Siemian get adjusted to a new organization, while also getting the quarterbacks prepped and ready to go for the 2018 season.

In an interview with Vikings.com earlier this summer, Stefanski praised Cousins' approach.

"I think the guy off the field is a constant pro. I mean, just on top of his game. He is so fully committed to what we are doing, and it is impressive," Stefanski said. "[He] walks into work, he is carrying a little duffle bag every day, it's like he is carrying his lunch pail or he is carrying his briefcase.

"This is his J-O-B and he treats it like that," Stefanski added. "So it has been fun to be around a guy like that, and I have been around guys like that in the past, so … you know the sky is the limit on what you can ask of a guy like that."

Quotable: "I don't know that you think about it a whole lot. That's probably the best way; ignorance is bliss. I just try to ignore the noise and not even know what's going on or being said. That's usually the best route. I know what I'm being coached to do, I know what I have to do, so I don't need the outside to tell me because I have accountability here and I'm hard on myself. I'll always be aware of where I need to play better, and sometimes maybe that I'm not playing well enough, but I know on the inside with what I'm being coached to do I'm actually doing exactly what I'm being asked to do. Other times I know when we've won in games I've played, I didn't play very well, but everybody's patting me on the back because to the outside it looks like I did the right thing, and I know deep down that I'm not where I need to be yet. I've just got to continue to listen to people and hear and know what they're talking about each and every play, and trust that if I do that good things will happen."

— Cousins on managing outside expectations in Minnesota

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