EAGAN, Minn. -- Kirk Cousins is playing for his job this season. And to hear the Minnesota Vikings quarterback tell it, he wouldn't have it any other way.
Cousins and the Vikings will open the season Sunday against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the first of what is in essence a 17-game referendum on whether the team will even try to re-sign him before his contract expires in March.
"It's sort of been life for me," Cousins said Wednesday. "I would even go back to college [at Michigan State] with quarterback competitions with Nick Foles. You basically felt that you're going out there every day and putting your job on the line. That's quarterbacking. I've been doing it for 16 years. This will be my 17th.
"That's kind of the life you live. And I think when you take that seriously, that lends itself to having success more days than not."
Cousins, 35, has said he wants to finish his career in Minnesota. He discussed options for a contract extension this spring, but instead he and the Vikings restructured his current deal in a way that ensures he will be eligible for free agency after the season.
The Vikings did not select an heir apparent in the subsequent draft, although they did make BYU's Jaren Hall a developmental pick in the fifth round, and general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah has said that all options remain on the table.
Asked if he thinks he should have to play for his job this season, given those circumstances, Cousins laughed and said: "I don't think it's mine to say." But he added that he is leaning into a mantra first established by New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady in 2014, when the team made quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo a second-round draft pick and portrayed him as a possible successor.
"Tom made the point that there is no entitlement in the NFL," Cousins said. "And if there is entitlement in the NFL, that organization is probably doing it wrong. I think it's healthy when players need to go out every day, and nobody is entitled to anything. I think that's a healthy way to run an organization. It's going to bring out the best in all of us. If it ever isn't that way here, I would be the first one to complain and say, 'I sense some entitlement, and let's change that.'"
Since March, Cousins and Vikings coach Kevin O'Connell have spoken regularly about the situation.
"A lot of the time," O'Connell said Wednesday, "it's just asking the questions: Where's his head at? How's he feeling? Most of the time [the conversation] veers toward scheme and how we want to play and what's being asked of him and how he can do his job at a really high level. But I think it would naïve of me not to at least be there for him in a way where he knows that I fully, fully support him not only as our captain and our starting quarterback, but he knows my feelings towards him."