EAGAN Oshane Ximines Jersey , Minn. (AP) — Kirk Cousins is well aware of the label on an NFL career left largely unfulfilled, a quarterback with plenty of impressive stats but not enough team success.The scrutiny intensified with the fully guaranteed $84 million contract that Cousins signed with the Minnesota Vikings last year, a season that ultimately ended for him like all the others in disappointment without a playoff win.This year, Cousins is determined to change that perception.“It’s going to come down to those 16 regular-season games and then beyond that. Unfortunately, you grind in training camp and you get to Labor Day weekend and you look around and you’re like, ‘All that work, and I’ve got nothing to show for it yet,'” Cousins said Wednesday.“Hopefully you’re laying a good foundation and hopefully it shows on Sundays in the fall, but the nature of this next month and a half, whether it’s really good or really bad, it really isn’t what the narrative becomes on you. You have to translate that into a very good season.”His first year with the Vikings was eerily similar to his time with Washington. Though he has passed for at least 4,000 yards and 25 touchdowns in four straight seasons and been regularly among the NFL leaders in completion rate Julian Love Jersey , including a career-best mark (70.1 last year that ranked second in the league, Cousins is just 34-37-2 as a starter. He lost his only playoff game start in 2015.The offseason priority for the front office in Minnesota, thus, was to make Cousins more comfortable. He has, in turn, tried to do his part to take that critical step forward in 2019 and carry a team with Super Bowl aspirations along with him.“I’m pretty much a .500 quarterback in my career so far, and I don’t think that’s where you want to be,” Cousins said recently. “That’s not why you’re brought in or people are excited about you. If I don’t play well, if I don’t have gaudy statistics, but we win multiple playoff games this year, the narrative will be I went to the next level. I may not walk off the field every day feeling like I did, but if we win Darius Slayton Jersey , that’s the life of the quarterback, you are then at the next level. If I have my best year yet in 2019 but we’re 8-8, I didn’t go to the next level.”Cousins is again partaking in the first three days of training camp, which is for rookies and other inexperienced players. The other veterans don’t need to take the field until Friday.“I think one thing that I can do beyond just playing the best I can is to start really coaching and leading other people so that I can never walk off the field saying, ‘Hey, I did my part but so and so didn’t,'” Cousins said. “That can’t happen as an NFL quarterback. You have to be bringing others along so that isn’t a point you’re making at the end of a practice or a game.”The biggest change to the scheme now directed by offensive coordinator Kevin Stefanski was the hiring of Gary Kubiak as an offensive adviser. Kubiak was the offensive coordinator on two Super Bowl winners in Denver for Mike Shanahan, who later became head coach of the Redskins for Cousins’ first two years.In front of Cousins, the offensive line was reworked with first-round draft pick Garrett Bradbury at center, Pat Elflein moving from center to left guard and Josh Kline signing as a free agent to be the right guard.Time can also be a benefit.“His comfort level, him understanding what’s being asked of him to do,” general manager Rick Spielman said. “They will do things to make sure that he is comfortable in the offense T.J. Hockenson Jersey , that will fit his strengths as a quarterback. You can have all the gaudy stats in the world, but this business is always going to come down to wins and losses.”No need to tell Cousins that. Bengals head coach Zac Taylor will spend the days leading up to the draft doing his first on-field work with the team.Teams that hire new coaches are permitted to hold a three-day minicamp in the first phase of the offseason and the Bengals will hold theirs from Tuesday to Thursday this week. Taylor said he will be minimizing the parts of the playbook they’ll work on because “you won’t see the player at his fastest, at his best and thinking sharply” if they’re overloaded with information all at once.While the portion may be small, Taylor expects it will be positive for the team. They will be doing full team work that they can’t do in the second phase of the offseason and Taylor expects the tape to be an effective teaching tool as they move deeper into the offseason.“It’s nice from that standpoint that we get this three extra days to practice against a defense and go full-speed and be able to use the three weeks following it to make those corrections,” Taylor said, via the team’s website. “The guys will have a better understanding of what we’re taking about, because they’ve done it in a competitive environment. That’s as opposed to sometimes when you’re on the field in eleven on zero [during the next phase] and you’re talking through it and get them to understand blocking schemes, but they wouldn’t have seen it because no one is lined up across from them. It’s a benefit.”With new players getting drafted right after minicamp ends, there will be plenty of moving pieces for Taylor to keep tabs on as they work toward building their first team in Cincinnati.