Souhan: Despite hope for the future, Vikings fans might miss Kirk Cousins and Danielle Hunter

Minnesota sports fans hate it when their friends succeed elsewhere.

Some combination of natural fan angst, lack of sporting self-esteem and FOMO — Fear Of Missing Ortiz — causes Minnesotans to cringe when someone who used to pay taxes in our state thrives after leaving.

David Ortiz. Kevin Garnett. Randy Moss. We will interrupt the list there because of space limitations and the health risks of boiling blood.

So why are Vikings fans so quiet when it comes to Kirk Cousins and Danielle Hunter?

True, neither has won anything yet with their new teams.

They have also been replaced, theoretically, by first-round draft choices who are the personification of hope.

J.J. McCarthy was elevated to superhero by the fan base after one good preseason game — a preseason game in which he suffered a knee injury that will cause him to miss the 2024 season. Dallas Turner is a talented pass rusher.

Buying emotional stock in McCarthy and Turner allows an optimistic view of the Vikings’ future.

But in regards to the season that is about to start, Vikings fans might need to prepare themselves for a near-future in which Kirk Cousins is a top-10 quarterback on a playoff team, Hunter is a defensive star for a powerhouse franchise and the Vikings discover quickly how much they miss their former stars.

Judging by the unscientific method by which most of us gauge fan sentiment — social media content, emails and face-to-face conversations — Vikings followers quickly dismissed Cousins and have long been prepared for the day when Hunter would leave.

Cousins played for the Vikings for six seasons, arriving after the team went to the NFC Championship Game. He went to the playoffs with Minnesota twice and won one playoff game — a game in which Saints quarterback Drew Brees looked like he couldn’t throw past the line of scrimmage.

Cousins was overpaid. You can cite team performance in making the case that he was overrated. The most symbolic moment of his Vikings’ tenure, and perhaps his career, was his willingness to check down to tight end T.J. Hockenson on fourth down of a home playoff game against the mediocre New York Giants. Hockenson didn’t make it to the first-down marker, and a 13-win team was done.

But Cousins on his worst day was better than Sam Darnold, especially in the most important aspects of running Vikings coach Kevin O’Connell’s offense:

Astuteness and accuracy.

Darnold is a better athlete, but has not proven that he can survive a season-long test offered by opposing defensive coordinators, and he has never been as accurate as Cousins.

Because of injuries and his team’s disappointing 2023 season, it became easier to say goodbye to Cousins, especially when he seemed so eager to leave.

Fine, but Cousins was never a bigger winner than he was with O’Connell in 2022, and he was spectacular when healthy in 2023.

In his last three starts before suffering a season-ending Achilles injury, Cousins won at Chicago (a Vikings rarity), beat the 49ers and won at Green Bay — all without Justin Jefferson.

I never believed that Cousins was an ideal franchise quarterback, but his production will be hard to replace.

The lack of complaining regarding Hunter’s departure seems even stranger. Had he stayed in Minnesota, he would have started passing Vikings legends on the team’s all-time sacks list, and that is quite a list.

Last year, he had a career-high 16½ sacks while learning Brian Flores’ defense.

He had contract disputes with the team, but never complained publicly. He was a physical specimen known for his intense workouts. He was a beloved teammate and a maximum-effort player.

Somehow, for some reason, “injury concerns” were whispered as the reason he wasn’t a long-term team priority when it came to contract negotiations. Only once in eight seasons did he play fewer than 14 games. He played in all 17 games each of the past two seasons.

I know I’ll miss watching Hunter play. I suspect, by midseason, we’ll all miss watching Cousins as well.