Harrison Phillips might send Kirk Cousins a text of his son in his Halloween costume on Saturday, but on Sunday Nov. 1, when the Jets face the Raiders at MetLife Stadium, he's hoping to sack his former teammate.
"It'd be even more special if I get a hit on him because all those years at practice you weren't allowed to get close to him," Phillips said.
For two seasons in 2022-23, Phillips and Cousins were teammates as Minnesota Vikings but changing teams hasn't weakened their bond.
"I can't say enough positive things about Kirk. He's one of my all-time favorite teammates," Phillips said. "From a personal level, probably one of the most generous people I've ever been around."
Phillips was in his fifth NFL season when he started with the Vikings in 2022; Cousins had been there since 2018 and was already in his 10th season.
"I think we had one year where in training camp, he was facing a pretty crazy exotic defense with [Brian] Flores in there, and to see the chess match between Flo trying to, you know, dial up some stuff, and Kirk, being able to change whatever he wanted to do to get us into a beater, was a really fun thing to be a part of," Phillips said. "I was just seeing his veteran quarterback and go against the defensive coordinator trying to get everybody in the right call, and he won a lot of those opportunities, too."
See photos of the Jets on the practice field ahead of their Week 8 matchup with the Raiders.
Cousins is "as smart as they come at the quarterback position," and Phillips says he grew as a defensive lineman because of his guidance. Cousins let Phillips know if he recognized any tendencies and how that would affect the offensive play he would call at the line of scrimmage.
"I learned to, hey I'm not going to have any tells," Phillips said. "And every single thing I do looks as close to the same as possible, so he doesn't get any keys off of me."
Although they play on opposite sides of the ball, it didn't take long for them to develop a close relationship. Once a week Cousins would take the team out to Chilli's, and while it was primarily offensive line guys, Phillips would always make the effort to attend. They also helped run the team's bible studies.
"I think he appreciated me leaning into community building and culture building," Phillips said.
Midway through the 2023 season, Cousins tore his Achilles and in 2024-25 he was with the Atlanta Falcons before signing with the Raiders this past offseason, reuniting with Klint Kubiak who was the quarterback coach and later offensive coordinator for the Vikings in 2019-21.
"He's a guy that we have to watch out for," HC Aaron Glenn said of Cousins. "We know at his age, he has seen it all, so we have to do a good job of changing coverages and making sure he doesn't get a beat on what we're doing."
Phillips has played against Cousins twice already: in 2024 when he was still on the Vikings and last season when the Jets defeated the Falcons 27-24 in Week 13. Since Cousins has returned from injury, the only difference Phillips has noticed is that Cousins is less aggressive when scrambling to run the football, but not much else has changed. When watching film to prepare for this week's game, he's noticed how well Cousins works with his center identifying protections and making changes before the snap.
"I remember even in Minnesota, he would always make the right decision and let's just pretend it's third-and-10, you gotta have it. If [the No. 1 option] is away, he's okay going ahead and throwing it to [the third option] and believing that he's going to get the yards after the catch to go make the first down because he's typically not going to throw it in there on not a high completion throw," Phillips said, explaining how Cousins might read a situation. "He's always had a really high completion percentage, and I think it's a really smart thing about his game."
If one thing has always stayed true throughout the time Phillips has known Cousins, it's that he doesn't like to be sacked and would rather dirt it when pressure arrives. But he hopes Cousins, who leads the NFL with 16 TDs and is third with 1,877 passing yards, might make an exception this time around.
"Maybe if he sees me around on that edge and he sees a familiar face, maybe instead of dirting one he'll be like, you know what, HP here, I'll give you that one," Phillips jokingly said about how excited it will be to face him again. "That would be a dream come true."
