Beneath the layers of the National Football League's indomitable entertainment machine — the cameras trained on Kirk Cousins' every move, the media members parsing each decision, and a cohort of 73,000 fans, most of them actively invested in his failure — there will be exactly three people on the Superdome field Sunday who understand the quarterback's unique burden.
There will be Drew Brees, the future Hall of Famer and a Super Bowl MVP who has offered Cousins insights from his own journey through the occasional phone call and Pro Bowl conversation. There will be Teddy Bridgewater, who four years ago came within inches of his own defining playoff moment for the franchise that now employs Cousins.