Harrison Phillips: Vikings will use 'division of labor' to carry leadership torch vacated by Kirk Cousins

Harrison Phillips hopes to prove that the many parts Minnesota derives its leadership from are greater than sum of what Kirk Cousins took with him to Atlanta.

After six years as the Vikings' leader, Cousins jumped ship to the Falcons, but Phillips -- there for the last two of those seasons -- believes the club might actually stand to improve as it compensates for his departure.

"There's gonna be a huge loss," Phillips said Wednesday on NFL Total Access. "Kirk Cousins as a person, as a leader, as a teammate, that's a big void in your locker room. One of the most humble guys that I've ever been around. Servant leader, just a great motivator. He's great. To ask one person to fill that void is probably not probable. So what we're going to do is have a great leadership team, which we've already seen. There's already guys that I've seen these last few seasons being on this roster -- some are captains, some are not captains yet but will be in their careers -- and so we're going to pass that torch off and kind of division of labor. We're going to all carry that load together, and maybe we can be a better football team for it.

"Kirk's obviously amazing. I've learned a lot from him and the leadership side of thing, and that's an area I'm trying to step up and improve my game by working on those abilities."

Of the Vikings' eight captains last year, they actually lost a bit more than just their QB; Danielle Hunter and Jordan Hicks also joined new teams in free agency. Justin Jefferson, Harrison Smith, Brian O'Neill, C.J. Ham and Josh Metellus remain.

Yet Phillips, not yet a Pro Bowl defensive tackle but a high-character, impactful player going on seven NFL seasons, leads a list of names ready to step into that void. Whether its homegrown