I know I said I was done with football articles, and I know it's been a while since I've written anything on here. However with my heart bleeding from the pain us Redskins fans became so used to over the past twenty years I felt the need to break my silence in the aftermath of the gut wrenching 19-10 loss to close out the season.
Here are the facts:
1. Cousins choked in two critical games this year. A win against Carolina would've cemented our standings in the playoffs at the time and given us control of our playoff fate. A win today would've overcome that game but he put up a stinker: throwing two devastating interceptions, the latter of which ended the game and the Redskins season.
2. He is the best quarterback to play for the Redskins since they moved to FedEx field, period. He's 6th all time in passing yardage and passing touchdowns in franchise history, 1st ever to go back to back seasons with 4000+ yards, and third in the NFL in passing yardage this year. He also led five 4th quarter comebacks -six if you want count the Lions game- this season alone. That's four out of the team's eight wins plus the tie. Last year he clinched the division by drubbing the Eagles in Week 16.
3. He is at the bare minimum an average quarterback. Few would disagree with this statement. He isn't Tom Brady or Peyton Manning. He will not win 13 games a year on his arm alone. However, by definition he is better than 15 or 16 other quarterbacks in the NFL. We can win games with Cousins at the helm. He has shown that more often than not he is accurate, capable of letting it fly and makes good decisions. Every now and again he's shown he can be clutch in the 4th quarter.
The Denver Broncos last year showed us that a great defense and mediocre quarterback play is enough to win the Superbowl. Cousins led the NFL's third best offense and the fact is you can do a lot worse than average over 400 yards of offense per game. My only point in writing this is anyone who wants a switch at quarterback is short sighted and can't see the big picture.
The Kansas City Chiefs are 12-4 with a quarterback that threw for 10 less touchdowns and around 1400 less yards than Cousins did. You can win games with competency, not excellence, at the quarterback position. If anything the end of the season gives the Redskins more leverage in paying less money for his services but they would be completely moronic to not try and get an extension at all.
There is no Andrew Luck in this year's draft. There may be a Russell Wilson or a Dak Prescott but there is no way they will perform better than Cousins will next season. The free agents options aside from Tony Romo (who is injury prone and unreliable as a starter at this point) are either garbage or unproven. And I don't need to remind Redskins fans how one season of great quarterbacking means absolutely nothing. See RG3, Nick Foles & Matt Cassel for examples.
As a final note I don't want to diminish the potential Cousins has shown. This is only his 2nd full year as a starter and his first year having gone through the off-season getting all the reps the starter gets. Cousins has similar stats to Matt Ryan, Phillip Rivers, Andrew Luck and Big Ben when you look at their first two years starting. And in general when compared with those four he has more touchdowns, yards and less interceptions in those first two years. Having around eight fourth quarter comebacks/game winning winning drives in his career demonstrates that he has the potential to be clutch under pressure and win games, it's just a matter of if he can do it just a bit more consistently as time goes on.
Ultimately Kirk Cousins is the Redskins best option at quarterback for the next season and moving forward. He provides stability the team can build around and will rarely be the limiting factor in football games, pushing the team to win more often than he holds them back.
Here are the facts:
1. Cousins choked in two critical games this year. A win against Carolina would've cemented our standings in the playoffs at the time and given us control of our playoff fate. A win today would've overcome that game but he put up a stinker: throwing two devastating interceptions, the latter of which ended the game and the Redskins season.
2. He is the best quarterback to play for the Redskins since they moved to FedEx field, period. He's 6th all time in passing yardage and passing touchdowns in franchise history, 1st ever to go back to back seasons with 4000+ yards, and third in the NFL in passing yardage this year. He also led five 4th quarter comebacks -six if you want count the Lions game- this season alone. That's four out of the team's eight wins plus the tie. Last year he clinched the division by drubbing the Eagles in Week 16.
3. He is at the bare minimum an average quarterback. Few would disagree with this statement. He isn't Tom Brady or Peyton Manning. He will not win 13 games a year on his arm alone. However, by definition he is better than 15 or 16 other quarterbacks in the NFL. We can win games with Cousins at the helm. He has shown that more often than not he is accurate, capable of letting it fly and makes good decisions. Every now and again he's shown he can be clutch in the 4th quarter.
The Denver Broncos last year showed us that a great defense and mediocre quarterback play is enough to win the Superbowl. Cousins led the NFL's third best offense and the fact is you can do a lot worse than average over 400 yards of offense per game. My only point in writing this is anyone who wants a switch at quarterback is short sighted and can't see the big picture.
The Kansas City Chiefs are 12-4 with a quarterback that threw for 10 less touchdowns and around 1400 less yards than Cousins did. You can win games with competency, not excellence, at the quarterback position. If anything the end of the season gives the Redskins more leverage in paying less money for his services but they would be completely moronic to not try and get an extension at all.
There is no Andrew Luck in this year's draft. There may be a Russell Wilson or a Dak Prescott but there is no way they will perform better than Cousins will next season. The free agents options aside from Tony Romo (who is injury prone and unreliable as a starter at this point) are either garbage or unproven. And I don't need to remind Redskins fans how one season of great quarterbacking means absolutely nothing. See RG3, Nick Foles & Matt Cassel for examples.
As a final note I don't want to diminish the potential Cousins has shown. This is only his 2nd full year as a starter and his first year having gone through the off-season getting all the reps the starter gets. Cousins has similar stats to Matt Ryan, Phillip Rivers, Andrew Luck and Big Ben when you look at their first two years starting. And in general when compared with those four he has more touchdowns, yards and less interceptions in those first two years. Having around eight fourth quarter comebacks/game winning winning drives in his career demonstrates that he has the potential to be clutch under pressure and win games, it's just a matter of if he can do it just a bit more consistently as time goes on.
Ultimately Kirk Cousins is the Redskins best option at quarterback for the next season and moving forward. He provides stability the team can build around and will rarely be the limiting factor in football games, pushing the team to win more often than he holds them back.
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