Making the case for Kirk Cousins as a franchise quarterback
The Vikings, Jets, Cardinals and Broncos have rumored interest in landing the former Redskins signal caller, but not all of their fan bases are excited by the prospect. Here’s why they should be.
Kirk Cousins is boring, on and off the field.
Names don’t get much more plain than Kirk. It’s such a forgettable name that even his own team’s president called him “Kurt Cousins.” For whatever reason, he’s become an afterthought.
He’s not particularly fast. At six-foot-three and 214 pounds, Cousins’ size is right around the average for an NFL quarterback (six-foot-three-and-a-half, 225 pounds.) His arm strength however, ranks in the 90th percentile, according to PlayerProfiler.com.
It’s fitting that Cousins’ best physical comp is Tony Romo, another quarterback who never got the respect he deserved.
Cousins manages to both look average and remind you of someone you thought wasn’t very good. That affects the way people consider him.
Cousins has no playoffs wins. His career record is 26-30-1 (45.8 win percentage), so there’s a belief that you can’t win with Cousins. But football is a team sport. The quarterback may be the biggest part of the team, but there are a lot of other factors beyond him that affect who wins and loses.
From 2014 to 2016, future Hall of Famer Drew Brees had a very similar record at 21-26 (44.7 win percentage). You didn’t see many people saying the Saints couldn’t win with him.
The idea that you can’t win with Cousins because he hasn’t won yet is a logical fallacy. Everyone who’s ever won a Super Bowl had no playoff wins at one point. The reigning Super Bowl MVP, Nick Foles, hadn’t won a playoff game before the Eagles’ Super Bowl win this past season.
Signing Kirk Cousins feels like settling. I get it; nobody wants to feel like they’re settling when they’re getting into a long-term relationship. But teams aren’t settling with Kirk Cousins. They’re actually getting the man of their dreams.
| SINCE 2015 (COUSINS’ 1st FULL YEAR AS STARTER)* | |
|---|---|
| Y/A | 7.80 (4th) |
| ANY/A | 7.00 (5th) |
| RATE | 97.5 (6th) |
| CMP% | 67.02 (3rd) |
| TD% | 4.8 (12th) |
*via Pro Football Reference
Whether or not you think the state of the quarterback position in the NFL is poor right now doesn’t matter. What matters is how good Cousins has been relative to the rest of the league. Objectively, he’s been one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL since he became a starter.
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Since 2015, Kirk Cousins has a higher touchdown percentage than Matt Ryan, higher completion percentage than Tom Brady, higher yards per attempt than Russell Wilson and a higher QB rating than Ben Roethlisberger.
Those are the makings of a franchise quarterback any way you cut it.