Thoughts on Cousins and the next few weeks

[Taylor703]

There needs to be competition. No one took control of the job. All he wants is a chance to beat out check down Bob. I have no problem with that after watching Griffin's performance this year. All Redskin fans should want a QB competition and we should all want the best guy playing QB.

Well maybe if Color Blind Kirk quit throwing the ball to the other team it would be easier to take him serious....

[Rskins06]

So now we have "Check Down Bob", "Color Blind Kirk", "Little Dan Snyders" nicknames. 

 

I guess the bottom line is we are all Reskins fans and want desperately to have a winning team, we just don't see eye to eye on who should lead the team.  I wonder if the meetings at Redskins park are the same?

[Taylor703]

So now we have "Check Down Bob", "Color Blind Kirk", "Little Dan Snyders" nicknames.

I guess the bottom line is we are all Reskins fans and want desperately to have a winning team, we just don't see eye to eye on who should lead the team. I wonder if the meetings at Redskins park are the same?

Of course we all want what's best for the team. I don't question other people's fan hood. We all have to be stupid and love this team to do this to ourselves everyday.

[Rskins06]

Of course we all want what's best for the team. I don't question other people's fan hood. We all have to be stupid and love this team to do this to ourselves everyday.

We can finally agree on this:)

[PCS]

So now we have "Check Down Bob", "Color Blind Kirk", "Little Dan Snyders" nicknames. 

 

I guess the bottom line is we are all Reskins fans and want desperately to have a winning team, we just don't see eye to eye on who should lead the team.  I wonder if the meetings at Redskins park are the same?

Nothing new there at all. Should there be a competition,the only thing left will be bumper stickers with Griffin and Cousins on them,(old school reference there). 

[Garcon More Wine]

So now we have "Check Down Bob", "Color Blind Kirk", "Little Dan Snyders" nicknames. 

 

I guess the bottom line is we are all Reskins fans and want desperately to have a winning team, we just don't see eye to eye on who should lead the team.  I wonder if the meetings at Redskins park are the same?

 

 

i havent seen anything from any QB on our roster since 2013 that has shown they can win football games or even have the ability to win football games.  robert is clueless in the offense and checks down all day which kills the run game, kirk is jay cutler junior without the 1st round talent so he moves the ball forward but more often than not backwards, and colt is a small career backup with a mediocre arm.

 

essentially these arguments are "who sucks the least of the sucky QBs we have".  only thing we can upgrade is the oline and defense to give one of these sucky QBs a chance to go 8-8 with this team.

[TD_washingtonredskins]

Because that's not what happened. In her first tweet she clearly stated he wanted to be traded if Robert was named the starter.

 

...if Griffin was named the starter before the season started, without a competition...yes. 

Wish that Cousins would show the type of confidence he apparently has when going through in game struggles.  If he had shown the ability to fight through adversity instead of staring into space with a forlorn look then things could have gone vastly different for his this season.  

 

You know when QBs have traditionally developed that confidence and worked through those struggles? Over the course of an entire season without having to deal with being benched. I've documented several other very good QBs who had a far worse TD/INT ratio in their first 16 or so games. Those guys knew that they would be in the lineup week in and week out and were given the opportunity to overcome the interceptions and allow the game to slow down for them. More playing time for Cousins would potentially allow him to have a shorter memory and shake off negative plays. 

[TexasSkinsFan]

Personally feel like Cousins game would translate better to the philosophy that Gruden wants to deploy here with very quick reads and QB releases but with the quick hook given him this year and never getting another chance I speculate it means one of two things

 

Thing one - They have seen enough from Cousins and will move on from him this offseason. Hope for a trade but a release could happen. Either way he's done here

 

Thing two - They have seen enough from Cousins to know what to work on this offseason and have plans for him to be the opening day QB next season.

 

Being how they were desperate for wins at the end of the season I think it's 75-25% for thing one and thing two at this point. Will Cousins mature enough not to show emotions when he screws up next year? I'm not sure. I do think that he is the better Game one QB on the roster at this point and rank them - Cousins, McCoy, Griffin - But politics are a **** in this business so I don't expect Griffin to be on the bench next year because of the price they paid for him and do expect Cousins to be gone before Game one starts. Hope I am wrong because the kid can play, my argument against Cousins is how emotional he is. We need a Cool Hand Luke here, not someone who will cry when he throws a pick.

[profusion]

None of these guys is the next Peyton Manning or Aaron Rodgers, guys who can succeed despite the weakness of their supporting cast. The Redskins' line needs to be rebuilt to play smashmouth and give their starting QB--whoever he is--a fighting chance by having a dependable ground game. They CANNOT place this team squarely on the shoulders of Griffin or Cousins and expect to succeed.

 

Heck, that seems to be basically what Gruden did with Andy Dalton. The Bengals' recent winning streak is based primarily on having tough defense and a dependable running game.

[nick_sanchize]

Kirk had his chance,didnt take it.Could have been the starter till the end of the season.If he wants playing time he should go to another team,because i think the Redskins will stick with Rg3 and he(Cousins) will be on the bench the entire time,time he could have been using improving his game and potentially playing with another team.

[ncr2h]

Kirk had his chance,didnt take it.Could have been the starter till the end of the season.If he wants playing time he should go to another team,because i think the Redskins will stick with Rg3 and he(Cousins) will be on the bench the entire time,time he could have been using improving his game and potentially playing with another team.

 

This seems to be a common theme.  "He had his chance, but didn't take it."

 

...what does that mean?  Specifically, what is the minimum that he could have done to "take it"?

 

Is it winning games?  Kirk destroyed the Jaguars and then faced the following teams (keep in mind he was playing for a team that is 7-25 over the past 32 games):

 

1. Philly (who started 6-2, then their starting QB got injured, finished the season 4-4 with Mark Sanchez at QB) - Cousins lost by 3 points despite a missed 30 yard chipshot field goal by his kicker as well as a kick return TD allowed by special teams

 

2. NYG (who were up 24-7 at halftime due to defensive ineptitude similar to what we saw yesterday against Dallas)

 

3. Seattle (12-4 record, defending Super Bowl champions)

 

4. Arizona (11-5 record)

 

...what was he expected to do?  He had 1 stinker, 1 below average game, 1 good game, and 1 outstanding game.  Again, he's on a 4-12 team, facing 4 teams that finished a combined 37-27, with 2 of them going to the playoffs and one of them only missing the playoffs because their starting QB got hurt halfway through the season.

[skins/psu1981]

Kirk had his chance,didnt take it.Could have been the starter till the end of the season.If he wants playing time he should go to another team,because i think the Redskins will stick with Rg3 and he(Cousins) will be on the bench the entire time,time he could have been using improving his game and potentially playing with another team.

 

This was what was so frustrating about Kirk coming in for RG3. If RG3 had a season ending injury, we might of just rolled with Kirk the whole time. Having that "your job to lose" demand obviously back fired on what they expected Kirk to do. Kirk had a 3 games that he should've won just based on QB and offensive production. There were 3 games where he had his hand in the cookie jar as far as a loss is concerned. A loss is not always a loss, which is why i was so shocked they pulled the plug and went to Colt. Open competition needs to happen.

[Lombardi's_kid_brother]

 Open competition needs to happen.

 

What the hell does that even mean?

 

Seriously, explain "open competition" to me, because it seems that giving each of our ****-bird QBs multiple starts this year was as open as it gets.

 

The people who call for this are just saying that whatever ****-bird QB they back for whatever stupid reason would clearly win the "open competition" but Chubs Gruden has some kind of agenda where he favors another ****-bird QB for some stupid reason.

[redskins59]

Kirk had his chance,didnt take it.Could have been the starter till the end of the season.If he wants playing time he should go to another team,because i think the Redskins will stick with Rg3 and he(Cousins) will be on the bench the entire time,time he could have been using improving his game and potentially playing with another team.

 

Didn't you hear Gruden's presser today?  Uh, no, they are not sticking with Griffin.  There will be a QB competition, and whoever wins will be the starter.  I don't see Griffin winning if it's a TRUE QB competition.  He is the worst of the 3 no doubt.  

There were people who believed in Enron even when it was heading to zero.  That's what RG3 is now. 

There are a few players I just don't believe in.  RG3 is one.  David Amerson is another.  Cut your losses and move on.  If you don't show something by year two, you should be gone. 

As far as Cousins, I will only believe he is terrible if I get more sample size.  The fact is the team scored  >30 points this year twice, and that was under only one QB--Cousins.  And he played against two elite defenses in Arizona and Seattle.  The only game where we sucked with Cousins QBing the team was against Giants. Check out Cousins' stats in the first half against the Giants.  He had a >100 QB rating and he was doing a good job.  

Gruden's problem is he is  impatient.  Interception is something that's easy to fix.  Peyton Manning had int problems.  So did Brett Favre.  Not seeing the field on the other hand cannot be fixed.  RG3 does not see the field (not fixable), while Cousins has int problems (fixable) due to inexperience.

[skins/psu1981]

This seems to be a common theme.  "He had his chance, but didn't take it."

 

...what does that mean?  Specifically, what is the minimum that he could have done to "take it"?

 

Is it winning games?  Kirk destroyed the Jaguars and then faced the following teams (keep in mind he was playing for a team that is 7-25 over the past 32 games):

 

1. Philly (who started 6-2, then their starting QB got injured, finished the season 4-4 with Mark Sanchez at QB) - Cousins lost by 3 points despite a missed 30 yard chipshot field goal by his kicker as well as a kick return TD allowed by special teams

 

2. NYG (who were up 24-7 at halftime due to defensive ineptitude similar to what we saw yesterday against Dallas)

 

3. Seattle (12-4 record, defending Super Bowl champions)

 

4. Arizona (11-5 record)

 

...what was he expected to do?  He had 1 stinker, 1 below average game, 1 good game, and 1 outstanding game.  Again, he's on a 4-12 team, facing 4 teams that finished a combined 37-27, with 2 of them going to the playoffs and one of them only missing the playoffs because their starting QB got hurt halfway through the season.

Philly and Sea were very winnable games with a competent (not 4-12) team. Cousins wasn't exactly blowing up the world in his first half of NYG, but it definitely was not bad. The defense was horrendous in that game. The ints came when he was trying to hard to get back in the game. No excused...4 ints were ugly. Seattle game he played honestly extremely well. He had some great throws against sherman on the right side. No INTs against the best defense in the league and moved the ball pretty well. Any other team and that was possibly a win. Arizona game again was a decent first half, not mind blowing but in the 2nd half he was forcing plays based on trying to get back in the game and we know what happened next. Not defending Kirk in that game. The Titans game was actually the first game where he had a bad 1st half...So what? Let him play the 2nd half and see if he would have a better 2nd half than his first. Didn't Flacco play like dog crap the first half of the game in the 2nd half? That s**t happens. 

 

Lets not forget how awful Colt's first half was against the Cowboys. By Gruden's logic they should have sat him down for Kirk to finish the 2nd half. Kirk had two bad games vs 4 good to great games. How good games can you say RG3 had this year?

[redskins59]

Honestly, if we fire Haslett and hire someone like Wade Philips, we can probably win 10 games with Cousins at the helm. I don't see that with the other conservative-type QB's (Colt and RG3).

[skins/psu1981]

What the hell does that even mean?

 

Seriously, explain "open competition" to me, because it seems that giving each of our ****-bird QBs multiple starts this year was as open as it gets.

 

The people who call for this are just saying that whatever ****-bird QB they back for whatever stupid reason would clearly win the "open competition" but Chubs Gruden has some kind of agenda where he favors another ****-bird QB for some stupid reason.

You really want me to answer that? Okay, the offseason you have a meaningful objective evaluation of your QB's. Same reps, same first team...etc. You have a QB competition in training camp and in preseason. You roll with one who is showing the greatest progress in Gruen's system and you roll with them the whole year barring injury. No yanking after 3rd game. No yanking after 6 game. Let these QBs work out their flaws with out the threat of being replaced by the back up QB. That's what loser teams do (btw we are the loser team) How did that work out for Browns this year, Houston Texans, Jaguars, Raiders..the list goes on. You have to stick with one QB the whole year and let them gain their confidence through out the season.Within finding that confidence have at least the rest of the team help out. Jesus, it's like every QB needs to have 3 tds and 350 yards to even have a chance to win...and that still doesn't help in the case of the Eagles Game.

[nick_sanchize]

This seems to be a common theme.  "He had his chance, but didn't take it."

 

...what does that mean?  Specifically, what is the minimum that he could have done to "take it"?

 

Is it winning games?  Kirk destroyed the Jaguars and then faced the following teams (keep in mind he was playing for a team that is 7-25 over the past 32 games):

 

1. Philly (who started 6-2, then their starting QB got injured, finished the season 4-4 with Mark Sanchez at QB) - Cousins lost by 3 points despite a missed 30 yard chipshot field goal by his kicker as well as a kick return TD allowed by special teams

 

2. NYG (who were up 24-7 at halftime due to defensive ineptitude similar to what we saw yesterday against Dallas)

 

3. Seattle (12-4 record, defending Super Bowl champions)

 

4. Arizona (11-5 record)

 

...what was he expected to do?  He had 1 stinker, 1 below average game, 1 good game, and 1 outstanding game.  Again, he's on a 4-12 team, facing 4 teams that finished a combined 37-27, with 2 of them going to the playoffs and one of them only missing the playoffs because their starting QB got hurt halfway through the season.

If he is as good as you say he is,why didnt he win the starting job from the get-go? yes he played tough teams but that doesnt mean that it gives him a reason to stink up the joint. He had bad plays and interceptions in those games and lost his job to a 3rd string QB who had been in the team in far less time than him.

Didn't you hear Gruden's presser today?  Uh, no, they are not sticking with Griffin.  There will be a QB competition, and whoever wins will be the starter.  I don't see Griffin winning if it's a TRUE QB competition.  He is the worst of the 3 no doubt.  

There were people who believed in Enron even when it was heading to zero.  That's what RG3 is now. 

There are a few players I just don't believe in.  RG3 is one.  David Amerson is another.  Cut your losses and move on.  If you don't show something by year two, you should be gone. 

As far as Cousins, I will only believe he is terrible if I get more sample size.  The fact is the team scored  >30 points this year twice, and that was under only one QB--Cousins.  And he played against two elite defenses in Arizona and Seattle.  The only game where we sucked with Cousins QBing the team was against Giants. Check out Cousins' stats in the first half against the Giants.  He had a >100 QB rating and he was doing a good job.  

Gruden's problem is he is  impatient.  Interception is something that's easy to fix.  Peyton Manning had int problems.  So did Brett Favre.  Not seeing the field on the other hand cannot be fixed.  RG3 does not see the field (not fixable), while Cousins has int problems (fixable) due to inexperience.

if he is as good as people think he is,why isnt he the clear favorite to be the starter for the Skins?because the FO/Coaches are still divided.If he had played those games and played his balls off,no mistakes no nothing,i would agree with you. Cousins has been with the Skins same time as RG3,and hasnt shown i his play that the Skins should go forward with him. He is not a clear favorite is what i am saying.

[Garcon More Wine]

cousins and griffin have been in the league 3 years.  neither of them are NFL caliber starters at this point.  no open competition is going to make kirk stop throwing 3 picks a game or make griffin understand how to read a defense and not make roy helu the #1 receiver every game.  both arent good, and are not the answer here.

 

open competition is just a make believe term, the coaches know who they like and who they want to start.  its neither of these guys.

[skins/psu1981]

cousins and griffin have been in the league 3 years.  neither of them are NFL caliber starters at this point.  no open competition is going to make kirk stop throwing 3 picks a game or make griffin understand how to read a defense and not make roy helu the #1 receiver every game.  both arent good, and are not the answer here.

 

open competition is just a make believe term, the coaches know who they like and who they want to start.  its neither of these guys.

Good, that's easy then. Kirk can be check down Kirk. Less Int's and won't risk throwing the ball down field. Now Kirk can be the starting QB

[Garcon More Wine]

Good, that's easy then. Kirk can be check down Kirk. Less Int's and won't risk throwing the ball down field. Now Kirk can be the starting QB

 

 

thats what you want?  why the hell would you want that?

[skins/psu1981]

thats what you want?  why the hell would you want that?

Of course that's not what i want. But you have to take risk downfield. This is the why he threw those INTs. That doesn't mean this will be a constant for the rest of his career. He just needs the reps and not a fear of always being benched when throwing the INT. Kirk's record with a competent team during his starts this year (including the Jags game) would've been 3 or 4 wins. 

[Garcon More Wine]

Of course that's not what i want. But you have to take risk downfield. This is the why he threw those INTs. That doesn't mean this will be a constant for the rest of his career. He just needs the reps and not a fear of always being benched when throwing the INT. Kirk's record with a competent team during his starts this year (including the Jags game) would've been 3 or 4 wins. 

 

hes not good enough to make up for those risks.  if he had been worth anything we'd have gotten some draft picks for him.  QBs are a premium position and fetch large hauls.  remember what schaub got?  2 2nd rounders.  remember what charlie whitehurst got?  2 3rd rounders.  matt flynn got a contract from 2 good games.

 

had anybody thought kirk could even be an average NFL starter, we'd have gotten a decent haul for him.  we got nada.

 

clearly youre a cousins fan, but much like us RG3 fans, its time to admit he isnt good.  neither is robert.  we are back to the drawing board at QB.

[TD_washingtonredskins]

hes not good enough to make up for those risks.  if he had been worth anything we'd have gotten some draft picks for him.  QBs are a premium position and fetch large hauls.  remember what schaub got?  2 2nd rounders.  remember what charlie whitehurst got?  2 3rd rounders.  matt flynn got a contract from 2 good games.

 

had anybody thought kirk could even be an average NFL starter, we'd have gotten a decent haul for him.  we got nada.

 

clearly youre a cousins fan, but much like us RG3 fans, its time to admit he isnt good.  neither is robert.  we are back to the drawing board at QB.

 

That's an ignorant stance because it assumes that everyone in the NFL gets their QB decisions right. By that logic, Brady would have gone #1 overall in 2000 and no one would have traded the farm for Matt Flynn or Scott Mitchell based on a couple good games. If anything, I think the fact that the league has collectively acknowledged its failures has made the QB market a little softer...

[skins/psu1981]

hes not good enough to make up for those risks.  if he had been worth anything we'd have gotten some draft picks for him.  QBs are a premium position and fetch large hauls.  remember what schaub got?  2 2nd rounders.  remember what charlie whitehurst got?  2 3rd rounders.  matt flynn got a contract from 2 good games.

 

had anybody thought kirk could even be an average NFL starter, we'd have gotten a decent haul for him.  we got nada.

 

clearly youre a cousins fan, but much like us RG3 fans, its time to admit he isnt good.  neither is robert.  we are back to the drawing board at QB.

Of course I'm a cousins fan, just I was an RG3 fan in the beginning of his career. You think I didn't want RG3 to succeed? As a life long Redskins fan, that is the worse fair weather BS fan you will ever see. But the dude is not better than Kirk at this point in his career. That is a fact. I just can't see a scenario where RG3 will succeed in this system let alone stay healthy enough to get better. Kirk appears to be hungry and motivated to get better. He needs the starts to correct those problems, mainly INTs. That's it. Whether i get my wish on an open competition is debatable at this point.