I Want Cousins To Start 16 Games This Fall

[TD_washingtonredskins]

Do folks think that cousins is incapable of playing like, say, Joe Flacco? Or is that level of play out of his reach?

 

See, that's what I'm hoping for. Whenever I act slightly optimistic about Cousins I'm mocked for thinking he's a "savior" for us. Most teams don't need Aaron Rodgers to contend. Eli Manning, Joe Flacco, and Russell Wilson are recent examples of championship-caliber QBs that simply do their job (most of the time). That's the guy I am hopeful that Cousins can evolve into. If he does, with a couple more years of wise talent acquisition, I think we might have something. 

[Audible_Red40]

I find it hard to believe that MANY fans wear their favourite player on their heart.  This thread has gone whack. 

[Koolblue13]

Do folks think that cousins is incapable of playing like, say, Joe Flacco? Or is that level of play out of his reach?

I don't see why not. He's got the tools. Be interesting to compare draft profiles.

I think he can be even better than that. There are a whole bunch of very successful QBs who don't have top notch arms or speedy legs.

that's the thing on him though. He's got a great deep ball and he's got wheels. If anything, he's more of a poor man's Luck. That's never been his knock.

[Burgold]

I don't see why not. He's got the tools. Be interesting to compare draft profiles.

that's the thing on him though. He's got a great deep ball and he's got wheels. If anything, he's more of a poor man's Luck. That's never been his knock.

Yeah, he's in the good category.

 

He's got a good arm and good legs. Neither are elite, but both are more than enough to get the job done and throw pretty much any pass you need. Montana, Young, Brees, Brady all had "good" arms. Cousins isn't in the same room with them today, but in terms of physical arm strength he's in the same ball park.

[TD_washingtonredskins]

Yeah, he's in the good category.

 

He's got a good arm and good legs. Neither are elite, but both are more than enough to get the job done and throw pretty much any pass you need. Montana, Young, Brees, Brady all had "good" arms. Cousins isn't in the same room with them today, but in terms of physical arm strength he's in the same ball park.

 

I'm sure that's what makes it so tough for actual football people to evaluate the position. Assuming the player has at least enough physical ability to play, the rest all depends on intangibles. There have been hundreds of players who have entered the league with the physical gifts to be the next Montana, Elway, Manning, or Brady but there's no discernable way to identify who will do it. 

 

So, absolutely Cousins has every physical tool he needs to be a successful NFL quarterback. But, his development is kind of in that "dark side of the moon" phase where we all just wait and see how things go when he emerges from radio silence. Luckily, we don't need the next generational player at the position (no team NEEDS that). We simply need him to be consistent and pretty good. 

[Koolblue13]

http://t.co/4ttcZc595e

I don't know if that'll work, the link, but it's the interview with his personal coach and it's pretty Damn good.

[skins island connection]

I'm sure that's what makes it so tough for actual football people to evaluate the position. Assuming the player has at least enough physical ability to play, the rest all depends on intangibles. There have been hundreds of players who have entered the league with the physical gifts to be the next Montana, Elway, Manning, or Brady but there's no discernable way to identify who will do it. 

 

So, absolutely Cousins has every physical tool he needs to be a successful NFL quarterback. But, his development is kind of in that "dark side of the moon" phase where we all just wait and see how things go when he emerges from radio silence. Luckily, we don't need the next generational player at the position (no team NEEDS that). We simply need him to be consistent and pretty good. 

 

And thats where the 'team' aspect of it comes into play.  Every player in the league has bad days, and he'll have his, but if the rest of the team pushes that much harder, the chances of them winning will go up. Everyone wants to win, thats instilled in them as kids. We hear the term 'rally around our QB', and thats what he will need. And every now-and-then, a diamond in the rough is discovered, because the desire to win outweighs who is behind center in their minds.

[zoony]

I find it hard to believe that MANY fans wear their favourite player on their heart.  This thread has gone whack. 

 

 

It blows my mind, how fan become so enamored with one guy.  To me, it will always be about the team, no matter what.

 

Let me demonstrate:

 

I don't wish RGIII well if he leaves us.  Personally I do, sure, but I don't know the guy so that seams as arbitrary as wishing John Robertson of DesMoine, IA health and happiness.  So I'll keep the discourse on his professional success.

 

And I'll say again, if he leaves us, I hope he fails miserably.  I hope he throws 25 interceptions in one game and 2 butt fumbles.  I hope he is the all time worst player in the history of the game.

 

If he remains a Redskin, I wish him the best, and hope he develops into a solid pro QB.

[TD_washingtonredskins]

It blows my mind, how fan become so enamored with one guy.  To me, it will always be about the team, no matter what.

 

Let me demonstrate:

 

I don't wish RGIII well if he leaves us.  Personally I do, sure, but I don't know the guy so that seams as arbitrary as wishing John Robertson of DesMoine, IA health and happiness.  So I'll keep the discourse on his professional success.

 

And I'll say again, if he leaves us, I hope he fails miserably.  I hope he throws 25 interceptions in one game and 2 butt fumbles.  I hope he is the all time worst player in the history of the game.

 

If he remains a Redskin, I wish him the best, and hope he develops into a solid pro QB.

 

Whoops...a little late on that health and happiness: 

 

http://www.ilesfuneralhomes.com/obituary/John-Marshall-Robertson/Des-Moines-IA/566711

[Momma There Goes That Man]

I've become really excited at the prospect of seeing Kirk 16 games. Im really looking forward to seeing how he handles an entire season of work and how he's grown from last year as well as from beginning of our season to the end.

I think he has a chance to be pretty successful in this offense with the playmakers we have. Now, I don't know that the team is good enough that it will end up translating to wins, but in optimistic he can show enough to deserve an extension. And if not, we are looking for a QB.

It's just a strange sense of calm since they moved on from

Griffin. It's odd but it feels good.

[RedBeast]

And his contract is up at the end of the year...interesting scenario in front of us

[Koolblue13]

Last year he was one of the top 5 QBs in stats, until he made a mistake and couldn't recover. If he fixes that one mental downfall, our offense should ****ing explode.

Djax, Jamison, Ross, CT, Reed, TW. That's an absurd amount of speed. Djax made his living catching the ball under 10 yards and making things happen. We should be able to clear a defense out.

[Riggo-toni]

I will be pleasantly surprised if Cousins makes it beyond week 6 without being benched.

[ZRagone]

Do folks think that cousins is incapable of playing like, say, Joe Flacco? Or is that level of play out of his reach?

 

 

I think that's possible. I think a Joe Flacco, Andy Dalton, even Eli Manning type of play is absolutely possible with him. Maybe I'm just crazy, but I absolutely do not see "elite" or "top 8" QB with anything I've seen from him. But I do see a guy who is definitely at least CAPABLE of being a top half of the league QB that you can play with.

 

Kirk has always struck me as a high floor, lower ceiling type. Nothing about him screams at me to give me belief he's going to be elite, but there's enough good things there that make me believe he's not going to flame out of this league as well. He's the type of guy that in 7 years if he's still kickng around the league, it would not shock me one bit.

 

I've said before, I think the most LIKELY comp that's going to come from Cousins is going to be a Matt Cassel, Brian Hoyer, Ryan Fitzpatrick, etc type. A solid starter who can win you some football teams, but is probably a transitional steward as you look for your future franchise guy.

 

Mind you, at a time Drew Brees looked to be the "transitional steward" for Rivers. Most don't go on to become superstars; but there is that possibility.

 

Barring an AMAZING year, I imagine we can lock Kirk up next year for a pretty reasonable contract that would be good for us. Likely Worst case scenario, he holds the position for a year or two as McCloughan and Gruden find their "guy" in the draft that they think has Franchise level talent. Likely Best case scenario, Cousins grabs the job and holds on tight with Clou and Gruden believing HE can be that franchise guy, and he improves to hover around 8 to 12 in terms of the "top QB" rankings.

 

If Kirk just absolutely balls out this year and looks like he's more Brees/Brady than Fitzpatrick/Cassel, then you sign him to a bigger (but still probably far more reasonable than many "franchise" guys) contract and you don't worry a bout looking for the "future".

 

It blows my mind, how fan become so enamored with one guy.  To me, it will always be about the team, no matter what.

 

Let me demonstrate:

.

 

Personally, I think this is a bit of a false dichotomy. One can always be about the team, and still have care for the former players.

 

Look at how people treated Lorenzo Alexander after he left, as one example. While yes, a lot of fans went into immediate "He's the enemy now" mode, others still hold him in high regard, wish him the best, root for him when he wasn't playing the Skins, and felt for him when he got injured after it looked like he may've had a chance to start.

 

Are there some people who are absolutely wrapped up in a single player and are more a fan of him than the team? Sure. Colt Brennan comes to mind with that. We had a lot of Redskin fans who became Redskins fans because of Colt, and few of them that stayed after. And undoubtedly, there are some Baytlor fans that are that way with Griffin.

 

But I think, for the most part, those who still like to see former Redskins do well in other places...and remain a fan of the Redskins...aren't really putting the player before the team, and rarely is that feeling isolated to just a single player.

 

You spend so much time rooting for guys, following guys, caring about guys that even when they leave you're still have some investment in them. Yeah, you rooted for the team, but part of rooting for the team was also rooting for those guys.

 

If Alfred Morris leaves next year, I'm still likely going to be an Alfred Morris fan. He just comes off as a genuinely good dude and the type of football player I'd love to have a locker room full of. If he's ever lining up against the Redskins I'd hope he'd accrue negative yardage...but outside of that, I'd be thrilled to see the guy do well.

 

Part of this may be the difference between the older and younger fan; the ones who grew up in an era where there wasn't free agency, and those of us who the majority of our football life has seen constant moves and changes. But I think it's an unfair characterization to me to seemingly act like those who may continue to root for a player to do well after they leave the team somehow aren't "about the team" first and foremost. Sure, I get it if you're rooting for that player to do well AGAINST the Redskins or to SPITE the Redskins, but I don't think that's what many people do when they hope a player finds success elsewhere.

[Larry]

Yeah, he's in the good category.

 

He's got a good arm and good legs. Neither are elite, but both are more than enough to get the job done and throw pretty much any pass you need. Montana, Young, Brees, Brady all had "good" arms. Cousins isn't in the same room with them today, but in terms of physical arm strength he's in the same ball park.

I'm not about to lump the guy in with Brees or Brady and such.

But right now, if he can be Rex Grossman I'd be really happy.

[ZRagone]

Last year he was one of the top 5 QBs in stats, until he made a mistake and couldn't recover. If he fixes that one mental downfall, our offense should ****ing explode.

 

Eh, the same reason I'm not going to get massively worked up a bout Picks is the same reason I'm not getting overly worked up about "top 5 QB" things. In both instances we're talking ridiculously small sample sizes. Trying to extrapolate that out to 16 game seasons is folly, pure and simple. There's so many factors that come into play when you attempt to take that small sample size and break it out larger that people generally don't account for.

 

In a very short time with Kirk Cousins we saw some REALLY GOOD things and some REALLY BAD things. I don't think either are likely going to be the norm, nor what fans should be expecting. I think over a full season, which I'm hoping he play, the norm will fall at a middle point between those two, likely leaning a bit one direction or another. But I will be absolutely stunned if this season looks a lot like the Jaguars/Eagles game OR if it looks a lot like the Giants/Cardinals game.

[TD_washingtonredskins]

And his contract is up at the end of the year...interesting scenario in front of us

 

That's part of why I love that this is happening. I think we've seen enough from Griffin to know that he wasn't going to be sticking around for the $16M fifth year. Now, while we still have another young QB under team control, we can see if he earns himself a second contract here. Either way he goes, I think this will help McCloughan prioritize the needs for the coming off-season. 

[RiggosMohawk]

Do folks think that cousins is incapable of playing like, say, Joe Flacco? Or is that level of play out of his reach?

 

In my assessment, regular season Flacco is far behind playoffs Flacco. I think the 'regular season Flacco' level is definitely attainable by KC.

 

Playoffs are another ball of wax, and you just never know until a guy is in that situation.

[gortiz]

I find it hard to believe that MANY fans wear their favourite player on their heart.  This thread has gone whack. 

 

what else do we got? Seriously? The team? Christ ... this team? 

 

It's probably just a defense mechanism to get enamored with a the player over the team, because frankly, there is no team. Just a caricature of a team. 

[Fan since a Fetus]

I know one person that thinks we owe Griffin the $16mil next season for ruining his career and we should just eat the salary cap hit. H,hu,huh,ha,ha,ha,ha,ha,ha,ha,ha (Nerd Snort). I thought it was a joke, but they were very passionate and angry.

And I'll say again, if he leaves us, I hope he fails miserably.  I hope he throws 25 interceptions in one game and 2 butt fumbles.  I hope he is the all time worst player in the history of the game.

That literally had me laughing out loud. I never say that. Also, please never change your avatar, it is so fitting with this team. Love that movie!

[TD_washingtonredskins]

In a very short time with Kirk Cousins we saw some REALLY GOOD things and some REALLY BAD things. I don't think either are likely going to be the norm, nor what fans should be expecting. I think over a full season, which I'm hoping he play, the norm will fall at a middle point between those two, likely leaning a bit one direction or another. But I will be absolutely stunned if this season looks a lot like the Jaguars/Eagles game OR if it looks a lot like the Giants/Cardinals game.

 

Speculation will end pretty soon, so this probably isn't even worth the time to type it, but that doesn't usually stop me

 

What I'm hopeful about is that Cousins looked REALLY GOOD much more often than REALLY BAD. In the Giants game, he was pretty average before leading a couple TD drives (sandwiched around what should have been another scoring drive if not for a Paulsen fumble around the 20). We had the ball down 24-14 in the second half before he blew up and threw 4 interceptions on consecutive drives (I think). So, he played a little less than a half of REALLY BAD in that game. 

 

In the Arizona game against a pretty good defense on the road he had us leading at halftime and in the game up until the 4th quarter. Then he played REALLY BAD that last quarter. 

 

Against Tennessee I just seem to remember him being pretty bad all half before being benched. Not meltdown BAD like the other two examples, but closer to how Griffin has looked and just unable to get much going on offense. So, I would say that he's played just about 4 quarters of REALLY BAD (out of almost 22) in Gruden's offense. 

[Morrison J]

I'm all for Cousins taking this job and running with it. Clearly our best option at this time.

I have one worry though, the run game.

I can't remember a game where we've got the run game going with Cousins at QB. Showed up again with Morris not getting a second against Baltimore.

Not sure what to put it down to but it's clear the holes are there when Griffin is back there. Something I hope we fix because I remember Morris struggling big time last year in the games Cousins started.

[ZRagone]

I was Griffin guy.

Now I'm a Cousins guy.

Because I'm a Redskins fan.

 

Here's an even crazier idea.

 

I am a Griffin guy.

I am a Cousins guy.

I've been such since 2012.

Because both of them are still Redskins and it's possible to hope for the best and cheer for both of them at the same time.

 

That's one thing that always got me during this whole thing. You don't have to, nor really should, knock down one to pump up the other. Both had and have flaws, both can be talked about in a rational manner, and yet you could've rooted and pushed for both.

 

The "Griffin sucks, he shouldn't even be a 3rd string guy, screw him" mentality was obnoxious to see as a fan; and the seeming salivation for Cousins to "fail" and the elation over a Redskins QB throwing picks by some people on this forum was disgusting as well.

 

The wonders of Tribalism.

 

And my honest though...even if Cousins does fail, the VAST majority of those foolishly rooting or cheering or hoping or "expecting" him to do so aren't people I'm going to look at as being "proven right". Why? Because most of them started the "down with cousins" style of mentality far before it was really reasonable. Many of them are screaming their point due to their preconceived conclusion, with any "facts" simply being used to support that conclusion rather than actually creation an objective one on its own. It's much the same as people screaming that Griffin was going to "fail" in the preseason of 2013; by and large most weren't "right", they're curmudgeons that just decided he was going to be bad and would have been screaming it till kingdom come regardless of reality. They did a 50/50 bet and just happened to hit right. The same will be for most of those salivating for the next Cousins pick so they can go "SEE! LOSER".

 

There's few things that are more frustrating as a football fan than watching the ridiculousness of fans who seemingly treat the differences between two players on your own team with a similar level of animosity and "us vs them" as they do the Redskins vs the Cowboys.

[RedBeast]

I find it hard to believe that MANY fans wear their favourite player on their heart. This thread has gone whack.

I now hang my hat on the GM...or people like Cooley, Kerrigan or Trent

ZRag...nice posts this am btw

[RahSKINS]

Just imagine if we where picked for HBO's Hard Knocks. Mega drama!