Kirk Cousins Development Tracker

[Fear The Spear]

The front office wanted to make sure his performance last year wasn't a fluke.

You mean, a

 

[TomE]

They can come in kits too, although this gear is actually high quality.

 

[TomE]

Keim is at it again, his take on the following question.

Who deserves the most credit for shaping Kirk into being a better QB the past ~month? Is it all Cavaughn or Jay/Sean?

And, right now, it’s Cousins and who gets credit for his play over the last month. I’ll start with the easy answer: He does. A lot goes into why a player develops, so this is a good question, but a player doesn’t improve if they don’t put in the work or have the proper skills/acumen. Coaches aren’t miracle workers -- heck, sometimes a great coaching job means a player is average because that’s as high as his ceiling reaches. Cousins has helped himself because of how he prepares and that work has saved the offense several times as he checks to different protections, etc.

Experience matters.


I think quarterbacks coach Matt Cavanaugh has been a huge plus for him. Huge. Cousins has talked a few times about how he helped simplify his reads and progressions, almost taking out some of the mental clutter involved. The more Cavanaugh works with Cousins, and the more he plays, the more his coaching has clearly made an impact. One of his strengths has been going through his progressions faster. Plus it’s good for a player to have a coach in the room who’s not the head coach or coordinator -- to either complain or bounce more ideas off of.

Read on at the link.
Coaches have factored into Kirk Cousins' growth as Redskins starter - Washington Redskins Blog- ESPN

 

[DieselPwr44]

Greg Cosell weighs in:

Cousins became Washington’s full-time starter in 2015. He had nine career starts at that point, which is not enough to draw any real conclusions, although people had already formed some opinions on him. Then he had a bad start to the 2015 season, as he was still learning. There was a time everyone thought Cousins was an interception machine. He’s clearly not that.

The coaching staff has a well-designed and orchestrated passing game and the coaches have an excellent feel for what Cousins’ strengths and limitations are. That’s what good coaching is. And Cousins has been executing the Washington offense at a high level.

Greg Cosell's Film Review: Kirk Cousins has matured into a good quarterback

 

[Knightingale]

Robert Mays on The Ringer gives his take...

https://theringer.com/washington-redskins-kirk-cousins-value-2af5e348c1a4#.6f4ulmvlm


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[TomE]

Keim (again) talkin' Kirk at 'zona

Efficient and made good throws is an accurate statement. There are times Cousins tries to extend plays, but typically big plays do not result. It’s an area they’d love to see him improve. When it has happened, the coaches make a big deal of it because they know that’s what can separate quarterbacks. It’s a major weapon inside the 20-yard line.


But one stat that surprised me: Cousins has two completions on throws of 20 yards or more outside the pocket – the same number as Aaron Rodgers and two fewer than Ben Roethlisberger, according to ESPN Stats & Information. Rodgers has 11 attempts; Roethlisberger seven and Cousins four.

Kirk Cousins was efficient, but Redskins will need better - Washington Redskins Blog- ESPN

 

[Ax]

Whatever price McCloo had in mind last offseason, I hope he sticks to it.

Kirk is a fine seat holder. He is not worthy of top 5 money. More like the back end of the top ten.

Stats be damned. It's about big game W's.

 

[Boone]

Kirk had a sub-par game for sure last night but overall this year he's probably the 5th-7th most efficient QB right now.


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[Elephant]

Whatever price McCloo had in mind last offseason, I hope he sticks to it.

Kirk is a fine seat holder. He is not worthy of top 5 money. More like the back end of the top ten.

Stats be damned. It's about big game W's.

Agree he needs to step up in big games. On the very first pass of the game I knew he was nervous...he threw an out pass that was way off target, a pass he hits on the money most times. That is what worries me most about him!

Speaking of out pass, wtf is McVay thinking? He threw 22 of them last night.

Cousins deserves a 5 year deal, I hope they give it to him.

 

[Knightingale]

Kirk had a sub-par game for sure last night but overall this year he's probably the 5th-7th most efficient QB right now.


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Agreed.

The QB that doesn't have the occasional bad game is a mythical creature.

And Kirk has been on it way more than he's been off it. He started cold last week and heated up. This week he wasn't great, but then he wasn't alone on the team and had no help this week.

IMHO sign him and stop worrying about this spot on our roster.

Bigger fish to fry.

 

[SkinsNumberOne]

Bigger fish to fry.

Maybe more troubling, lots of fish to fry. As in a defense that needs a lot of work. So, you can't run out of oil or your fish won't be fried, and you'll be sitting with the same results year after year. It's up to McL to find the "magic number" where you don't break the bank. I've liked what he's done (generally) so far; I think he did not overreact with Kirk, which I approved, even though there was (and is) risk with that. I wasn't a huge fan of the Josh Norman move (so much $) but I understood it if he panned out the way they said. I think he has not quite played at the level they wanted/expected, but he has been a difference in the personality which is also important; I doubt they regret it.

I find the stat that is in the power rankings on ESPN kind of telling. To them, it could be a sign that when they need Cousins to lead them to a win, he's not truly able to. I'm not sure if that's fair, because I think it's more of a team sport than anything, but I do think that in a strict dollars and cents way, they need to be careful to have enough money to make the defense a lot stronger than it is now. That is a big problem to have. My interest is in being a Super Bowl contender, not being a playoff contender, and to do that... you really need to fix this defense.

NFL 2016 Week 16 Power Rankings - Dallas Cowboys, New England Patriots, Seattle Seahawks

Kirk Cousins is good, but the Redskins can't over-rely on him. The Redskins are now 1-5-1 when Cousins throws for 300 yards this season, which means they are 6-1 when he doesn't. Cousins might not need to throw that much against the 3-11 Bears this week.

 

[Knightingale]

Maybe more troubling, lots of fish to fry. .

You're so right! LOL

I think Kirk could develop into someone who can carry this team. He's not there yet, but I do think he works at his craft.

The other week when they had him mic'd up and he was talking to Aaron Rodgers and said he studied him (like Gandalf!) I think he really means it. I don't think that's lip service at all.

If we keep him in this offense for a few more years I think we'll see something special.

I'm ever the optimist!!

 

[Goaldeje]

Kirk Cousins is good, but the Redskins can't over-rely on him. The Redskins are now 1-5-1 when Cousins throws for 300 yards this season, which means they are 6-1 when he doesn't. Cousins might not need to throw that much against the 3-11 Bears this week.

That would require coaches who knew what a running play was and how to call one.

 

[stevenaa]

I think the talent will continue to improve on the team. When have we been able to have that confidence? I worry if the coaching is up to the task. Well, I know Barry isn't. He needs to go. McVay needs to go or make a radical adjustment to his play calling. Jay I'm up in the air about. I've been supportive and still mostly am, but I need to see more growth. He needs to make McVay change. If he's not doing that, it's a sign he approves of the Play Calling approach. If we can get better play calling on Offense, more integration of the running game, keep improving the talent on both sides, I still think Kirk has the goods to win a lot of games with. I think he's made stride mentally in not letting a mistake turn him sideways. Now he has to learn how to perform in the big game. I think he has it in him. I agree he's not top 5 money ,but someone may be willing to go there. Should we let him walk over the difference in lower top ten or top 5 money? I think this is the pivotal year for McLuvin. We're two years away from a talent standpoint. Does he stay with the coaches and pay Kirk, or forge a different path?

 

[Ax]

Offer Grossman a 1 year deal for around 8-10 mil.

And hope he walks.

We can go .500 with McCoy.

 

[Boone]

I think that's a knee-jerk fan post. Cousins absolutely needs to take it up about 5 notches in big games. He is far too erratic in high pressure moments. But he's the best QB we've had under center in 20 years. He will be back, and if the Redskins have any sense, they'll recognize that QB is not on the list of top 5 problems this team has. Far too many games this season where had we made reasonable playcalls and played to our strengths offensively, we'd have won going away. I'm with Bulldog - if anyone needs to go, it's wunderkind Sean McVay. Cousins is the last guy we need to cut.

 

[Ax]

I didn't say cut him. I said we can go .500 with McCoy.

And save a bunch of money.

Whatever "it" is, it seems to partly be included in "shitting" his pants under the brightest lights.

I'd offer him whatever the average is for all 32 starters in the league, and not a penny more.

 

[Knightingale]

If we do that we lose him and go right back to square one and join all the other teams who are QB chasing.

In the meantime Kirk goes elsewhere for his money and matures for them instead and haunts us as a top 5 QB for the next 15 years. This isn't an RGIII situation


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[Ax]

We can go .500 with McCoy.

Might also force coach Turner to develop, and then properly use an effective run game.

Right now, he seems to understand the concept of running the ball about as much as Rain Man understands the concept of money.

 

[SkinsNumberOne]

We can go .500 with McCoy.

Might also force coach Turner to develop, and then properly use an effective run game.

Right now, he seems to understand the concept of running the ball about as much as Rain Man understands the concept of money.

This is pretty funny and I agree that the run game usage is horrible. By the way, I was a HUGE fan of Alf, but I now readily accept that there were scouting reports about him suggesting his vision was questionable to find open holes (this hasn't been widely reported, but I went on a hunt and finally found some resources early in the season that were reputable). Anyway, here is the thing: if they HAD kept Alf, for a low cost, I think the Redskins would have been in the playoffs. I think they did NOT use the running game much at all this year, but for Alf, a guy who would have held onto the ball better than Jones who they thought was "the" guy coming into the season (and they spent a lot of time believing that)... he would have given them at least as much as they got from Jones (not much) and not dropped the ball.

As for Kirk though: he is clearly better than McCoy so I think you're way off base there. He's a good QB. Is he going to be worth what he would demand on the open market? That is a hard question, and what's interesting about that question is part of whether you can WIN with a "market" QB contract is fully dependent on your ability to find consistent (potentially rotating too) value at OTHER positions. That gives you the ability to afford an overpaid player or two, with some care taken of course. The other problem with that, though, is the locker room. The locker room quickly breaks with the wrong people if they see a guy who got paid playing alongside them and they feel like they are contributing as much or more. It's a hard thing to balance. The Seahawks have definitely had their struggles with that.

If we do that we lose him and go right back to square one and join all the other teams who are QB chasing.
In the meantime Kirk goes elsewhere for his money and matures for them instead and haunts us as a top 5 QB for the next 15 years. This isn't an RGIII situation
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Cousins is not a top 5 QB today. The thing about "Top 5 QBs" though is that as much as some like to paint it that way, it's not QB vs QB out there. It's still 11-on-11 on the field of play, and 52 vs 52. It's a big team effort. So Kirk may look like a top 5 QB with a great defense to back him up, giving him some more confidence. That certainly IS true (as it is for many QBs though). That is the fallacy of the "top 5 QB" thinking. The real question is would his contract hinder their ability to field a good team. Clearly he's a good QB, I would hope no one questions that at this point. I think the playcalls in the redzone were pretty bad, and that's on the coaching staff. He doesn't have that ability to call his own plays. It's true he made some bad throws today and didn't seem to see some open receivers, but that's going to happen. I look at the season overall and there were a lot of missed opportunities for the team as a whole. If he doesn't cost them more than they can afford, keep him. It's a simple rule of thumb when dealing with a "good" commodity.