Kirk Cousins Development Tracker

[Knightingale]

People don't mention it much, but Cousins' humility is huge.
And probably the main reason he's developed so much.

Indeed.

Although tbh I feel some of this has to do with the press around him...

RGIII had a real rollercoaster ride with the press. I never really thought he wasn't particularly humble, but the expectation and the magnifying glass on him seemed to just cause so many issues with every little thing he said being over-analysed and overreacted to.
He was seen as the saviour of the Franchise for a while and I think it's hard for anyone to live in that spotlight and not let some of it go to their head, to start believing the hype.

And then there's Alfred and Kirk who appear to have gotten a free pass so to speak from the press who were too busy sniping at RGIII and what ad campaign he was running or what he said in an interview that they could twist out of context. (By the way... how fed up and humbled did he look yesterday when they put him on camera late in the game!?)

I think that allowed Alfred to quietly sit in the background and be the focal point of our offence quietly.

I also think it's what let Kirk quietly develop behind the scenes without the pressure. I think that's paying dividends now. He's quietly gone about his business, not ruffled the press and now he's got the starter job and alot of goodwill.

Alot of people have said it and I agree. Being benched like this may be the best thing for RGIII's career long term. It'll teach him humility and give him time and space to just learn. Something he never had the luxury of when he was in the spotlight.
I know it's unlikely but I'd kinda like having him stick around and learn from the reserve spot without the pressure or the media attention and see if he ever can be the Franchise QB so many of us thought he was. Alas while he's here it'll always generate a controversy and right now I think it's clear that Cousins is the man right now.

 

[Smoot Point]

Kirk Cousins has been in a pro-style offense all of college and was more pro-ready than any QB in that draft (save Andrew Luck). Let's not get ahead of ourselves. He threw a lot of short passes to RBs & TEs on Sunday and got a lot of YAC (12 of 20 passes went to RBs & TEs). Of the 8 passes, I only remember one going for more than 10 yards in the air. The only person you could really evaluate this game was Rob Ryan, and he lost his job.

What makes Kirk Cousins' 20-25, 324, 4, 0 numbers any better than:

M Mariota 28-39, 371, 4, 0
E Manning 30-41, 350, 6, 0

 

[Elephant]

Kirk Cousins has been in a pro-style offense all of college and was more pro-ready than any QB in that draft (save Andrew Luck). Let's not get ahead of ourselves. He threw a lot of short passes to RBs & TEs on Sunday and got a lot of YAC (12 of 20 passes went to RBs & TEs). Of the 8 passes, I only remember one going for more than 10 yards in the air. The only person you could really evaluate this game was Rob Ryan, and he lost his job.

What makes Kirk Cousins' 20-25, 324, 4, 0 numbers any better than:

M Mariota 28-39, 371, 4, 0
E Manning 30-41, 350, 6, 0

We won?

 

[Knightingale]

Kirk Cousins has been in a pro-style offense all of college and was more pro-ready than any QB in that draft (save Andrew Luck). Let's not get ahead of ourselves. He threw a lot of short passes to RBs & TEs on Sunday and got a lot of YAC (12 of 20 passes went to RBs & TEs). Of the 8 passes, I only remember one going for more than 10 yards in the air. The only person you could really evaluate this game was Rob Ryan, and he lost his job.

What makes Kirk Cousins' 20-25, 324, 4, 0 numbers any better than:

M Mariota 28-39, 371, 4, 0
E Manning 30-41, 350, 6, 0

I think the answer you're looking for is 158.3

For reference all three have played the Saints...

Mariota got a Passer Rating of 135.7
Manning got a Passer Rating of 138.2
Our boy Capt Kirk maxed the scale out at 158.3

I think Kirk likes that. I do too. LOL

hehe.

But point taken. Bad team that has been mullered by multiple opponents.
Still you can't really throw a better game than that, and as such he did EXACTLY what he was supposed to do.

He's not gonna be Rodgers or Brady right now, but I'm not sure what more we could have asked of him.

 

[stevenaa]

Seems like he's excelling at taking what he's given, and what I see is what I always thought the West Coast was. I think you are minimizing the lack of a deep threat, and how that translates to Kirk pushing it down the field. There is no other player on this team outside Desean that makes the safety pull back out of the box. The other guys just don't have the wheels. I will say, that the lack of play action was limiting as well, but everything was working so well it really wasn't needed. No way should anyone have expected Kirk to have a perfect QB rating, even given the poor Saints Defense. He did what he should be expected to do as a starting NFL QB and a whole lot more. We still don't know if he's gonna be the guy, but it's hard to look at his play and not see he is a playing at a much higher level. He is growing and it's glaringly obvious, IMO. Where it will all end up is still a mystery, but he is trending up. The Oline was big in the Run game against an inferior opponent, opening up the running game. The injuries on the line cost us against good fronts. I don't expect the running game to be as effective next week, which will translate into less production overall. I will continue to gauge his play in the context of what is going on around him and not in a vacuum of stats only.

 

[Henry]

Kirk Cousins has been in a pro-style offense all of college and was more pro-ready than any QB in that draft (save Andrew Luck). Let's not get ahead of ourselves. He threw a lot of short passes to RBs & TEs on Sunday and got a lot of YAC (12 of 20 passes went to RBs & TEs). Of the 8 passes, I only remember one going for more than 10 yards in the air. The only person you could really evaluate this game was Rob Ryan, and he lost his job.

What makes Kirk Cousins' 20-25, 324, 4, 0 numbers any better than:

M Mariota 28-39, 371, 4, 0
E Manning 30-41, 350, 6, 0

Good lord, I'm no Kirk Cousins apologist. I've been more critical of him than pretty everyone on this board, but uh, well, Manning was a first overall pick and two-time Super Bowl champion, Mariota is a 2nd overall pick and people expect great things from him.

If you are suggesting Cousins didn't do something special because his numbers are comparable to theirs? I'm not sure that's correct.

This is the time of year when the Redskins historically drop like a stone. If they are dropping 40-bombs on teams ten weeks in ... it's not nothing (doesn't mean we are winning the Super Bowl or anything, but it's not nothing.) And Cousins gets credit for being a big part of that.

 

[Om]

Kirk Cousins has been in a pro-style offense all of college and was more pro-ready than any QB in that draft (save Andrew Luck). Let's not get ahead of ourselves. He threw a lot of short passes to RBs & TEs on Sunday and got a lot of YAC (12 of 20 passes went to RBs & TEs). Of the 8 passes, I only remember one going for more than 10 yards in the air. The only person you could really evaluate this game was Rob Ryan, and he lost his job.

What makes Kirk Cousins' 20-25, 324, 4, 0 numbers any better than:

M Mariota 28-39, 371, 4, 0
E Manning 30-41, 350, 6, 0

That certainly a viable viewpoint, looking at the one game against the one opponent. However, as Boswell points out ...

... acknowledge the opponent; “their secondary was awful,” as Jurgensen put it. Even Cousins cautioned against reading too much into small samples, since one tipped interception or 78-yard screen pass can so dramatically alter a passer’s stat line. Still, his numbers over Washington’s past three games are fairly startling: 75 for 105, for 858 yards, eight touchdowns and one interception. That’s a passer rating of 117.

 

[Smoot Point]

We won?

So did Mariota...

I just saw a tweet from Cian Fahey:

I thought Cousins played well against the Patriots. I don't put any real stock in the game against NO. 263 of his 324 yards were YAC.

This is all I'm saying... Nobody needs to get their "heart Kirk" panties in a bunch, just because I think it's difficult to evaluate any QB against a defense that plays this poorly.

 

[Smoot Point]

2 of those last 3 games were against the 30th & 32nd ranked passing defenses in the league according to passer rating. The Patriots game was encouraging, but we'll see how it goes against better defenses and in the division the next 3 games.

 

[Boone]

No - he was better than both those guys yesterday. He has to show it week in and week out.

The YAC argument is somewhat meaningless - since every QB's numbers in the league include them. I look at it this way - you can exploit a team deep, over the middle, or via the short passing game. It doesn't matter how - it's the exploiting that matters. And Cousins exploited the hell out of NO yesterday. That's all you can ask of him.

The larger point which I think is valid is can Cousins put together a legitimate deep ball threat consistently. That's nice and sometimes even crucial to have. I think the 'he can't throw the deep ball well' stuff is overblown though. . He's not got a cannon for an arm but neither does Tom Brady (did you see some of the wounded ducks he threw up there last night against the Giants?). With better and longer protection and a deep threat other than Crowder and I suspect we'll see more success but that's just my opinion.

Of all the factors on which to judge Cousins, that's far down my list of concerns, certainly not up there with accuracy, sound decision-making, etc...


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[Smoot Point]

If Cousins is getting all his YAC because he's throwing behind the line of scrimmage, then it isn't a meaningless statistic.

 

[Smoot Point]

My thoughts about his development is that he went from a Stafford/Cutler type QB (numbers-wise, with lesser arm strength) to an Alex Smith type QB... Instead of improving what he did well in 2014, he eliminated that completely from his game in order to avoid INTs... That's my biggest problem with evaluating whether Cousins has improved or not... He changed, but not necessarily improved. It's clear in the numbers.

 

[Om]

If Cousins is getting all his YAC because he's throwing behind the line of scrimmage, then it isn't a meaningless statistic.

Except he's not, brother.

My grandmother doesn't have wheels, so she's not a car.

 

[Boone]

And if one is not satisfied with that performance by the QB yesterday, he never will be


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[MikeSr619]

If Cousins is getting all his YAC because he's throwing behind the line of scrimmage, then it isn't a meaningless statistic.

I agree...except one part. If he's making reads and hitting the right receiver in stride he deserves some of the credit as well. But when a player catches a 3 yard screen and takes it 60 yards avoiding tackles and running people over the qb shouldn't get credit.

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[Smoot Point]

It's funny how people will make light of stats like YPA, YAC, and where a QB ranks among his peers based on last year vs this year... Then they will totally pull out stats like "QB Rating over last 3 games" and made up records like "1st QB to throw for 300 yards and have a rating over 150"... RGIII was the king of records like that... None of that is important today. If any QB is a really good QB, they'll have the phony, made up records/statistics that we all get impressed about for 10 seconds and then they'll also have the YPA/YAC and they will eventually bubble up to the top of the league in many areas. Stay medium, folks... 3 more games, at least...

 

[Smoot Point]

Except he's not, brother.

My grandmother doesn't have wheels, so she's not a car.

Again, the stat I heard was 263 yards of his 324 were YAC. If those numbers are correct, he had one 40 yard pass and a lot of passes that averaged 1-2 yards. Hence, a lot of passes behind the line of scrimmage.

 

[Smoot Point]

And if one is not satisfied with that performance by the QB yesterday, he never will be


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Being satisfied with a performance is one thing. I was satisfied with Colt McCoy's performance when he helped defeat the Cowboys last season. I don't necessarily thing he deserves a contract extension. I'm trying to look beyond the performance, which is hard to evaluate against the level of competition.

 

[Shi no Tenshi]

The thing with YAC is: it shows that throws were made accurately. You can say it isn't as impressive, but it is how our offense is based. I'm with the group that says Cousins can't get the long bomb, but our offense is predicated on the short passing game, and high YAC numbers show it's working. If Cousins is accurate like yesterday, YAC will be high, as he is hitting guys in stride and on-target, not sailing them high or behind.

Ain't nothin' wrong with YAC. It just shows a different aspect, and one that is important, and will win us games.

 

[Boone]

Being satisfied with a performance is one thing. I was satisfied with Colt McCoy's performance when he helped defeat the Cowboys last season. I don't necessarily thing he deserves a contract extension. I'm trying to look beyond the performance, which is hard to evaluate against the level of competition.

You've seen the commercial.

Everybody knows that

There's not a person here who wouldn't agree - we need to see a lot more games like yesterday's before anointing Cousins 'the guy'. I think what we are seeing is a guy who's playing better and better as the season progresses. Chalking his game yesterday up to a bunch of lucky YAC gained on 1-3 yard passes behind the LOS is inaccurate - sorry.


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