Kirk Cousins
Cousins stepped in for RG3 early in the second week against the Jaguars and looked phenomenal. A lot of his plays were attributed to poor coverage by the Jaguars secondary, but he constantly made quick decisions with the football and threw the ball accurately to his wide receivers all afternoon on some truly incredible throws. He started the next four weeks with mixed results. Against the Eagles (Week 3) he was phenomenal again dominating the air hitting his wide receivers consistently with well thrown balls, but against the Giants (Week 4) he played horribly throwing four interceptions due to inaccuracy, staring down his receiver, and not reading the coverage properly. Against Seattle (Week 5), Cousins consistently threw behind his target and tried to force throws over the middle of the field. Cousins regained some of his accuracy versus Arizona (Week 6), but he still tried to force throws and still didn’t fully see underneath zone coverage. Cousins started against the Titans (Week 7), but was benched in favor of Colt McCoy due to the offense’s inefficiency and Cousins’ turnovers.
The interesting thing about Cousins’ is how similar he reminds me of Rex Grossman, but a better more controlled version of him. Say, Rex Grossman 2.0. Grossman throughout his career was immaculate throwing the crossing routes and slant routes over the middle of the field, but struggled with touch passes and way too often forced the ball into covered receivers. Cousins shares a lot of similarities. He tends to force throws just like Rex, but his deep ball is a lot more accurate and even in his young career has shown clearly more potential than Grossman due to his underrated arm strength and release on the throws.
Let’s take a look at some of Cousins’ throws to illustrate a few points about his game:
1. Accuracy (Short/Medium/Deep)
a. Short-Medium Accuracy - Rank: #3/3
Play 3 - WR12 Roberts runs a post route underneath Cover 2 and Cousins finds him over the middle for large gain on the play.
Play 12 - TE84 Paul on a crossing route. Cousins does a great job of airing the ball out to him to avoid the linebacker underneath.
Play 34 - There were times in the Seattle game where Cousins did not look confident. Like this play, that he would routinely complete.
Play 41 - Cousins throws behind Roberts. This is also a play similar to Play 34 where Cousins is usually excellent at completing.
Play 45 - WR11 Jackson runs a banana route. Cousins does a good job of looking off the safety and finding him for a perfectly lofted ball on Sherman.
b. Deep Accuracy - Rank: #1/3
Play 1 - Deep post route to Jackson. Ball was placed only in a spot where Jackson could get it.
Play 9 - Great deep ball accuracy, but Garcon can’t hold onto it.
Play 22 - One of my favorite passes by Cousins. Perfect deep ball placement on go-route to Garcon.
Play 28 - My other favorite throw by Cousins. Perfect lob pass to Paul over the middle of the field between Cover 2 and a linebacker underneath.
Play 43 - Deep pass to Jackson on post-corner. Amazing throw, but stares down receiver.
2. Vision and Decision-Making - Rank: #2/3
Play 21 - Here Cousins tries to force the ball and doesn’t see the safety. Lucky only an incompletion.
Play 29 - Cousins locks into Garcon and it’s almost intercepted. Had TE and RB open instead, but doesn’t see them.
Play 33 - Throw to Jackson in Cover 2 where Cousins had skinny-post down middle open, but locks into one receiver.
Play 42 - Cousins stares down Garcon and lets the ball sail. He doesn’t see the safety over top as well. Lucky this wasn’t picked.
Play 49 - Cousins tends to force passes when he feels pressure. Here he forces it to RB46 Morris when Cousins is getting rushed. Should have just thrown it to his feet instead.
Play 56 - This is my least favorite play by Cousins all season. He completely missed the underneath zone cornerback for a pick six and throws across his body.
3. Pocket Presence - Rank: #2/3
Play 40 - Cousins feels the pressure and scrambles outside the pocket finding his TE over the middle. He did have Paul on the out-route as well.
Play 48 - Poor pocket presence in this play. Cousins needs to shift away from RT74 Polumbus who got blown up on the bull-rush.
4. Arm Strength - Rank: #2/3
Play 25 - Overthrown deep ball to Paul. Missed opportunity.
5. Anticipation - Rank: #2/3
Play 5 - Hitch route thrown with great anticipation Grant.
Play 14 - Another hitch route with great anticipation to Jackson.
Play 15 - Outside curl route to Jackson showing accuracy and great timing.
As you can see from the above plays, Cousins certainly has potential. He has surprising dowfield accuracy, makes ridiculously quick decisions, and actually does a good job as a pocket passer in our system. If he can clean up his turnovers and not force throws like in Play 49, he could make for an interesting case at starting quarterback next season.
On the next page we will look at Colt McCoy.
