Gotta Start Cousins 16 Times This Year...

[OldSchool]

I want to see Cousins start 16 games because I think the he starts the more we see performance like today. Shanahan said recently that he thought Cousins could become a top 10 QB and needed time and a more balanced team to work with to realize that potential. It is easy to spot Kirk's upside because he thinks so quickly and has a really nice arm. I want the Skins to give Kirk the rest of the year because he just might be the guy we've been hoping for a long time. I not saying he is but I am definitely saying he might be so he needs to get at least the rest of thus year to see if he can continue to grow and develop.

[PulpExposure]

I'm nowhere near as convinced about him, because he'll have tease games like this, and then games where he is plain awful. But he should absolutely start the rest of the year because we don't have any other real options on this team.

[Burgundy&GoldForever]

That's been the plan all along. The line just has to keep protecting him as they have been and keep him healthy.

[SkinsJock]

Cousins should absolutely be the staring QB for as long as he is the best option, which he is right now - are you kidding me, there is no way that he is just automatically the starting QB for the rest of the season

[Mississippi Hog]

I can see him developing into an Andy Dalton/Alex Smith/Matt Ryan type. He won't be a Manning/Brees/Brady. However, do we absolutely need that? If we can focus on having a great D, and a Great running game, Cousins can help us to a lot of wins, and we could be a championship team. That said, I didn't like getting rid of Kai, but I am loving Hopkins. Looks like it was a good move. And Tress Way... I think we are good in our specialists dept.

[riggofan]

Cousins should absolutely be the staring QB for as long as he is the best option, which he is right now - are you kidding me, there is no way that he is just automatically the starting QB for the rest of the season

Overreacting to the most unnecessary hair splitting.

[OldSchool]

I can see him developing into an Andy Dalton/Alex Smith/Matt Ryan type. He won't be a Manning/Brees/Brady. However, do we absolutely need that? If we can focus on having a great D, and a Great running game, Cousins can help us to a lot of wins, and we could be a championship team. That said, I didn't like getting rid of Kai, but I am loving Hopkins. Looks like it was a good move. And Tress Way... I think we are good in our specialists dept.

Shanahan said Kirk could develop into a Drew Brees type QB. I don't think we should expect that much obviously but Kirk doesn't have be anywhere near that good to play a decade and become the best Redskin QB in at least a generation. I hope he continues to improve and plays like today with increasing frequency so we can build around him.

[Burgundy&GoldForever]

there is no way that he is just automatically the starting QB for the rest of the season

Why not? If he's healthy he starts every one of the twelve remaining games. Jay Gruden's job depends on the team improving and his figuring out the quarterback situation. Neither one of those happens if there is no consistency in who is starting games. Neither RGIII nor Colt McCoy will be here next season. Both absolutely suck at running Jay Gruden's offense. Kirk can run it but can he run it consistently? That's why he starts the rest of the games. They need to know.

[StorminMormon86]

Even if he plays poorly, he's still the best option on this team. He needs to remain the starter all year as long as he's healthy. Then they can insert McCoy.

[riggofan]

Chris Baker comes out and says publicly what players have been saying off the record for months.

“Give Coach Gruden credit for making a hard decision, but making the right decision,” Baker said. “This was the game that showed you why he went to Kirk. We all love Robert, and we hate to see him not getting the chance he worked so hard for. But you see the production with Kirk, and now you see he can lead us to victory in the fourth quarter.”

[DEHog]

Chris Baker comes out and says publicly what players have been saying off the record for months.

“Give Coach Gruden credit for making a hard decision, but making the right decision,” Baker said. “This was the game that showed you why he went to Kirk. We all love Robert, and we hate to see him not getting the chance he worked so hard for. But you see the production with Kirk, and now you see he can lead us to victory in the fourth quarter.”

I saw where Trent basically said the same thing.

[REDEEMEDSKIN]

Chris Baker comes out and says publicly what players have been saying off the record for months.

“Give Coach Gruden credit for making a hard decision, but making the right decision,” Baker said. “This was the game that showed you why he went to Kirk. We all love Robert, and we hate to see him not getting the chance he worked so hard for. But you see the production with Kirk, and now you see he can lead us to victory in the fourth quarter.”

When I heard about this quote this morning on the radio, I nearly slowed clapped for it, but I was driving.

So this'll have to do.

(Let's keep the Kirk Cousins "Vanwagon" going.)

[SkinsJock]

It's going to be fun to watch Kirk continuing to prove he's a good starting QB like he did against the Eagles

I hope he's the starter here for the rest of this season

[DEHog]

Hope he stays the starter!! Just finished listening to him on 106.7 and it's so nice to hear our QB deflecting credit to his teammates!!

[OldSchool]

It's obvious he has won the support and confidence of his teammates and I'd imagine the locker room is a happy place now that it is clearly Kirk's team.

[markshark84]

Chris Baker comes out and says publicly what players have been saying off the record for months.

“Give Coach Gruden credit for making a hard decision, but making the right decision,” Baker said. “This was the game that showed you why he went to Kirk. We all love Robert, and we hate to see him not getting the chance he worked so hard for. But you see the production with Kirk, and now you see he can lead us to victory in the fourth quarter.”

I think this was a VERY VERY good statement by Baker --- for both RGIII and Cousins.

Also --- I was very happy to see Cousins lead us to the W with a strong 4th quarter drive. What I found VERY interesting about that drive was:
(1) we had 44 yards passing and 41 rushing (and 5 on a penalty against PHI),
(2) we literally ran the ball for all but 2 yards -- from our 10 yard line to the PHI 42 yard line.... then
(3) didn't run again with 2:07 left on the clock and 2 (or 3) TOs in our pockets, and
(4) it wasn't situational -- we only had 1 3rd down; which was a 3rd and 6 where Cousins threw a 14 yard completion to Garcon.

There are mutliple comments here. First, if we didn't score on that drive, Gruden would have been persecuted for not sticking to the run. Secondly, this shows that Gruden clearly has confidence in Cousins. Lastly, Cousins did well under pressure.

This all being said, I am still not sold on Cousins. My biggest complaint about him is his lack of consistency. He needs to come out against ATL and have a solid game. ATL has a solid DEF and a top 3 OFF. It is away and Cousins has historically not performed as well outside of FedEx. This, IMHO, will be a very telling game. He needs to become consistent. Teams without consistent QBs can't make the playoffs --- and the ones that miraculously do lose because their QB can't put together successive (2+) quality starts.

In ending on a positive note, Cousins did have a very impressive game and his 76.9 QBR was the highest of any complete game redskin win since RGIII's W over CHI on Oct. 20, 2013.....

[riggofan]

This all being said, I am still not sold on Cousins. My biggest complaint about him is his lack of consistency. He needs to come out against ATL and have a solid game. ATL has a solid DEF and a top 3 OFF. It is away and Cousins has historically not performed as well outside of FedEx. This, IMHO, will be a very telling game. He needs to become consistent. Teams without consistent QBs can't make the playoffs --- and the ones that miraculously do lose because their QB can't put together successive (2+) quality starts.

Totally true, man. I don't see reason why ANYBODY should be "sold" on Cousins. He needs to be judged on a season of work, good or bad.

I'm going to have to look more closely at Atlanta this week. Their offense has been on fire this season which isn't great news for our banged up secondary. Going to be tough.

[Burgundy&GoldForever]

This all being said, I am still not sold on Cousins. My biggest complaint about him is his lack of consistency. He needs to come out against ATL and have a solid game. ATL has a solid DEF and a top 3 OFF. It is away and Cousins has historically not performed as well outside of FedEx. This, IMHO, will be a very telling game. He needs to become consistent. Teams without consistent QBs can't make the playoffs --- and the ones that miraculously do lose because their QB can't put together successive (2+) quality starts.

Totally true, man. I don't see reason why ANYBODY should be "sold" on Cousins. He needs to be judged on a season of work, good or bad.

I'm going to have to look more closely at Atlanta this week. Their offense has been on fire this season which isn't great news for our banged up secondary. Going to be tough.

Historically, Cousins hadn't performed well against the NFC East either. That didn't mean a damn thing yesterday. No one I've seen is anointing Cousins the quarterback of the future. But he is absolutely the quarterback of the present.

[riggofan]

Historically, Cousins hadn't performed well against the NFC East either. That didn't mean a damn thing yesterday. No one I've seen is anointing Cousins the quarterback of the future. But he is absolutely the quarterback of the present.

Yeah I was going to say I didn't see much value in judging Cousins "historically". He just doesn't have that much history to judge. But I still thought mark's comments were still on point.

[Burgundy&GoldForever]

Historically, Cousins hadn't performed well against the NFC East either. That didn't mean a damn thing yesterday. No one I've seen is anointing Cousins the quarterback of the future. But he is absolutely the quarterback of the present.

Yeah I was going to say I didn't see much value in judging Cousins "historically". He just doesn't have that much history to judge. But I still thought mark's comments were still on point.

They are in that we certainly shouldn't start fellating each other just yet over a couple of wins. It's a long season and we need at least four more wins to call it improvement. I'd prefer six but that's a tall order.

[SkinsJock]

speaking of 6 - we'll have a much better idea of where we are after the next 6 games

6 teams - 3 have not lost a game and 1 has lost 1 - should be a good test of character

[markshark84]

Totally true, man. I don't see reason why ANYBODY should be "sold" on Cousins. He needs to be judged on a season of work, good or bad.

I'm going to have to look more closely at Atlanta this week. Their offense has been on fire this season which isn't great news for our banged up secondary. Going to be tough.

ATL is MUCH improved. For one thing they have the best OC in the NFL --- something I have been saying since 2012. Looking at their schedule, there is a realistic chance they could go 16-0.... well, there is a good chance they won't be an underdog in any remaining games this year (except perhaps @CAR).

Historically, Cousins hadn't performed well against the NFC East either. That didn't mean a damn thing yesterday. No one I've seen is anointing Cousins the quarterback of the future. But he is absolutely the quarterback of the present.

In all reality, he has really only NOT performed well against the NYGs. He has historically played well against PHI and only played 1 game against DAL back in 2013. So I wouldn't necessarily say he has a NFC East performance issue. It is really just an overall consistency problem he needs to get a handle of.

[riggofan]

speaking of 6 - we'll have a much better idea of where we are after the next 6 games

6 teams - 3 have not lost a game and 1 has lost 1 - should be a good test of character

No doubt about that, man. Looking at those next six games, I can't imagine we'd be favored in more than two of them at most:

Falcons
Jets
Bucs
Pats
Saints
Panthers

I'm sure Kyle is looking forward to this matchup on Sunday.

[StorminMormon86]

We were supposed to go 0-4 during the first four weeks, remember?

[OldSchool]

I don't think the TEAM is ready to compete with and beat a team as good as Atlanta with a depleted secondary and without our deep threat and Reed our best possession receiver. I hope Cousins stays within himself and takes what the defense gives him and doesn't force things. Hopefully, the running game works better in Atlanta than against the Giants and Eagles so Cousins doesn't have to try carrying the whole load and try to outplay with Ryan and Jones. I can't envision a victory if Kirk has to throw 45-50 times the Skins need to commit to and get the running backs going to have a chance.