Kirk Cousins has now played in 12 games for the Washington Redskins, which means we have a large enough sample size to judge him as a quarterback.
For his career, Cousins has completed 58.4% of his passes for 2,537 yards, 16 TDs, and 15 INTs. Those aren't great numbers, but they're certainly not bad numbers. Plus, he's improved every time he's been out the field and is great when the offensive is in rhythm. When it's not, he really struggles, and that's when most of his interceptions are thrown.
However, he hasn't looked like the answer many Washington fans thought he'd be after they'd grown tired of Robert Griffin III. Once RGIII comes back from injury, the Redskins are going to have a decision to make. What should they do?
Keep Cousins as the starter
This route would certainly give him room to grow with the offense and allow him to gain familiarity with his group of receivers, but that would mean benching RGIII. That would create a massive media firestorm and so many internal disputes, and probably lead to a trade. Washington will only do this if Cousins start to play phenomenally the next few weeks and the Redskins start winning.
Trade Cousins
This scenario is much more likely than the first one, but Washington would be left with Colt McCoy as a backup for the injury-riddled Griffin. Offers from the several teams that need a quarterback might be willing to give up a lot more than Cousins is worth (after all, Arizona sent Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie and a 2nd-round pick to Philadelphia for Kevin Kolb). This route would also eliminate any inkling of a quarterback controversy.
Keep Cousins as the backup, for now
Cousins has shown that he's a capable fill-in starter to this point in his career, but nothing he's done has indicated he's a franchise quarterback. RGIII has shown that he is injury-prone, so having a good backup is a necessity. Cousins seems to know his role and is fine with it, so why mess with anything?
Cousins and Griffin are both under contract for next season, so the best course of action is to keep things the way they are and see how it pans out. If RGIII's play keeps declining, you can yank him for someone who can be effective in the NFL. If he goes back to playing like he did as a rookie, than suddenly Cousins becomes expendable if you can't keep him as a backup.
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