Anonymous Exec Takes Shot at Kirk Cousins
Another day, another Kirk Cousins criticism.
First of all, for context, this is how Cousins is performing in 2021 via all quarterback metrics:
There is no way to doctor so many parameters, nor is Cousins the one outlier in human history that cannot be adjudicated by math. That man is good – plan and simple. He isn’t elite, a word we’ve collectively become obsessed with. Yet, he is a very competent passer.
However, not everyone believes it. Since Cousins’ standoff saga with the now-notorious ownership of the Washington Football Team, the media decided Cousins was a middling quarterback – and nothing more. He’s painted with every negative and mediocre brush known to humankind. And this week, that intensified.
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The Washington Post – dabbling into Minnesota sports, evidently – published an article, detailing an anonymous executive’s musings about Cousins. Unsurprisingly, it’s a critique of Cousins’ talent. The nameless executive said this about Cousins:
“Kirk Cousins is overrated. He can’t finish. He’s a great guy. Takes it very seriously. He’s got the body, mind and spirit — he’s got all those things you want in that position. But he doesn’t have enough arm talent. There’s a reason why he was taken in the fourth round. He’s just a guy. When [stuff] breaks down and adversity strikes and you got to extend the play, he can’t do it.”
And it’s mini-nuggets like these that proliferate the Cousins-ain’t-it experience. Until he enacts a Super Bowl push like Eli Manning, Joe Flacco, or Nick Foles before him, he’ll be chirped at with off-the-wall comments like this. Folks flat-out disregard his production vivified by various statistical metrics, instead promoting one’s “eye test” as the truest form of judgment. All it takes is one time for a person to see Cousins not close out a game – or his defense collapses down the stretch, thus losing the game – and Cousins is personally held accountable forever. This is how it goes for Cousins. Other players like Matthew Stafford are offered endless sympathy; Cousins receives the opposite.
“Why didn’t Cousins’ Vikings win in Week 2 at Arizona?”
“Well, his kicker missed a chip-shot field goal that would’ve won the game.”
“He shouldn’t have allowed them to be in that position in the first place. Should’ve put the Cardinals away sooner.”
That is how a conversation about Kirk Cousins goes. Such discussions transpire ad nauseam on the internet and in real life.
And now evidently, The Washington Post and anonymous NFL leaders are in on the fun.
Dustin Baker is a political scientist who graduated from the University of Minnesota in 2007. He hosts a podcast with Bryant McKinnie, which airs every Wednesday with Raun Sawh and Sally from Minneapolis. His Viking fandom dates back to 1996. Listed guilty pleasures: Peanut Butter Ice Cream, ‘The Sopranos,’ and The Doors (the band).
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