If You Want Kirk Cousins Traded, It’s Best for the Rams to Win the Super Bowl
Dustin Baker
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On January 31, 2021, an agreement sent then-Detroit Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford to the Los Angeles Rams in exchange for the Rams’ 1st-Round picks in 2022 and 2023, a 3rd-Round pick in 2021, and quarterback Jared Goff. Aye caramba.
The deal was massive, laying the framework for the trade price of productive veteran passers. The consensus on Stafford in Detroit indicated the franchise was not good enough to win around Stafford, and [somehow] all the doldrums in Detroit were unrelated to Stafford. Quarterback Wins – a weird statistical metric – did not apply to Stafford due to unlimited sympathy afforded to him.
The Rams fixed the “QB Wins” problem for Stafford, trading an ungodly amount of capital to Detroit for the underachieving quarterback. And wouldn’t you know it – Stafford won his first playoff last weekend, obliterating the embarrassing Arizona Cardinals 34-11 on playoff Monday Night Football.
For a week, the Stafford trade looks dazzling for Los Angeles – even though the organization doesn’t really have any high-round draft picks for the foreseeable future. Indeed, though, the Rams are two wins away from the Super Bowl, tasked with ending Tom Brady’s season this weekend – and maybe Aaron Rodgers or Kyle Shanahan’s hopes and dreams thereafter.
If you are a Vikings fan who wants Kirk Cousins to be traded away, now is the time to cheer for the Rams.
Why? The Stafford deal will become the blueprint for inking a veteran passer – who tosses 4,000+ passing yards and 30+ touchdowns annually like Stafford or Cousins – as the missing piece to for Super Bowl push. Teams like the Pittsburgh Steelers, Cleveland Browns, Denver Broncos, and New Orleans Saints might believe they’re a “quarterback away” from performing like the Rams.
The trade pizazz will likely dip if Brady and the Buccaneers eviscerate the Rams, but that seems unlikely at the moment as Tampa Bay will possibly be without keynote left tackle Tristan Wirfs and playmakers Chris Godwin and Antonio Brown [forever]. Also, the Rams are just good, more than capable of beating a fully-staffed Buccaneers squad.
The further the Rams go in the 2021 playoffs – the more the sizzle of Cousins-to-elsewhere gains legitimacy. Statistically, Stafford and Cousins are spooky bedfellows, compiling likeminded numbers throughout the entirety of their careers. The only problem for Cousins? Most folks think Stafford is cool, whereas the same opinion isn’t quite shared for Cousins.
But here are the numbers (with a reminder Cousins has started 120 games in his career):
Stafford vs. Cousins
Through First 120 Career Starts:
Stafford —
33,313 Passing Yards
208 Passing TDs
114 INTs
61.5% Comp %
87.7 Passer Rating
24 Fumbles Lost
Cousins —
32,099 Passing Yards
219 Passing TDs
87 INTs
67.0 Comp %
99.0 Passer Rating
32 Fumbles Lost
While some are more enamored with Stafford the guy, Cousins’ numbers align – and usually outpace – Stafford in most situations.
If the Vikings wish to trade Cousins as determined by the new brand of leadership, a Rams Super Bowl win should drive Cousins’ trade-capital price tag northward. And that helps the Vikings amid this era of change.
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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