This makes me think of the revolutionary war meme of three wounded vets walking together, one with his head in a wrap (Geno), one staggering between the other two with his arms on their shoulders (Manziel) and the third walking with a crutch while he supports the guy in the middle also (RGIII). Right behind them is the little drummer boy (Petty.)
The comp for Cousins at this point is Matt Schaub after his breakout year in in 2009. Offensive stats for QB's were very inflated last year for the average QB. I'm thinking that's because the NFL was looking really hard at defensive pass interference down the field and so a lot of negative plays actually came off the records when the penalties were called. There might be something else going on also, but it's not like baseball where the ball can get jacked up for a year and homeruns go through the roof. Guys who had unexpectedly strong seasons last year at QB include Ryan Fitzpatrick, Kirk Cousins, Carson Palmer, Blake Bortles, Derek Carr, Cam Newton, Andy Dalton, Tyrod Taylor, etc. The 8 QB's I listed had 242 TD passes and 91 Int's last year. An average of 30 TD's and just 11.5 Int's. For their careers they had a 584 TD to 426 Int ratio going into the season. Given that they were a mix of vets (Palmer, Fitzpatrick), early prime (Cam Newton, Andy Dalton), high picks (Blake Bortles, Derek Carr) and came out of nowhere (Kirk Cousins and Tyrod Taylor) that argues that there was something in the water last year that sparked an unusual good situation for QB's. I didn't include Eli Manning 35-14 and Brian Hoyer's 19-7 in the mix because Manning has been high TD's in the past and might just have had an unusually low number of Int's for the season and Hoyer's season could just be a fluke based on who he started against and who was healthy around him. On the flip side a couple of guys who usually have very good ratios had poor ones for the year in Matt Ryan and Ben Roethlisberger, both at 21-16. Ryan has kind of been trending in this direction for a few years, ever since Roddy White and Tony Gonzalez aged out and Julio Jones broke his foot. Roethlisberger was a walking disaster area last year with at least 3 injuries that might have sidelined him for the season that he played through anyway. It's also just an impression but I think NFL teams are playing less Cover 2 than they had been in the past. I think the Spread makes Cover 2 less efficient and that's one of the pass defense schemes that has always been good at picking off the ball due to the number of defenders at all levels who have eyes on the QB as the play develops.
and nothing submarines a franchise more then throwing big money at a qb who isnt a franchise guy. and kirk cousins has 1 decent season as an NFL qb. in the worst division in football. with a pretty embarassing post season performance. and nothing the prior 4 years that amount to much. if you want the just to suck long term, then bringing in cousins is the move to do it.
yeah, well maybe one day we'll be lucky enough to have a qb with as "decent" a season as cousins just had. until then we'll probably keep trotting out clowns like mark sanchez and geno smith.
Because the Jets already have a proven commodity in Fitzpatrick who already has a high level of continuity with the team, knows the playbook/system, and will be much cheaper to sign.
um... we just did have a qb who had justs as "decent" a season as cousins... and that guy was a journeyman coming off an injury. if cousins was here, he WOULD be the next clown. you dont throw huge money at a QB who isnt proven. even less so when he has had a rocky career and 1 good season.
Cousins had a far better season than Fitz. 3-1 TD to INT ratio, 4200 yards passing and 70% completion rate. Fitz will never have a season that good.
Hey, just in case you guys missed the picture of Kirk Cousins smiling and signing his franchise tender: Kirk Cousins signed his franchise tender. He isn't allowed to negotiate contracts with other teams anymore. If we want to trade for him that's cool, but the whole "2 first rounders to sign Kirk Cousins" doesn't exist anymore.
He lit up some bad defenses. He had 29 TDs and like 17 of them came in 5 games. I believe he's fools gold. Franchising him was the right decision for Washington. Lets see him play at this level for a longer period or against better teams.
