Sitting RGIII--good football move?

No team should go all-in on Cousins in 2014 regardless of how well he plays in these 3 games.

But someone might.

 

The days of trading the future for a Scott Mitchell or Rob Johnson clone are over.
It took one-game-wonder Matt Flynn to finally drill the message home.
WTF has Kirk Cousins done to command a second-rounder in return?

 

A 300-yard passing day is almost a given against the Cowboys.

 

Based on what I've seen this season, I don't disagree.

 

Aaron Rodgers used to be quite effective scrambling. A couple concussions changed that.

 

Exactly. I love how people keep saying how great Cousins has looked. That hasn't happened this year. He looked good against Cleveland -- CLEVELAND!!! -- last year. And two passes against Baltimore. That's it. He's looked like complete garbage every other time he's been put into games, which was against Atlanta last year and KC and Denver this year.

That said, I obviously hope he does well these last three games -- against three God awful defenses. But I'm not going to bet on it.

 

People forget how dreadful the Lions secondary was when Flynn lit them up. Teams are so desperate for decent QBs that they overpay for them. I think Matt Flynn and Colt McCoy were both dealt for fifth rounders this year. Surely Cousins could get more than that.

Didn't someone give up a No. 3 for Charlie Whitehurst? That wasn't that long ago. I know they swapped second-rounders too, but still.

AJ Feeley anyone? I think the Eagles got a No. 2 for him.

 

A guy I was having a conversation with made an interesting point about NFL quarterbacks. Maybe the standard has risen a bit in the last 25 years. (Although it's hard to say Montana, Elway, Marino, Staubach, etc. were not good.)

We've seen the Mannings and Bradys and Rodgers and Brees, etc. and now we sort of want/hope that every team has a QB who plays at that same level. And supply and demand dictates it doesn't happen that way; that there will always be more spots than there are HOF-level players to fill them; that about 1/3 to 1/2 the league will be in search of an upgrade from their present starter.

Maybe that's why teams are overspending for Tim Tebow and Blaine Gabbert and JaMarcus Russell and Brandon Weeden and whomever. Maybe it's just supply and demand.

Still, I gotta think I can take someone in the fourth or fifth round, or sign a journeyman free agent, and get equivalent production at half the cost.

 

What makes Cousins so appealing to a team is the two years left on the rookie contract. Almost every top team right now either has a stud at QB (Manning, Brady, Rodgers, Brees) or a guy playing on his rookie contract (Wilson, Luck, Kaepernick Newton, Dalton), freeing the team up to spend a lot of money everywhere else. The chance to get a guy who is good and cheap enough to let you keep your high priced talent you have already assembled should be worth a 3rd round pick to a team like Houston.

 

Regarding RG3, he should have been shut down when he had his initial injury. It was clear he was not at full speed after the initial injury.

Kirk Cousins may not be as good as RG3, but playing RG3 late last season was sacrificing the long term for the short term.

Not saying Washington wouldn't be in the mess it is now if RG3 hadn't played through the injury, but at least you wouldn't have concerns about his long-term health and what it means for the franchise's long-term picture.

(Edited to fix typo: "Wouldn't" instead of "would.")

 

I think Feeley earned his payday with consistently good backup quarterbacking for good teams.
Flynn and Rob Johnson for one good game each, not so much.
Couins could turn out to be squat.