Full disclosure before you read this article. I do not think Kirk Cousins is an excellent quarterback, at all. His torrid pace down the stretch had some believing that he could be a quality fantasy football option this year. I didn’t think that he would be viable, but he was pegged in the QB10 – QB15 range for spot starts. If that was your plan, and he’s still your quarterback, this isn’t the week to play him.
If you cover up everything but yardage, Kirk Cousins has seemingly had a good first couple of games, tossing nearly 350 yards per game. Unfortunately for Cousins, when you uncover his TD: INT ratio, it reveals he’s thrown three picks this year to one touchdown. Unfortunately for Cousins owners, he hasn’t been very good at accumulating fantasy points. In fact, his 0.34 fantasy points per drop back this year are 28th, behind rookies Dak Prescott and Carson Wentz. The yardage has been a complete fluke, as well. He racked up a ton of garbage time yardage after Washington went down big. They went down, in large part, thanks to Cousins thinking he is a much better player than he is.
Forgetting Kirk Cousins the fantasy commodity for a moment, Kirk Cousins the NFL player is starting to take a massive confidence hit. Reports are that he is starting to lose the trust of the players around him. Coach Gruden said that Cousins shouldn’t take “all the blame” (insinuating he should take a big chunk of it). Washington refused to give him anything more than the franchise tag, and he is proving them right. This is a situation that is not conducive for a reliable performance week-to-week, which is something you need from your fantasy quarterback.
This dysfunctional crew takes on a suddenly stout Giants defense that shocked the world last week by not getting into a shootout with Drew Brees & the Saints. This came a week after they held the Cowboys to just 19 points. Both are better offensive situations than Washington, who can’t buy a competent drive to save their lives. It seems as though their big spending on the defensive side of the ball this offseason is paying early dividends, and are no longer the bunny fantasy opponents they once were.
Many had high hopes for Cousins entering this season, and while I was not one of them, I did recognize that his play down the stretch of 2015 did merit a possible look, just not at his average draft position. So far this season, he has not rewarded owners who drafted him. You don’t want Cousins in your starting lineup this week, and not for the foreseeable future. You probably don’t even want him on your roster at this point.