During the fantasy football pre-draft process, battle lines were drawn between Kirk Cousins truthers and Kirk Cousins detractors. So far this season, both the truthers and detractors have things to hang their hat on in Cousins’ up-and-down performance. So far he’s finished as a top-ten quarterback once, and outside the top fifteen twice (QB 26, 13, 10, 11, 20, 14 in his first six games). He’s settled in perfectly in the backend QB streamer territory. If you have him, or if he’s available, this is one of the weeks where you slot in Cousins.[embedit snippet=”jeff-ads”]
Cousins has performed very well this season on a yardage basis, going under 250 yards just once and dropping over 300 twice. The problem with Cousins has been touchdowns early in the season, but he is coming off double-digit touchdowns in two of his last three games. He can take advantage of decent matchups but struggles against good pass defenses. He is easily fooled and thinks he’s better than he is, as evidenced by his interception-per-game average thus far on the year. However, Washington leans on the pass, and given Matt Jones’ fumble issues. Cousins can overcome those interceptions with increased goal-to-go passing opportunities.
This week Cousins takes on a Lions team that is woefully inept at stopping the quarterback. Fresh off of giving up 328 total yards and four total touchdowns to Case Keenum last Sunday, the Lions defense isn’t looking like they are going to be stopping any quarterbacks anytime soon. I don’t think much of Kirk Cousins as a quarterback, but I do think he is better than Keenum. Throw out the Case Keenum game if you think that’s a fluke. Here are the touchdowns allowed to QBs over their first six games: 4, 2, 4, 2, 2, 4. The worst quarterback to go up against the Lions this season went for 17.62 fantasy points, and Cousins has mustered at least 18 fantasy points per game in four of his last five fantasy points per game so that we can leave safely all 17.5 Cousins’ floor.
If you’re a quarterback streamer by strategy, this is the week you start Cousins. He’s shown that he feasts on plus matchups, and the Lions have given up an average of three touchdowns per game to QBs, so this is the ideal matchup for him to get eating. If you question Cousins and one of Carr, Bortles or Mariota, or another quarterback of that ilk, I would go Cousins. This is the best matchup he will get all year.