OPINION:
Kirk Cousins was the top prize this week at the NFL’s trading deadline, dealt Tuesday from the Las Vegas Raiders back to one of his former teams, the Minnesota Vikings.
It was a celebrated return for Cousins, coming back to a 6-2 Vikings team that sees him as a savior and leaving a 4-5 Raiders squad where he was seen as a caretaker until they determined their top pick, Fernando Mendoza, was ready to take over.
After watching an erratic Kyler Murray and a wretched Carson Wentz play the position, the Vikings knew they had to find at minimum a competent quarterback so as not to waste the performances of their league-leading defense. So they traded a 2027 third-round pick for Cousins, who had some spectacular moments as the team’s quarterback from 2018 to 2024.
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He completed 2,093 passes for 23,265 yards, 171 touchdowns and 55 interceptions. At the age of 38, Cousins ranks statistically among some of the all-time greats — he is ranked 15th all-time in career passing yards (47,040), 14th in career touchdown passes (318) and 15th in career passer rating (96.8).
But his dismal record against winning teams, along with postseason failures, have come to define him.
Now, at 38, Cousins has perhaps one final chance to change his narrative and, while he’s at it, add another feather in the cap of the man who drafted him in Washington in 2012 — Mike Shanahan.
Shanahan is known as a quarterback guru. But his track record for picking quarterbacks in the draft is shaky. He won two Super Bowls with John Elway, who he inherited, but his quarterback drafts there came up short — Brian Griese, a third-round pick, and his big whiff, Jay Cutler with the sixth selection in the first round.
In Washington, Shanahan got a double shot at picking quarterbacks in the draft in 2012 — Robert Griffin III, the second pick in the first round, and then Cousins in the fourth round out of Michigan State. How ironic is it that of the two, the fourth-rounder — Cousins — may wind up being Shanahan’s only quarterback win in the draft?
Shanahan went along with the Griffin selection — owner Dan Snyder and general manager Bruce Allen pushed for the deal that sent three first-round picks and one second to the St. Louis Rams for their No. 2 selection in the draft and the chance to take Griffin. But he did so reluctantly.
Shanahan was determined to pick another quarterback in that same draft. He hoped for Russell Wilson, but Wilson was selected in the third round by the Seattle Seahawks. Wilson went on to lead Seattle to a Super Bowl championship. Shanahan would pick Cousins, much to Griffin’s dismay, in the fourth round.
It was much to Cousins’ dismay as well.
When he got the call from Shanahan that he was being drafted by Washington, Cousins, according to his book, “Game Changer: Faith, Football and Finding Your Way,” published in 2013, told Shanahan, “Really? Are you sure you want to do that?”
“I was surprised and a bit disappointed,” Cousins wrote. “My agent was shocked.” But Cousins would eventually wind up being the starter in Washington.
As we all know, Griffin had one of the greatest rookie quarterback seasons in league history. But he suffered torn knee ligaments in a playoff game against Seattle and could never replicate his rookie success. He would be out of the league by 2020.
Cousins would wind up being Washington’s starting quarterback from 2015 to 2017, putting up impressive numbers and making big dollars thanks to the front office that refused to negotiate a long-term contract, instead paying him $44 million over two seasons under the franchise tag and putting him on the way to career earnings now of $333 million — fourth on the NFL’s all-time list.
Shanahan only had Cousins under his direction for two seasons, with the coach fired in 2013. His son Kyle in San Francisco tried to trade with Washington for Cousins, reportedly offering a first-round pick in return, but Snyder and Allen refused to make the deal with Kyle, and Cousins became a free agent in 2018, signing a three-year, fully guaranteed $84 million contract.
Cousins is the best quarterback Mike Shanahan ever drafted. A championship on that resume would mean he may no longer have to defend that honor.
• You can hear Thom Loverro on “The Kevin Sheehan Show” podcast.
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