Kirk Cousins isn’t RG3, and that’s the problem
By Donny Starr
The Washington Redskins have never accepted Robert Griffin III didn’t work out and Kirk Cousins rose to the occasion.
Kirk Cousins is a victim of circumstance. His rise to success came at a bitter point in the RG3 era. Cousins was the understudy, with RG3 starring as the hero of the Redskins. That didn’t happen. Their bitterness at dealing with a No.2 that became a No.1 is startling.
I never expected the Redskins to respond to Kirk Cousins the way they have. This is awful. I was driving back to my office listening to ESPN and they brought up a great point: What if this was RG3? What if this was the guy they sold their soul for in the NFL Draft? Would the lack of a contract be a conversation? In my opinion, no. Don’t forget, owner Dan Snyder loved RG3. He was “googly eyed” about the guy. This has been well documented, and revisited by ESPN’s Jason Reid. It’s a good read. Here’s one quote from former Redskins coach Mike Shanahan mentioned in the article:
"“When Robert is standing there going through all of that, I know it’s coming from Dan,” Shanahan said. “When Robert talked about ‘unacceptable,’ that was a word Dan used all the time. He was using phrases Dan used all the time. There’s only one way a guy who’s going into his second year would do something like this: If he sat down with the owner and the owner believed that this is the way he should be used…”"
Giving Cousins the long-term contract would show their investment on RG3 was the worst decision ever made, no matter the outcome. Cousins wasn’t a puppet. He had the respect of the team, no matter what the pundits say. Anyone could see Cousins under center was completely different from when RG3 was on the field. You could have made a sandwich in the amount of protection Cousins had in the pocket. Kirk Cousins proved he could do the job . The Redskins front office now has to eat the biggest plate of crow in NFL history. They would choose to let him go rather than do that. If GM Scot McCloughan did try to give the guy a contract (as reports indicate) and they shut him down, well, there’s no surprise why he’s not around. You can’t treat people like dirt and have expectations. Now NBC’s ProFootballTalk reported McCloughan is fine, and alcohol is not the reason for his absence. So they allowed the media to throw him under the bus? Seems legit.
Kirk Cousins is just tired of it all. He’s ready to get away from the drama. You can’t blame the guy. We’re all tired of it.