Washington Redskins: The impossible rise of Kirk Cousins

The Mentality of Kirk Cousins

More than two years after that transformation, Cousins still has his fair share of doubters to brave. Some attribute his hesitancy to sign a contract with Washington as greed and lust for more. Others believe him to be a pretender. But few are accurate. Few understand. Because few know what must be known.

To understand the Kirk Cousins situation, you must know the mentality of Kirk Cousins.

In Game Changer: Faith, Football, and Finding Your Way, a book by Cousins, he details a past conversation he had with his father, Don Cousins.

“Discipline is a character trait,” the elder Cousins would say to Kirk. “Not something you turn on and off like a light.”

Discipline is a character trait.

Every player that makes it to the NFL must have some degree of discipline. But players who can match Cousins in such a department are few and far between. Like all character traits, discipline is a trait that fluctuates from person to person. Some people are naturally more active, naturally striving to be perfect in all aspects of their being.

Cousins has the character trait of discipline. And not just on the football field. Not just on the practice field. Cousins’ discipline permeates into each and every aspect of his life.

Sports Illustrated’s Greg Bishop detailed the litany of training regimens undergone by Cousins during the offseason, saying that “Cousins is half QB, half biology experiment. He spends tens of thousands of dollars annually on saliva testing and brain training, tissue rejuvenation and blood work and massages. He sleeps in a hyperbaric chamber. He measures his deep sleep and his REM sleep; his hormone, adrenal and testosterone levels; his heart rate and his breathing. Every single decision is aimed at football optimization.”

Cousins has always been the punctual perfectionist. He graduated from Michigan State with flying colors, earning honors as an Academic All-American all four years of his playing career. After his football career is over, he plans on becoming a kinesiologist, if ESPN doesn’t get to him first for a broadcasting role.

There are plenty of other quarterbacks who flaunt their 4.0’s, but discipline of the highest order is interwoven into Cousins’ DNA. Even the puniest proteins exemplify professionalism. Cousins will do everything that it takes to win, and now that he has sustained a high level of personal success over the past three years, he knows that team success, with him as the quarterback, is attainable.

As always, that attainability makes him hungrier. That attainability drives his undying discipline.

Cousins’ tireless work ethic stems past even his sleeping habits. Cousins is aware of his future and what it teases. He knows the value he holds for the Washington Redskins. He knows what value their scheme, their coaches, and their players hold for him. But, in contrast, he’s done his fair share of studying across the league as well.

He knows the names of the offensive coordinators he might just be playing for in 2018. He knows their backgrounds, their tendencies, their affinities, their proclivities. Cousins knows the quarterbacks coaches who will be teaching him, the receivers who will be reeling in his passes, and the running backs who will routinely complete the second half of a precarious backfield exchange.

Cousins knows his options. Because the discipline of the trade demands it. Because his drive for that attainable greatness demands it. Show him a quarterback who won, and he’ll show you a quarterback who had the tools and the smarts to do it. He knows the process it takes to win, because others have done it before, and Cousins is determined to recreate.

Cousins is not guaranteed to succeed, wherever he goes. But his degree of discipline gives him an edge that few quarterbacks have. He will not rule out returning to the Washington Redskins. But he will not extinguish the leverage he’s worked so hard to cultivate, either. Why waste that discipline? Not a second goes to waste for Kirk Cousins. His mentality will not allow it.