How the Redskins got here: The Kirk Cousins revenge game
The start of Kirk Cousins’ Redskins tenure
When the Redskins drafted Robert Griffin III with the No. 2 overall pick in the 2012 NFL Draft, many expected that he would be the franchise quarterback moving forward. Many also expected that the team would spend a majority of their draft building around Griffin. The team did, but they also made a fourth-round pick that puzzled many.
Early in the fourth round, the Redskins spent a pick on Michigan State quarterback Kirk Cousins. He was expected by some to be a Day 2 pick, so the ‘Skins were getting value. That said, many didn’t understand why the team felt the need to spend another pick on a top quarterback. In the end, it ended up making sense.
While Griffin led the team to the playoffs as a rookie, he ended up being a flash in the pan due to an ACL injury that derailed his career and sparked the beginning of the end of the Mike Shanahan era in Washington. He currently is a backup for the Baltimore Ravens.
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Cousins’ rise was more gradual. He spent the first three seasons of his career playing as a backup in Washington. He started nine games, posted a 2-7 record, and was mostly an afterthought.
Except for Jay Gruden. The Redskins’ then-new head coach at the time liked what he saw out of Cousins in the team’s dreadful 4-12 season in 2014. And going into the next year, the team decided to roll with him as the quarterback, confirming that after the final preseason game it was “Kirk’s team”.
From there, Cousins would go on to lead the Redskins to solid results. He brought them to a 9-7 record and snuck them into the playoffs as the sixth seed. They would lose in that game, but it was a good start to the Cousins tenure, and it looked like the team had figured out their quarterback room after the RGIII debacle.
But in the background, concerns about a contract were brewing for Cousins. That was what started to brew the seeds of mistrust between him and the organization.