Washington needs to figure out what it’s doing with Kirk Cousins. He played under the franchise tag last year, so if they want to go that route, they’ll need to pay him $23.94 million for the 2017 season – a high price tag for a quarterback who had kind of an off year.
Cousins was very good in 2015, but he slipped. Most notably, he didn’t convert in enough of the key, money situations.
But with there being QB-needy teams out there who would like to have a Cousins, Washington probably has no choice but to sign him to a deal with $23 million plus (either via a franchise tag or on a long-term deal).
Inside the 10, however, Cousins was pretty awful. He got the ball in the end zone for touchdowns on only 8 of his 43 pass plays. That’s under 19 percent – next-to-last among passers with at least 20 plays.
Cousins was more than twice as effective the previous year, getting the ball in the end zone on 40 percent of those plays.
| PASSING INSIDE THE 10-YARD LINE | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Quarterback | Plays | Comp% | TD | 2Pt | EZ% |
| Jameis Winston, T.B. | 33 | 62.5% | 14 | 3 | 51.5% |
| Marcus Mariota, Tenn. | 30 | 62.1% | 15 | 0 | 50.0% |
| Aaron Rodgers, G.B. | 53 | 68.6% | 25 | 1 | 49.1% |
| Blake Bortles, Jac. | 27 | 63.0% | 11 | 1 | 44.4% |
| Eli Manning, NYG | 28 | 51.9% | 12 | 0 | 42.9% |
| Carson Palmer, Ariz. | 45 | 45.5% | 18 | 1 | 42.2% |
| Ben Roethlisberger, Pitt. | 38 | 44.7% | 12 | 3 | 39.5% |
| Tom Brady, N.E. | 36 | 64.7% | 13 | 1 | 38.9% |
| Joe Flacco, Balt. | 34 | 53.1% | 9 | 4 | 38.2% |
| Drew Brees, N.O. | 63 | 67.2% | 24 | 0 | 38.1% |
| Ryan Tannehill, Mia. | 21 | 60.0% | 7 | 1 | 38.1% |
| Andrew Luck, Ind. | 45 | 73.2% | 15 | 2 | 37.8% |
| Cam Newton, Car. | 24 | 43.5% | 8 | 1 | 37.5% |
| Derek Carr, Oak. | 52 | 47.1% | 14 | 5 | 36.5% |
| Matt Ryan, Atl. | 58 | 58.2% | 19 | 1 | 34.5% |
| Dak Prescott, Dall. | 29 | 44.8% | 10 | 0 | 34.5% |
| Alex Smith, K.C. | 29 | 55.2% | 8 | 2 | 34.5% |
| Carson Wentz, Phil. | 29 | 50.0% | 9 | 1 | 34.5% |
| Philip Rivers, S.D. | 44 | 51.2% | 15 | 0 | 34.1% |
| Matthew Stafford, Det. | 42 | 56.4% | 12 | 1 | 31.0% |
| Russell Wilson, Sea. | 33 | 38.7% | 9 | 1 | 30.3% |
| Tyrod Taylor, Buff. | 27 | 43.5% | 7 | 1 | 29.6% |
| Sam Bradford, Minn. | 34 | 54.5% | 10 | 0 | 29.4% |
| Brock Osweiler, Hou. | 29 | 48.3% | 8 | 0 | 27.6% |
| Andy Dalton, Cin. | 33 | 46.9% | 9 | 0 | 27.3% |
| Trevor Siemian, Den. | 37 | 48.6% | 8 | 1 | 24.3% |
| Kirk Cousins, Wash. | 43 | 34.1% | 8 | 0 | 18.6% |
| Ryan Fitzpatrick, NYJ | 27 | 37.0% | 5 | 0 | 18.5% |
—Ian Allan