Cousins Saga 4.0. Is he done in DC?

[Schneed10]

Originally Posted by Chico23231

The ultimate failure with Cousins is first if he walk and we receive ZERO compensation. Then we go into next season with Colt McCoy as the starter.

That's true. But we've already taken three steps down that path. The real failure occurred when we failed to lock him up in 2015 at a reasonable price.

Now the question is do you pay top dollar or do you let him go (for a 3rd round compensatory selection, or maybe a tad more if you can wrangle some kind of trade).

Remember, just because you made one mistake doesn't mean you need to make a second. Giving him a long term deal at say $27M per year could be throwing good money after bad.

If Cousins leaves and we get no compensation aside from the 3rd round compensatory pick, the fan base is going to scream for Bruce Allen's job. The thing is, they should already be doing so because of the mistake made in 2015. He already made the bed for us.

[Chico23231]

Originally Posted by Schneed10

That's true. But we've already taken three steps down that path. The real failure occurred when we failed to lock him up in 2015 at a reasonable price.

Now the question is do you pay top dollar or do you let him go (for a 3rd round compensatory selection, or maybe a tad more if you can wrangle some kind of trade).

Remember, just because you made one mistake doesn't mean you need to make a second. Giving him a long term deal at say $27M per year could be throwing good money after bad.

If Cousins leaves and we get no compensation aside from the 3rd round compensatory pick, the fan base is going to scream for Bruce Allen's job. The thing is, they should already be doing so because of the mistake made in 2015. He already made the bed for us.

The market dictates 27 mil per imo. I would lock him up and continue to build around him. I wouldn't have a problem and think that is best case.

3rd round would be disappointing but better than nothing. Preference would be a 2nd per Trade which is his value...like you said.

But nothing is inexcusable.

[Schneed10]

Originally Posted by Chico23231

The market dictates 27 mil per imo. I would lock him up and continue to build around him. I wouldn't have a problem and think that is best case.

3rd round would be disappointing but better than nothing. Preference would be a 2nd per Trade which is his value...like you said.

But nothing is inexcusable.

I can see your side.

For me it comes down to this question: how could we win a super bowl sooner?

a) sign Cousins to a record setting QB contract and try to build around him with what cap space we have.

b) let him move on, get what we can whether via trade or compensatory, and start the search for the next great QB while we build up the team.

I think we could win a Super Bowl sooner with A than with B. But I'm not totally sure. The only thing I'm sure of is we won't win a Super Bowl "soon" with either A or B. It sucks. I'm jealous of the Eagles with Wentz. They're going to have multiple shots at it over the next 10-15 years. Until we find a QB like that, it will just be so much harder for us. Especially since one of the up and coming greats is in our division.

[RobH4413]

Schneed, I gotta disagree with you on several of your points here.

Originally Posted by Schneed10

I think this just ignores circumstances entirely though. The question isn't how has Cousins performed. The question is how could other QBs have performed behind a line that features Trent and Moses, Scherff, and an improving center position.

First off, I do not think a lot of those QB’s would perform as well as Cousins with the tools Cousins had. He showed up and consistently produced in this offense with the rag tag motley crew of 2nd stringers. No Jordan Reed, No WR’s, CT out, no problem lets throw up 300 Yards on NO and DEN.

Originally Posted by Schneed10

In games where Reed and Thompson were both on the field, or where we had one and not the other, Cousins's numbers were drastically better. Chucking a screen to Chris Thompson and watching Brandon Scherff go 20 yards downfield to block the free safety, springing Thompson for a TD looks pretty good on the stat sheet for Cousins.

Is this really a point? That Cousins numbers looked better when he had better players? Yeah, Drew Bree’s numbers probably get better too when he has Alvin Kamara to check down. Tom Brady has screen passes that get taken to the house too.

Originally Posted by Schneed10

The question is what does Cousins CREATE for us. Like, if you're in the playoffs and you need a QB to make a play late in the game to keep the chains moving, Cousins can do it sometimes. But Aaron Rodgers, Carson Wentz, Tom Brady, Ben Roethlisberger, Russell Wilson, Drew Brees, and several others can do it much much more often.

Yes, I agree with you that Cousins isn’t Tom Brady. That’s obvious to everyone that watches football. He won’t be a top 5 elite QB, EVER. He doesn’t create like them, he doesn’t have the size. We know this. What we do see this season is significant improvements in his game (look at his rushing TD’s, extending plays with his legs, etc). That’s encouraging and worth investing in. He is an accurate passer that can get play makers the ball and continues to improve his game.

The question is, how he and our offense will perform versus the options available for us moving forward. I’ll take Cousins over any of those options available right now by a wide margin.

Lastly, I can get behind an argument that it's not worth the money considering the deficiencies we have. It's 100% a valid argument to question whether or not we would be able to build a championship team with Cousins at a high cap number. You have to draw a line somewhere, and to me, It's $28M/YR. The salary cap will continue to rise, and IMO we will have the flexibility to build through the draft and can put a team together at that number.

If he asks for $28,000,001 we let him walk and move on.