It is officially the Kirk Cousins show in Washington. The Redskins are moving forward with the former backup quarterback and hoping that the early decision on a season starter means more consistency at the position. Cousins has been in this position before. Over the last two years he has seen plenty of playing time as a starter after Robert Griffin III injuries and the comfort level is showing. Cousins has one year to prove he deserves a permanent starting job and new contract and teammates are confident in his abilities.
Cousins is a more traditional style quarterback which means he is going to take to the air more than using his legs. Two days into the starting role and several of the wide receivers like what they see from the quarterback. Pierre Garcon is crediting the quarterback's poise and confidence on the field and believes that will translate into wins.
"Kirk is a very enthusiastic guy," Garcon said, via Sirius XM NFL Radio. "He commands the huddle, he has a lot of faith in us, that we can help him do well. He is a natural-born leader, he's definitely been planning for that for a long time. You can tell from what kind of person he is that he's a leader, he's been doing it for a long time and he's excited about the opportunity. We definitely want to keep him excited and never want to, you know, have him lose that faith in himself. He's definitely ready and eager to get the season started to prove to everybody what he can do."
The Redskins are very enthusiastic for what Cousins is bringing to the offense, but no one is ready to throw Griffin under the bus. DeSean Jackson spoke out in support of his teammate saying he is a good leader and handling the situation well. There is really no telling what will happen with Griffin in terms of his future. His $16 million fifth-year option certainly hurts the idea of a trade to another team. The Redskins could opt to release him and simply cut their losses, but given what they gave up to get the quarterback, that would be a big blow to the franchise.
Washington has faith in Cousins. The team avoided the chance to draft either Marcus Mariota or Jameis Winston this year and opted to retain their current quarterback rotation. With Griffin sitting, Cousins has a chance to prove why they put so much faith in him. He has plenty of weapons to work with as Jordan Reed runs at tight end and Matt Jones and Alfred Morris handle the rushing attack.
