Trading Kirk Cousins

Kirk Cousins has shown tons poise and talent so far in his short NFL career and so the talk of the Redskins trading him for a draft pick has already begun.

He put out a solid performance when asked to come in against the Falcons and then again against the Ravens throwing a late touchdown pass taking the game into overtime and an eventual win. Later he played a great in his lone full game in a win over the Browns. His only real struggle was against the Seahawks when he was thrown into a playoff game against one of the toughest defenses in the NFL. His career stats in limited play are impressive with a 68.8 completion percentage with 4 TDs 3 Ints and a 101.6 quarterback rating. The biggest factor in all of this is that all of his success came with limited reps with the first team and often in less than ideal situations.



Now, Cousins has seen plenty of reps with the first team offense with the absence of Griffin and went 6 of 7 for 52 yards in the first preseason game this year. While preseason games are not the best way to rate a player it has been reported by John Keim of ESPN and others that Cousins has looked sharp and confident throughout training camp. The question has now become not if but when should the Redskins consider trading cousins.

Many Redskins fans have started to discuss the possibility of trading him after this season for a 1st round draft pick. However, the problem with this is that Cousins body of work is extremely small at this point. While he has looked impressive and shown improvement he needs to continue to do so in the remaining preseason games. Second, while it is likely that Griffin will protect himself and be protected better this season he is still an injury risk for now and until he can prove that he can avoid injury a talented backup is a must have. Even if Griffin can stay healthy for the entirety of the coming season it would be good to have Cousins as insurance for one more season. There is no guarantee that teams will be quick to trade an early round draft pick especially after Kevin Kolb failing to reach expectations. Two years of building up Cousins and helping him progress will most likely yield a better trade for the Redskins. Most importantly, it would mean that the Redskins would have two more seasons to see if Griffin can stay healthy.

Cousins will not be a Redskin forever at this rate but it would be nice to have him for at least two more years. He is too valuable as a backup to let him go so soon.