Kirk Cousins spent six seasons with the Washington Redskins, but never got the long-term deal he coveted from the franchise. The team clearly had no plans of signing him long-term, and they showed that by trading for Kansas City Chiefs QB Alex Smith and immediately signing him to a long-term deal.
Cousins was out in D.C., so he made his way to the Minnesota Vikings on a fully guaranteed three-year contract as a free agent this offseason.
After bypassing Cousins and committing to Smith long term, head coach Jay Gruden took a massive shot at his former quarterback when he stated the team is “without a doubt” better off at the quarterback position right now.
He went on to explain why Smith is an upgrade over Cousins.
“It’s not one thing, it’s everything. It’s the entire body of work,” Gruden said, via ESPN.com. “He’s very good at the intermediate ball. He’s good with the quick game. He can run zone reads, the [run-pass options]. Very exciting. … The ability to ad-lib, make plays that aren’t there and keep plays alive. Coaching him for the first time will be exciting because I don’t think there’s a limit on what he can do. He has all the things you want a quarterback to be able to do.”
Gruden said you “could argue” the point all day, but Cousins’ numbers speak for themself as he’s played with less talent than Smith and has had three straight 4,000-yard passing seasons compared to Smith, whose biggest offensive output was 4,042 passing yards, which he did for the first time this past season.
