The Washington Redskins Shouldn't Re-sign Kirk Cousins
Even though the Washington Redskins are leaning towards giving Kirk Cousins, they should strongly consider letting him go. This is because when ownership and the front office are making a decision on whether to offer their quarterback a big extension, they will force the team to change the offensive system. From their original offensive system to more of a traditional passing offense to evaluate his decision making and ability to make all the throws without having the running game to preoccupy the defense before they make a decision. An example of a player who is currently going through this type of scenario is Kirk Cousins. During his first full season as a starter in the NFL, Kirk Cousins was primarily a game manager who was in charge of handing the ball off to the running backs and making the opposing defense pay for having eight men in the box against the running backs by calling some play action passes. Where they would fake the handoff to Lynch making the opposing defense, believe that he is going to run the ball. As a result, the opposing defense will keep the box stacked thus giving the Redskins receivers more man to man coverage and Kirk Cousins more open space on the field to lead his receivers to the ball which would have increased the likelihood of the pass being completed. This allowed the team to keep drives alive while forcing the opposing team to put more players in coverage to decrease the probability of the offense scoring a substantial amount of points in a short period thus giving the running backs room to run the ball again. The combination of these factors enabled the offense to stay on the field for a prolonged period in fact, in 2015 the offense was on the field for an average of 31:29 minutes. This means that the defense received the proper rest between drives which enabled them to have enough energy to execute a properly tackle to a player when they are running with the ball or being able to keep up with wide receivers.
However, it has been an entirely different story this season as the team has made drastic changes to their system. As the organization wanted to see if Cousins is the type of player who deserves a franchise quarterback contract. Which means that the Redskins went from a run heavy offense to more of a passing offense to evaluate his decision making and ability to make all the throws without having the running game to preoccupy the defense. For instance, the Redskins will dial back on the play action bootlegs where he would fake the handoff to the running backs and roll out in the opposite direction to hit the wide open tight end. Instead, they will call the traditional three to five step drop passing plays to gauge whether Cousins can make the right decision with the football when the defense is ready for a pass. The combination of these factors means that the offense spent less time on the field because of incompletions, interceptions, sacks or big plays that result in short drives. This means that defense would have to go back on the field without the proper amount of rest which leads to the defense being more susceptible to giving up yards and points because they were not able to regain some energy between possessions to be able to stop the opposing offense. In fact, so far this season the defense is averaging 30 seconds more on the field going from 28:31 to 28:01 minutes.
If ownership and the front office decide to give Cousins an extension, they will put pressure on the coaching staff to completely phase out the running game. To give him as many opportunities as possible to try to showcase how they made the right decision. Once again the combination of these factors means that the offense spent less time on the field because of incompletions, interceptions, sacks or big plays that result in short drives. This means that defense would have to go back on the field without the proper amount of rest which leads to the defense being more susceptible to giving up yards and points because they were not able to regain some energy between possessions to be able to stop the opposing offense. Thus hurting their chances of achieving the ultimate goal of winning the super bowl.
