Kirk Cousins took his first NFL snap when Patrick Mahomes was a junior at Whitehouse High School, so it's safe to say that the veteran quarterback has seen a thing or two in his 15-year career. Perhaps that makes him the ideal candidate to not only mentor a future franchise face in Fernando Mandoza but to also carry the offense for a burgeoning young team trying to shed the miserable skin of past failures
Cousins has the Raiders sitting at 3-0 to start a new season, which matches the team's win total from a year ago. They're also staring down a home game against the Kansas City Chiefs for the chance to claim early ownership in the AFC West. It's the Week 4 thriller that no one anticipated, and Cousins knows what's at stake.
How should Chiefs fans think of the Raiders' offensive resurgence? What does Cousins have left in the tank? And what makes this year so different. We reached out to our friend Levi Dombro, who covers the Raiders at Just Blog Baby, to tell us more about the quarterback going against Mahomes on Sunday.
What was your response when the Raiders announced they were going with Cousins to start the year over Mendoza in the first place?
I was not surprised at all that the Raiders were starting Cousins over Mendoza, as that seemed to be the plan all along. In an overarching sense, I was in the camp of starting the young player and letting him learn through mistakes in a rebuilding year, but I understood what their intention was with this. And the preseason vindicated them, as Cousins was a lot more efficient, even though he had the luxury of playing with the starters. I wasn't upset, but I definitely wanted Mendoza.
How is Cousins specifically looking through three games?
Cousins has looked surprisingly solid. He was kind of a disaster in the first game, as he couldn't do anything beyond 10 air yards, but Cousins responded with several deep balls against the Chargers in Week 2, and he was dicing up the Saints last Sunday. His arm strength still isn't top-notch, but he is processing fast and getting the ball to our guys, and somehow having success despite having no running game to lean on. He'll put the ball in harm's way sometimes, but we are moving the chains and scoring points, which is hard to be upset with.
How does that compare with your expectations going in?
Honestly, Cousins has far exceeded my expectations. I thought that we'd be having Mendoza conversations by now, and it has barely come up, nor should it. He has surprised all of Raider Nation, and we are trying not to be too optimistic and think that this is his Rich Gannon arc or something. He'll still be gone next year, but Cousins is setting a great example for Mendoza, and his remarriage with Klint Kubiak seems to be almost as healthy as the first, which is a shock.
What's the best way to attack Cousins after watching him through the month of September?
Two things stick out to me, and they're both fairly obvious: One is putting pressure on him, and the other is putting a roof on things with deep safety looks. Cousins is a veteran, so he's not necessarily bothered by blitzes at all (he's actually been carving them up), but when you can get honest pressure on him, he's not mobile enough to escape it, nor is his arm strong enough to throw without his legs solidly under him. And in Week 1, the Dolphins ran a lot of two-high safety sets, and Cousins struggled to find completions downfield. He clearly got impatient and let it rip into tight windows, which led to interceptions.
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