New York Giants: Kirk Cousins not a realistic option
By Zac Wassink
The New York Giants may acquire a new quarterback this offseason, but signing Kirk Cousins isn’t a realistic option for Big Blue.
It’s said that the NFL season never truly ends. Coaching changes and other transactions are often announced less than 24 hours after the conclusion of a Super Bowl. The NFL Scouting Combine and mock drafts allow fans to speculate about to-be rookies throughout the end of winter and early spring. Heck, the NFL RedZone channel perpetually plays music from NFL Films for you diehards who need something football related in the background while you’re cooking or working from home.
This portion of the calendar year is referred to as football’s “silly season,” a time when just about any rumored transaction or trade is fair game among journalists, analysts and fans. Those who read up on the New York Giants every week leading up to the draft and the start of training camp sessions may have felt intrigued and also confused upon seeing takes about how and why the club could sign current Washington Redskins starting quarterback Kirk Cousins last week.
It’s worth noting, right out of the gates, that the Giants calling Cousins’ agent to have a conversation ahead of the start of free agency isn’t a crazy notion. New York signal-caller Eli Manning turned 37 years old in early January, while Cousins will be only 30 at the start of the 2018 campaign. It’s not a stretch to suggest we haven’t yet seen Cousins in his full physical and mental football primes. Realistically, he could have seven or even eight more years of good, if not great, football in the tank.
That’s all well and good, but it’s becoming clear, with each passing day, that the Giants are not replacing the two-time Super Bowl MVP with a proven veteran this offseason. Manning, one of the stars of arguably the most popular Super Bowl LII commercial, isn’t being traded to the Jacksonville Jaguars, Cleveland Browns or any other side in need of a winning quarterback unless one of those teams blow New York general manager Dave Gettleman away with an offer he cannot refuse.
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New head coach Pat Shurmur deserves an opportunity to succeed beginning in year one, but he also has to pick his own quarterback for the future if the plan is for the 52-year old to lead the franchise for the next decade, at least. While Cousins is far from a washed-up product, he isn’t at a stage where he is going drastically develop under a new coaching staff. Cousins is what he is, and that makes him a costly investment for a team in the middle of a complicated rebuild.
The Giants are a strange outfit in that they went 3-13, and yet the expectations will be for them to compete for a playoff spot, at least, next season. Injuries derailed New York’s offense, the defense fell apart with each loss, and head coach Ben McAdoo understandably and justifiably lost the locker room. That perfect storm of a dumpster fire shouldn’t strike again unless there’s some curse or black cloud hovering over MetLife Stadium.
Yes, the Giants must improve multiple aspects of the roster. That, in itself, is an argument against paying Cousins what he will receive in the current market. Last week, the San Francisco 49ers gave Jimmy Garoppolo a contract that includes $74.1 million in guaranteed money, per Spotrac. Cousins has done more in his pro career than Jimmy G, and, thus, he will likely receive a better deal from a QB-hungry side.
Neither Garoppolo nor Cousins is worth that kind of cash to a Giants team that still has Manning under contract and is in the place to draft one of the best quarterbacks in the 2018 draft class. New York must spread that cap space in more useful ways and across multiple positions outside of the offense’s most vital. Whether or not Cousins would make the 2018 Giants better, something that comes down to opinion, is irrelevant. New York signing him, simply put, doesn’t make sense.
Also, nobody should pretend Cousins was a big-game player during his tenure with the Redskins. He’s never won a playoff encounter. He tossed a pair of interceptions against the Giants when a postseason spot was on the line in January 2017. There’s no evidence Cousins can win when it matters most. Why exchange Manning for such a commodity?
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It’s fun to speculate. Playing fantasy GM and moving players around on editions of Madden passes the time and allows fans to create what they believe will be a winning roster. Real life and real football are far more complicated. If Cousins plays any home games at Metlife in the foreseeable future, he’ll be wearing New York Jets Gang Green while doing so.