I think Cousins is earning his salary - other teams in the league were willing to pay more and he does have the stats to back it up. I agree that stats aren't everything but QBs in the league are a premium. There are a handful of teams that would gladly pay more for him right now.StumpHunter wrote: ↑Fri Oct 19, 2018 7:54 am I guess I am in the minority who thinks Cousins contract cannot be justified by QB passing stats alone, and that a QB should be judged on how they impact the offenses ability to score, since scoring is all that matters. But since so many equate QB "success" with stats, let's look at how Cousins is doing compared to Keenum last year:
7.4 YPA, 4.6% TD percentage, 98.3 passer rating, 74.3 QBR, 4.4 sack %, 1.5% INT percentage and 3 game winning drives.
7.4 YPA, 4.6% TD percentage, 102.7 passer rating, 69.2 QBR, 6.5 sack %, 1.2% INT percentage and 0 game winning drives.
Now, Cousins is actually throwing a lot more than Case did, and IS being asked to do more, but Case was a backup and from a per pass standpoint, was nearly identical to Cousins. In an offense that scored more points.
Worth the 28 million guaranteed to put up similar per pass production as a backup?
Worth the 28 million to have a worse offense?
I guess I don't see it.
It could very well get to the point where he earns that contract, but he isn't there yet.
I also think Cousins is the better overall QB but I will say one thing that Keenum had that helped him thrive in this offense - he was really good at moving around and extending plays. Super important behind the Vikings horrible offensive line. Being able to give the likes of Diggs and Thielen an extra second here and there helped make up for his other blatant deficiencies as a passer.
On the other hand Cousins is the opposite I think. He's got all of the throwing ability that Keenum was missing but isn't very good when he has to scramble. That's not to say he's bad under pressure (throwing the ball from in the pocket with a defender in his face), but he's not very good on the move, I don't think.