Cousins at his best under pressure

[mansquatch]

A lot of this sums up to "timing" IMO. Wilson happened to win it because he was a rookie when the Legion of Boom was at it's peak. Brady won it as a rookie in part because the highly paid starter got hurt that year. Big Ben won it on a team with Bill Cowher's defense, including several future HOF players. Again luck. Big Ben won it again a few years later because he is elite (and was making more money.)

If you follow this logic to it's natural conclusion then you are basically saying GB should cut Aaron Rogers and sign a rookie because Rogers costs too much. If Tom Brady isn't willing to take a team friendly deal, then the Patriots should cut him too. That is ABSURD. Do you really think either of those teams would suddenly win more games because the QB position is taking less of a cap hit?

IMO, the validation of the article is something Bill Belicik has known for about 20 years: You have to put good players around the QB to win. Does the QB's cap hit, hurt those prospects? Sure. But... does it make it impossible. I suspect the NE front office would love everyone to think it is.

[StumpHunter]

IMO, the validation of the article is something Bill Belicik has known for about 20 years: You have to put good players around the QB to win. Does the QB's cap hit, hurt those prospects? Sure. But... does it make it impossible. I suspect the NE front office would love everyone to think it is.

I 100% agree. There have been bad QBs who have been carried to a SB win by a great team, there has never been a bad team carried to the SB by a great QB.

You just need fewer good players around great QBs like Rogers and Brady to win it all, than it would take to win it all with a guy like Cousins. So when a QB of Cousins caliber, arguably top 10 but certainly not an elite QB, is making more than those guys (he will make a good deal more against the cap than Brady every year of his contract, and a good deal more 2 of his 3 years than Rogers), it puts the rest of the team at a disadvantage from the start. It means less money to spend to get or keep players around Cousins that are better than the players around Brady and Rogers.

The good news is, we currently do have a better team around the QB than both the Packers and Patriots in my opinion, with one exception. Our line isn’t close to being as good. I don’t see how that doesn’t come back to bite us in the playoffs, with a QB who has not shown great pocket awareness so far. The chuck and duck will eventually bite us in the butt unless we are very lucky or avoid some of the better defenses.

[veryoldschool]

You just need fewer good players around great QBs like Rogers and Brady to win it all, than it would take to win it all with a guy like Cousins. So when a QB of Cousins caliber, arguably top 10 but certainly not an elite QB, is making more than those guys (he will make a good deal more against the cap than Brady every year of his contract, and a good deal more 2 of his 3 years than Rogers), it puts the rest of the team at a disadvantage from the start. It means less money to spend to get or keep players around Cousins that are better than the players around Brady and Rogers.

Tom Brady has been starting for 17 years and Aaron Rogers for 11 years. This is just Kirk's 4th year starting so while agree Brady and Rogers are elite I think with regards to Cousins who knows how he will be viewed 7 seasons from now? Maybe you think you know what his ceiling is and it is something less than elite in your mind but in 7 years with a Super Bowl win or 2, you may have an entirely different view. From Kirk's rookie season onward Mike Shanahan said Kirk looked like a young Drew Brees, that is how high Shanahan thought Kirk's ceiling would be and the longer Cousins plays the more that comparison makes sense to me.

[StumpHunter]

You just need fewer good players around great QBs like Rogers and Brady to win it all, than it would take to win it all with a guy like Cousins. So when a QB of Cousins caliber, arguably top 10 but certainly not an elite QB, is making more than those guys (he will make a good deal more against the cap than Brady every year of his contract, and a good deal more 2 of his 3 years than Rogers), it puts the rest of the team at a disadvantage from the start. It means less money to spend to get or keep players around Cousins that are better than the players around Brady and Rogers.

Tom Brady has been starting for 17 years and Aaron Rogers for 11 years. This is just Kirk's 4th year starting so while agree Brady and Rogers are elite I think with regards to Cousins who knows how he will be viewed 7 seasons from now? Maybe you think you know what his ceiling is and it is something less than elite in your mind but in 7 years with a Super Bowl win or 2, you may have an entirely different view. From Kirk's rookie season onward Mike Shanahan said Kirk looked like a young Drew Brees, that is how high Shanahan thought Kirk's ceiling would be and the longer Cousins plays the more that comparison makes sense to me.

I would just be happy if he could reach that fabled status of elite QBs who can win more than 9 games in a season.