Schefter: WAS should trade Cousins now

[Simpelton]

Redskins is an offensive team name.

Offensive to who? Every time I ask an ACTUAL native American (We live at a crossroads between 3 different reservations, Indians happen a lot around here) they don't give a damn about Redskins, Braves, what have you. As long as the name itself is not in any way derogatory towards Native Americans most Indians don't even mind, or at least the ones I've met and asked.

The name is "offensive" to people being white knights on behalf of someone else because they think those people might be offended when "those people" actually don't care a bit and have FAR bigger things to worry about than what the name of Washington's NFL team is. Like the slow dissolving of their cultures as the younger generations become more and more assimilated into the culture around them. Like their disappearing languages. Like, if I may be frank, the huge inbreeding problem that happens when small tribes prefer to marry among themselves and the cultural disintegration that happens very quickly when they don't. These are the concerns of Native Americans. Not Washington's football team, if they had the luxury to worry about that they'd count themselves very fortunate.

This is really just an example of the other side of the racism coin, the "benevolent" racism of Rudyard Kipling's poem the White Man's Burden, we feel we need to take responsibility for the inferior races and encourage their development, see to their needs, watch over them like a parent over children -- that's just as insidiously racist and wrong as going out of one's way to be insulting. Minorities can speak for themselves, they don't need us to "generously" do it for them.

 

[Simpelton]

While I agree with your premise, the QBs you named weren't taking up nearly as much of the cap as Cousins has/will. Flacco signed a monster deal after the championship and they've been mediocre since.

Washington won't make it to the top with Cousins.

Washington might or might not make it to the top with Cousins, but Cousins isn't the reason why. The rest of the franchise isn't strong enough from toe to top. Neither their offense nor their defense are likely to be top in the league anytime soon. Even a great quarterback either needs elite defense and enough offense to carry, or elite offense and enough defense to bend and not break. Washington has neither.

I'm not even entirely positive that Brady could carry this Redskins team to the top, so setting that task for Cousins is ridiculous and unrealistic.

Right now Cousins' job is to make money for his owner and snatch whatever chances for postseason glory come his way in the meantime. He's a good quarterback with a mediocre team and should not be expected to rise above the rank and file because neither he nor his team has the skill and strength to do it.

But within the rank and file, Cousins does what he does reasonably well. If we didn't have Brady I would not mind having Cousins here. He's good at his job for the most part, no more holes in his game than any other A- tier quarterback, especially given the crap he has to carry in Washington

 

[Kontradiction]

Offensive to who? Every time I ask an ACTUAL native American (We live at a crossroads between 3 different reservations, Indians happen a lot around here) they don't give a damn about Redskins, Braves, what have you. As long as the name itself is not in any way derogatory towards Native Americans most Indians don't even mind, or at least the ones I've met and asked.

The name is "offensive" to people being white knights on behalf of someone else because they think those people might be offended when "those people" actually don't care a bit and have FAR bigger things to worry about than what the name of Washington's NFL team is. Like the slow dissolving of their cultures as the younger generations become more and more assimilated into the culture around them. Like their disappearing languages. Like, if I may be frank, the huge inbreeding problem that happens when small tribes prefer to marry among themselves and the cultural disintegration that happens very quickly when they don't. These are the concerns of Native Americans. Not Washington's football team, if they had the luxury to worry about that they'd count themselves very fortunate.

This is really just an example of the other side of the racism coin, the "benevolent" racism of Rudyard Kipling's poem the White Man's Burden, we feel we need to take responsibility for the inferior races and encourage their development, see to their needs, watch over them like a parent over children -- that's just as insidiously racist and wrong as going out of one's way to be insulting. Minorities can speak for themselves, they don't need us to "generously" do it for them.

Knowing him, I'm pretty sure fnord was simply trolling in hopes to get a response exactly like this one.

 

[Simpelton]

Knowing him, I'm pretty sure fnord was simply trolling in hopes to get a response exactly like this one.

Didn't even check to see who posted that. I know fnordcircle's style so I should have known better.

 

[n6249c]

back to football...

living in the NCR (National Capitol Region, a/k/a DMV or DC Maryland Virginia) area I've been subjected to three years of Kirk Cousins contract drama, all dating back to when Dan Snyder's binky RG3 was hurt and fell off the QB performance curve.

Real problem with Cousins' contract IMO is that Snyder blames him for RG3 not playing for the 'Skins any more, and Snyder's sycophant Bruce Allen has been throwing shade at Cousins ever since.

The 'Skins could've locked up Cousins long term at a reasonable price by extending him after his first year as a starter. But they didn't. Reportedly they were not convinced he was the real deal. So they tagged him for one year. Then they still weren't convinced so instead of signing him with a lucrative contract they franchised him again with a more lucrative one-year rental and low-balled him on the long-term offer. This week, after he didn't even bother to counter their disrespectful offer they tried to sway the public by talking about their offer and his response (lack of).

Another part of the problem is that the local fanbase is divided, with some folks agreeing with the team that he has not yet shown he is a starting caliber NFL QB and others looking at the team's recent track record and saying they have again blown it. One thing that makes me think he is better than he is given credit for being is an interview I heard on the morning drive sports radio this morning, with his coach (Jay Gruden) talking very positively about him. It should be noted that Gruden benched RG3 for Cousins a couple of times (or kept RG3 benched after injuries). OT, I'm a little surprised Snyder hasn't canned Gruden already, he's been coach for three years already and Snyder doesn't usually take that long to screw the pooch.

 

[Simpelton]

It is my belief that Washington could only win with Cousins if his skill was in a vacuum and he was cheap. The reality : his salary will take away from the "strong D and excellent skill players" you speak of.

That's on the scouts. It's up to good scouting to find under-market values to ease the pressure on the cap. It's one of the reasons the Patriots are consistently elite, that BB has regularly managed to accomplish this. If you can't, then your quarterback is not the reason you aren't winning championships.

 

[Simpelton]

Another part of the problem is that the local fanbase is divided, with some folks agreeing with the team that he has not yet shown he is a starting caliber NFL QB

WTF. Is this actually something that reputable people are saying about Kirk Cousins? The guy is AT WORST an above average starter. It would be insane and absurd to mark him as anything other than at least an NFL starting quarterback, even if you are bitter about him cleanly winning the job away from RGIII.

at the very least, Cousins is Phil Rivers tier. A good placeholder while the franchise figures out the rest of its situation, and someone who can play some entertaining football and keep butts in seats while the franchise goes nowhere. That's the least he is, personally I think he's more than that but in a bad situation in Washington where he can't prove it.

 

[n6249c]

WTF. Is this actually something that reputable people are saying about Kirk Cousins? The guy is AT WORST an above average starter. It would be insane and absurd to mark him as anything other than at least an NFL starting quarterback, even if you are bitter about him cleanly winning the job away from RGIII.

'Skins fans. Not sure that fits the definition of "reputable people" nor how knowledgeable they are. It's amusing to hear how heated the debates between radio hosts and fans get, about whether Cousins or the team are the problem. Basically the team could've signed him three years ago, let him go at the end of the upcoming season and had him for much less money then they'll end up spending the way they've done things. And there are still fans and mediots defending them.

 

[Froob]

I'll just make one comment on this then I'll drop it in hopes that it doesn't derail a thread for 475839294758th time. 9 in 10 Native Americans polled didn't find the name offensive. Further, the various tribes didn't seem to have much of a problem accepting millions of dollars from the team, either. They were also allowed to keep their name via court ruling. Perhaps it's time for perpetually offended and needlessly guilty white people to drop the assault on speech.

It's not like their logo is that bad, I would maybe try to move away from the logo and bring back the arrow one but it's not really bad. The Indians on the other hand...it's not even the correct name lol and the logo is...well...could be a lot better. I'd try to re-brand them the Tribe and go away from Chief Wahoo to the C logo instead which they kinda did.

But, back to the Redskins, if they were that offended by it, it'd be kinda strange for them to use the term as a mascot on reservations. Ultimately it should be up to the consumer to decide what is and isn't acceptable, not the government.

 

[bbobbo]

No one is going to trade anything to get Cousins' contract.

It may take a deal like the Texans did with Osweiler; trade a pick along with Cousins to entice another team to take him.

Problem is that he is not terrible like Osweiler, just his contract is.

A textbook example of "you can't fix stupid".

presumably, the team trading for him would work out a long-term deal with him prior to the trade and then sign the new contract right after the trade. the team trading for him wouldn't be bound by the july 17th deadline to negotiate long-term contracts.
.

 

[fnordcircle]

Didn't even check to see who posted that. I know fnordcircle's style so I should have known better.

White privilege.

 

[Wheelman]

you mean the Redskins?

Oh you're talking about the REDSKINS?

Who?

 

[TheFlyingWedge]

As inept as the Skins are with their trolling of Cousins on the eve of training camp and their general bungling of everything, I can't really fault them for not locking up Cousins long term. He's a 2nd tier QB with a sub 500 winning percentage and no playoff wins under his belt. It appears that Cousins and his agent think he's elite.

 

[hornetfb85]

What a joke up there, the team President doesn't even know his friggin first name. I'd give him a pass if it was once, but he called him Kurt 5 times.

 

[BlacknGold77]

As inept as the Skins are with their trolling of Cousins on the eve of training camp and their general bungling of everything, I can't really fault them for not locking up Cousins long term. He's a 2nd tier QB with a sub 500 winning percentage and no playoff wins under his belt. It appears that Cousins and his agent think he's elite.

As the full time starter he is 17-14-1...thats over .500

His ranking in stat categories those 2 years has been (2015/2016):

qb rating: 5th/7th
yards: 10th/3rd
ypa: 8th/3rd
comp: 7th/3rd
comp%: 1st/8th

and for fun...

# of comebacks: 2nd/4th
# of game winning drives: 3rd/4th

 

[sean10mm]

We're understandably super spoiled as 2001+ Pats fans, but the truth is that it's not realistic for most teams to turn down everyone that's not an obvious Hall of Famer and settle for trash indefinitely until then. And anything above the trash level is going to cost what the market says they're worth. Which is like $20m+/year. You can't argue against the market, the market decides, period, and the market says anything better than a liability at quarterback gets $100+ million deals now like Flacco did. Or you settle for nothing and hope an elite player just appears outta nowhere.

Plus plenty of just-OK QBs have won Super Bowls since 2001. SB50 was won by a rotting corpse at QB, Facco has a ring, Eli has TWO, even Brad friggin' Johnson got a ring. It's better to build a good team with a solid but not great QB and hope you get hot at the right time, and maybe an important Patriot breaks a leg or Brady finally retires or something.

 

[Simpelton]

As inept as the Skins are with their trolling of Cousins on the eve of training camp and their general bungling of everything, I can't really fault them for not locking up Cousins long term. He's a 2nd tier QB with a sub 500 winning percentage and no playoff wins under his belt. It appears that Cousins and his agent think he's elite.

I suppose what comes down to is if you think the Skins are holding Cousins back, or Cousins is holding the Skins back. The Washington Redskins have not been a well run organization in my generation. If anything, I think Cousins probably helps them play a little above the level they should be at as a team with their overall talent and organizational prowess. Whether that's a good or a bad thing to you more or less depends on whether you think the franchise should be building or tanking.

 

[Kontradiction]

Who?

 

[varjao]

The Redskins are a 3-13 team without Curtis Cousins

 

[Wheelman]