Kirk Cousins

Las Vegas Raiders·#18

Pos QBHt 6'3"Wt 202 lbExp 13 yrCollege Michigan State

QB rankings →

Model Score

73.5 MODEL

2016

73.2

2017

74.8

2018

72.7

2019

78.1

2020

78.0

2021

77.2

2022

78.2

2023

81.2

2024

73.3

2025

73.5

How good he is at what he is supposed to be doing, out of 100. Not a projection of what he will do next, and not a read on his contract. Median is about 70, and a 95 is rare. How it is built →

Season Stats · 10 games

1,72131st

Pass Yds

1030th

Pass TD

57th

INT

62.4%30th

Comp %

741st

Rush Yds

120th

Rush TD

10.640th

Fantasy PPG

Advanced Metrics EPA & Next Gen Stats

-7.429th

Total EPA

-0.02329th

EPA / dropback

2.79s

Time to throw

7.0

Avg air yards

17.0%

Aggressiveness

50 yd31st

Longest comp (air)

STM Take

The Atlanta tenure is a clear decline from his Minnesota peak. He went from tier 1 (#4) in 2023 to tier 7 in both 2024 and 2025 (#26, #28), and Atlanta using a top-10 pick on Penix is the cleanest signal about his 2026 role. He can still produce starter-grade weeks in clean pockets (Wk 15 2025 hit 26.92 PPR), but the post-Achilles arm cannot push the ball downfield the way it did in 2022.

Cousins came out of Michigan State as a 4th-round pick by Washington in 2012, drafted behind Robert Griffin III in the same class. He worked his way to the starter role by 2015, was franchise tagged twice (2016 and 2017), and signed the first fully-guaranteed contract in NFL history with Minnesota in 2018 (three years, $84M). Four Pro Bowls and a 2023 tier-1 STTM finish (#4) preceded a torn Achilles that ended his season in October 2023. Atlanta signed him to four years and $180M in 2024 then drafted Michael Penix Jr. 8th overall in the same offseason.

Strengths

Career 66.9% completion rate and the 2023 tier-1 finish show the processing and accuracy floor when he is protected. Back-to-back 26.92 and 17.58 PPR in Wk 15-16 2025 prove it remains.
Four career Pro Bowls and three top-15 STTM seasons (#6 in 2019, #11 in 2021, #4 in 2023) means the institutional knowledge of NFL defenses is still a coaching asset, even in a backup role.

Concerns

Falling from #4 (tier 1) in 2023 to #28 (tier 7) in 2025 in two seasons is a real arc, not noise. The torn Achilles in October 2023 robbed him of the lower-body base the deep ball requires.
Single-digit PPR games in three of his last five (9.2, 9.14, 2.48, 2.12) and a sub-2 PPR appearance in Wk 11 suggest the floor has dropped, not just the ceiling.

What to watch: Whether Atlanta absorbs the ~$37M dead-cap hit to release him before the season, because Penix is taking over the offense regardless of how the QB room is paid.