About the author

czabe

Steve Czaban is a 25 year sports radio veteran, who hosts an afternoon drive show in Washington D.C. "Czabe" also writes and edits his own commentaries for www.czabe.com and other on-line and print publications. He can be reached at czabe@yahoo.com.

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7 Comments

  1. 1

    Tim

    Hasn’t it been reported that Shanny was not a fan of RGIII? Wasn’t that someone else’s pick he was told to make?

    Reply
  2. 2

    Rich Robinson

    This is probably the worst situation for the franchise with both Cousins and Griffin in their 3rd year. Biggest thing I saw from Kirk and watching the all-22 of the Texans game. Kirk will throw the ball with anticipation to where and when the WR will break usually before he has. Look at the throw to Grant in the endzone that was incomplete. Kirk threw the ball into a triangle of defender because he knew when and where Grant should be, if Grant had managed to Get to his spot on the field, it was a TD between 3 defenders.

    With Griffin he doesn’t anticipate very well at all, he needs to “see” it before he throws and in the NFL usually by that time against zone (where Griffin struggles) it is too late. Now IMO that is something that can be “fixed” but in a young player that like you mention was brought here for a huge ransom there is very little patience especially after winning a division title year one.

    I still support Griffin and really enjoy having a guy like Cousins back there, but Cousins is 1-3 as a starter and before Griffin got hurt it was looking like he was gonna slice up the Jaguar secondary as they are a man coverage heavy team and Griffin can throw the ball vs man.

    Reply
  3. 3

    Greg Shields

    Steve,
    Your insight is spot on. Once the sugar high of the thirty-one point victory wore off, I realized that the RG3 era is probably over before it started just like a shooting star. Like you, I am a huge Cousin’s fan, and I hope he is a viable option for the future. But unfortunately, if he isn’t we are back to square one at the most important position in this modern NFL. Also, Mike WIse of the Washington Post wrote an article that said the dirty secret at Redskins Park is that Jay Gruden believes Cousins not RG3 is best suited to run his offense successfully. Coach Jay can’t verbalize this because of the political implications in the organization.

    Reply
  4. 4

    Matt Seelinger

    For the goddamned last time–the Skins DID NOT GIVE UP THREE FIRST ROUND PICKS FOR GRIFFIN! TRADEDE PLOACES, GAVE UP TWO. MORON!

    Reply
    1. 4.1

      czabe

      True: The Redskins gave up 2 first rounders and a second rounder simply to MOVE UP to take Griffin. Then they used that traded pick to take Griffin. I look at the selection of Griffin in terms of pure cost: For example: Andrew Luck “cost” the Colts ONE first round pick. That’s his “cost” to the team. One. Griffin “cost” the Redskins FOUR picks total. Four. That’s his cost. One to pick him, 3 more to move up. Very expensive. In fact, the trade was evaluated (according to those NFL value charts, for what they are worth) as the MOST “expensive” of any picks-for-picks trade in NFL draft history.

      Reply
  5. 5

    Josh

    Kirk Cousins turnover rate: 11.4 touches per turnover. RG3 turnover rate: 26.7 touches per turnover. Touches are passing plays, scrambles, sacks, qb runs. Cousins turns the ball over twice as often as Griffin. This information comes from Bill Barnwell.

    Griffin’s ANY/A is 6.39 while Cousins is 5.04. Griffin is 20% above league average while Cousins is 25% below league average. Even considering just his ‘bad’ year last year, Griffin was still a league average QB in all regards, while he showed the potential to be a top 10 in his first year. QB play by young QBs tends to be highly variable, and Griffin has shown a very high ceiling that indicates a strong possibility of being a high-caliber starter. Cousins has demonstrated, in admittedly a fairly small sample size, that he is most likely a good backup, but a backup nonetheless. Griffin, in a vacuum, is by far the superior quarterback.

    Here are screenshots of all the completions by Cousins against the Jaguars. On maybe two completions are there any defenders within 4 yards of the targeted receiver. I think most backup QBs could make those passes every bit as efficiently as Cousins.
    http://imgur.com/a/2o2rp#6

    With Griffin I think Washington had a chance to take the relatively weak NFC east. With Cousins I do not think this will be possible. Every other team in the division is going to have good to great offenses and Washington’s defense will not be able to pick up the slack of a missing Griffin.

    I think a good comparison of this situation is Cassel coming in for Brady in 2008. Cassel had a Ferrari offense and his stats reflected that; he was a backup in a dang good offense. Cousins will do much the same, he’s a backup driving the Cadillac Washington offense and his stats will be suspect because of this. The Washington offense will make Cousins look just good enough to ‘vindicate’ the Cousins faction of Redskins fandom but if he were to be somehow traded to the Chiefs this offseason (a la Cassel) and Alex Smith is somehow gone, he will look about as good as Cassel did with the Chiefs.

    In my opinion, I think the Redskins ought to just give up on Griffin and see what value they can get for him on the trade market. Keep Cousins as a backup and find a QB in the draft that you can build around (without spending 4, 5, 9 picks to get him). Those draft picks traded for Griffin are just gone, sunk cost, and there is no way you can make them good by keeping with Griffin. He is a bust for Washington, but may well be good for someone else. Good organizations get rid of shitty investments as soon as is practicable upon discovering the shittyness of said investments. It is a damn shame, but it is what it is.

    Reply
  6. 6

    Josh

    And I think it is interesting to add that had Washington kept their picks they could have had Tannehill at #6 overall in 2012. Tannehill has shown himself to be durable. The Dolphins are not very good, but he has put up average stats for them, so there is some reason to believe that he is a viable top 15 starting QB material. Just think of the Redskins with Tannehill plus three other high draft picks (presumably defense or oline).

    Reply

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