ASHBURN — Kirk Cousins drove to training camp in a conversion van thinking he was trying to solidify himself as the Washington Redskins backup quarterback. He, like everyone else, thought Robert Griffin III would be the team’s starting quarterback.
Cousins had put together fluctuating performances last season in place of Griffin, delivering both flashes of talent and interceptions. But, in his mind, it was clear he was trying to solidify the backup job. After all, Griffin was named the starter in the offseason, and Cousins had worked with the second unit since the middle of the summer.
That changed in the last four days. Cousins was named the starter for 2015 by Redskins coach Jay Gruden on Monday morning, settling a yearslong discussion rooted in tumult, misinformation and forehead slapping.
“Kirk Cousins will be the starter for 2015, moving forward,” Gruden said. “I think all three quarterbacks should be commended for their efforts, willingness to get better, but when it’s all said and done, after all the film we’ve gone through, after all the offseason activity, training camp footage, we feel like, at this time, Kirk Cousins gives us the best chance to win.”
Asked for caveats, Gruden simply said, “It’s Kirk’s team.”
Griffin stood at his locker afterward, but was not permitted to speak with reporters before exiting.
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Cousins stepped up to a podium when Gruden finished still wearing his yellow practice jersey, his face covered by an incomplete beard. He had been there before as the starting quarterback. During that time last year, he deferred, frequently saying the team was Griffin’s, intimating he was just a fill-in for the quarterback the franchise gave up so much to obtain. On Monday, Cousins spoke as the presumptive season-long starter.
“You just don’t know what’s going to happen,” Cousins said. “The minute you try to start to predetermine things and have preconceived notions, you’re putting yourself in trouble, so I come in here with an open mind. All I know is I need to control my attitude, my preparation and my effort. If I do that, the rest will take care of itself.”
The Redskins argued that the starting quarterback spot was an open competition last season, when Griffin, Cousins and Colt McCoy all started games. They produced lurching results. This year, the team announced Griffin as the starter in February, only changing after he was concussed in Week 2 of the preseason and a litany of visual evidence convinced them Cousins was the better choice.
“It’s not so much what somebody didn’t do, it’s what Kirk has done,” Gruden said. “What he’s done in practice and [organized team activities] has really opened our eyes, and he’s proven to be the best quarterback on our roster at this time. It’s a compliment to Kirk.”
Cousins’ top issue is turning the ball over. Last season, he threw 10 touchdowns and nine interceptions. The errors came in waves, making them the prime question of Cousins as a viable starting quarterback. After a first interception, he seemed rattled. Emphatic misreads would follow as Cousins pressed to recoup what he had thrown away. He said he watched film, studied Gruden’s offensive system further, even read books to improve his mental approach, all in an effort to quell the turnovers.
Saturday in Baltimore, against what is again expected to be one of the league’s top defenses, Cousins threw an early interception. The Baltimore Ravens’ Terrell Suggs made a quality play, but also one Cousins said afterward he should have seen coming, caused him to throw the ball into the ground and move on.
SEE ALSO: Kirk Cousins tabbed to start Redskins’ season opener against Dolphins
Concern about the interception was trumped by wonder about how Cousins would respond to it, considering his piling-on past. He did not throw another interception. He was not sacked. Cousins had an excellent rest of the evening, finishing 20-for-27 for 190 yards and a touchdown and, apparently, clarifying what the coaches were feeling.
Considering Cousins, 27 years old and in his fourth season, for the starting job had been a percolating thought. The offseason proclamation of Griffin as the starter was passed off as a strategy to stall questions about who the No. 1 quarterback would be.
“I didn’t want to come to every press conference and get asked who’s starting,” Gruden said. “We put it to bed.”
Gruden said Monday that the plan was to start Griffin against the Ravens, then remove him early in the game to see how Cousins looked with the Redskins’ top offense against the Ravens’ top defenders. When Griffin was not cleared to play by an independent neurologist because of recurring concussion symptoms, Cousins did not have to wait his turn. He entered the field in his crisp white No. 8 jersey with 12:59 to play in the first quarter.
“It’s a decision that you don’t make in one day,” Gruden said. “It’s a process. It’s something that we’ve talked about and watched and seen how things are progressing, then the game tape kind of verified what we’re thinking with Kirk. He’s done an excellent job.”
This would not be a Redskins story if there was not suggestion of conspiracy or discord. Among the reports that flew during the weekend about Griffin’s future with the team was one that team owner Dan Snyder was blocking a trade of Griffin, or even a change at quarterback. It’s long been believed that Snyder has worked as Griffin’s biggest champion since the organization traded three first-round picks and a second-round pick to the St. Louis Rams to obtain him in the 2012 draft. Gruden has stated the decision to select the starting quarterback rests with him, and he furthered that Monday.
“Mr. Snyder has been nothing but supportive of this football team and everything we’re doing moving forward,” Gruden said. “We kind of tell him what we’re thinking, how we’re feeling and he’s all for it. All Mr. Snyder wants to do is win. That’s the bottom line. There’s a lot of things being said that he’s pulling for this guy or this guy or that guy. That’s never been the case here. He wants us to win football games. [General manager] Scot McCloughan, myself, [team president] Bruce [Allen], we’re all in the same boat.”
When Cousins runs onto the field on Sept. 13 to face the Miami Dolphins in the opener, the general framework will be the same as the past. He’ll drop to a knee in the huddle and jab the air with his right fist as he calls the play. The group will clap, disband, align. Except this time, Cousins will be the starter, not the stand-in, not a maybe. His chance is in front of him as never before.
“There’s something powerful about feeling believed in, and there’s something powerful about knowing where you stand,” Cousins said. “I feel like Jay has done that today. We’ll go from there.”
• Todd Dybas can be reached at tdybas@washingtontimes.com.
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