Last week, Redskins head coach Jay Gruden gave a lukewarm assessment of Kirk Cousins’ season — telling reporters “When you’re 7-9, it’s hard to say, ’wow, this guy really was outstanding.’”
Cousins disagreed with the logic.
“What I gathered from the comment was that 7-9 and the quarterback play are causally related — quarterback play is 7-9, 7-9 is quarterback play,” Cousins said Friday. “I saw that and thought, ’It’s slightly more complicated than that.’”
Speaking to 106.7 The Fan, Cousins said he understood where Gruden was coming from, given the quarterback was coming off the worst performance of his six-year career. Cousins threw for just 158 yards and had three interceptions in the season finale, an 18-10 loss to the New York Giants that guaranteed the Redskins a losing season.
Still, Cousins finished the year with 4,093 yards for 27 touchdowns despite the Redskins’ injuries and the team losing its top two wide receivers in the offseason.
Cousins, though, said he and Gruden are on good terms and that he told the coach at his exit meeting that he was impressed with his play-calling abilities throughout the year.
Cousins said he “feels fortunate” to be with Gruden.
“I really believe in his ability to evaluate players,” he said. “Over the years, I’ve seen him evaluate abilities correctly. At times with a surprising take that you might not expect, but when he explains more where he’s coming from, I say ’you know, that’s a great point, I’ve never thought of that.’”
To further illustrate his point, Cousins cited a recent ESPN article that chronicled the increasing friction between New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, coach Bill Belichick and owner Robert Kraft.
“I don’t know that Belichick has always been signing Tom’s praises day in and day out for 15 years, even though Tom probably deserves it for all that he’s done,” he said. “It’s just different personalities and different people. I think at the end of the day, I don’t get too caught up in it.”
• Matthew Paras can be reached at mparas@washingtontimes.com.
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