Cousins looks back at time in Washington fondly ahead of return originally appeared on NBC Sports Washington
ASHBURN, Va. — It’s been almost five years since Kirk Cousins last took a snap for Washington’s NFL franchise. It feels longer than that for the most faithful Burgundy and Gold fans, though, especially since the organization has seen 11 different quarterbacks start a game since Cousins’ departure.
This upcoming Sunday will mark the first time Cousins returns to Washington since he signed with the Minnesota Vikings during free agency in 2018. Despite the rollercoaster tenure Cousins had in D.C., the 11-year veteran looks back at his time with the franchise that drafted him quite fondly.
“Whenever we go back to Detroit to play the Lions, for me it’s a little bit like going home, being from Michigan. I think going back to Washington has a similar feeling,” Cousins told local Minnesota media on Wednesday. “I spent six years there [and] have some great memories. I just think very highly of a lot of the people I worked with there, coaches, players and teammates. It’ll bring back a lot of those memories when I go back.”
Washington Football Talk Podcast | Listen and Follow | Watch on YouTube
The first three seasons of Cousins’ tenure in Washington were full of highs and lows. He was drafted to be the team’s backup quarterback behind Robert Griffin III, who was selected No. 2 overall in that same 2012 Draft. But Griffin was sidelined multiple times due to injury that season, which allowed Cousins to lead a comeback victory over the Ravens and a win over Cleveland in his lone start.
The 2013 and 2014 seasons were a low point for Cousins in Washington. He was thrust in and out of the lineup, largely depending on Griffin’s health. But when he did play, it wasn’t great. The quarterback started eight times over those two years. Washington had a 1-7 record in those games.
But in 2015, following a preseason injury to Griffin, head coach Jay Gruden named Cousins the starter entering the year. Cousins rewarded his coach, leading Washington to a 9-7 record and an NFC East title. The quarterback threw for 4,166 yards and 29 touchdowns that campaign, which remains the second-most in franchise history for a single season. Cousins was franchise-tagged following the year, which ultimately was the first step toward the end of his Washington tenure.
Cousins excelled statistically in both 2016 and 2017, but Washington remained around the .500 mark in both of those seasons. In 2016, the team lost to the Giants in Week 17, a game that the club could’ve clinched a postseason berth. A second franchise tag followed. Washington had a bit less success in 2017 and by year’s end, both parties moving in different directions felt inevitable.
“I would say probably a combination of reasons,” Cousins said Wednesday on why he felt it didn’t work out in Washington long-term. “I think any time you go .500, it’s a league that you want to win and got to win. It’s what have you done lately and you’re only as good as your last play. So I think when you’re .500, it’s hard to have that staying power really in any place.”
Cousins declined to comment on whether his contract situation in Washington was the main reason he ended up leaving, saying “it was something that was well documented when we went through it.” Instead, the quarterback reiterated the positive experiences he had during his six years with the team.
“I just have the best of memories of my time there and feel really [positive] about every experience,” Cousins said.
A lot has changed since Cousins left. Gruden and Bruce Allen are gone. So is Alex Smith, the quarterback Washington traded for to replace him. The team’s name has changed — twice. And only four players — Jonathan Allen, Tress Way, Kendall Fuller and Chase Roullier — from Washington’s 2017 roster, Cousins’ last year with the club, remain with the team today.
So, while Sunday will be sort of a homecoming for the Vikings’ quarterback, almost all the faces on the opposing sideline are fresh ones.
But for the current Commanders players that did share a locker room with Cousins, the quarterback left a strong impression.
Fuller spent two seasons as Cousins’ teammate and said he learned a lot from the quarterback, especially being a younger player in the league. Five years later, the cornerback still has a ton of respect for his former teammate.
“Kirk’s always been one of the top quarterbacks in the league,” Fuller said. “A guy that can make throws, a guy that’s smart. It’s definitely going to be fun. It’s his first time back in Washington, right? I know that’s going to be fun for him.”
Way, who shared a locker room with the quarterback for four seasons, was impressed by the quarterback’s calm composure in anything he did.
“His ability to keep cool when things were not going well, whether it was ping pong, trivia or on the field — it’s hard to get him really rattled,” Way said.
Cousins is not the only person on Minnesota’s sideline making a FedEx Field homecoming. Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell spent three years in Washington and was Cousins’ quarterbacks coach in 2017. O’Connell said that year in Washington working with Cousins helped him grow as a coach and ultimately helped him get his next gig in Los Angeles, which then led to the Vikings head coach job earlier this year.
“That 2017 year, we faced some adversity and Kirk was out in front leading us the whole way,” O’Connell said. “[He] had a really good year, in my opinion, grew as a player. Some moments in that season I think back on that were real defining for him being kind ready to make that next step as a quarterback in this league.”
The Vikings head coach has multiple former Washington coaches on his current staff, including offensive coordinator Wes Phillips and assistant special teams coach Ben Kotwica. O’Connell is unsure what kind of reaction he, Cousins and the rest of the staff will get at FedEx Field on Sunday.
“I don’t know if Kirk or myself have really thought that much about it,” O’Connell said. “I think any time you go on the road as a 6-1 team in this league, I don’t think you can expect an extremely warm welcome. They’ve won three in a row, they’re kind of at a critical point in their season. It’s a big game for both teams.”
In an interview with 106.7 The Fan’s Grant and Danny later on Wednesday, Cousins was nostalgic reminiscing on his time in Washington. He brought up his commutes home from FedEx Field to Northern Virginia and how he would purposefully drive through Washington, D.C., going past RFK Stadium and other historical landmarks. He added he comes back to the area every offseason and misses living there.
It’s certainly easier for Cousins to look back on his time in Washington positively now, considering it’s been almost five years since his last game with the club. His two best statistical seasons have come since departing Washington. He’s won a playoff game in Minnesota, something he was never able to do in D.C. And currently, his Vikings team is 6-1 and among the NFC’s best.
Yet, for all the success Cousins has experienced in his career, he believes none of it would have happened had he been selected by a different organization in 2012.
“I do not believe I am sitting here talking to you guys in Year 11 as a quarterback in this league unless I was drafted by the Washington Football Team when I was,” Cousins to Grant and Danny. “It was the best possible place for me to go.”
