Kirk Cousins With the Washington Redskins: Career Stats, Contract Drama, and Legacy

Kirk Cousins and the Washington Redskins: Six Seasons, Two Franchise Tags, and an Exit Nobody Planned

Drafted as an Afterthought Behind RG3

The Washington Redskins entered the 2012 NFL Draft having already mortgaged their future. To move up and grab Robert Griffin III with the second overall pick, they gave the St. Louis Rams four draft picks spread across three years. Griffin was the plan. Griffin was the franchise. When Washington then spent the 102nd pick on a Michigan State quarterback named Kirk Cousins, most analysts shrugged. NFL Network’s Mike Mayock had rated Cousins the 67th best prospect in the draft. Gil Brandt put him at 39th. Neither expected him to matter much.

That context matters, because it explains everything that followed. The Redskins had Griffin, they’d paid an enormous price for him, and Cousins was depth. A smart, reliable backup from a mid-major program — not a threat to anyone’s starting job. He joined a roster that already had Rex Grossman, John Beck, and Jonathan Crompton at quarterback. Four quarterbacks for one spot nobody thought Cousins would ever fill.

His First Start, and the Owner Who Walked Past Him

December 16, 2012. Griffin hurt his knee, Washington was in a playoff race, and the rookie backup got his first career start against the Cleveland Browns. Cousins went 26-of-37 for 329 yards and two touchdowns. Washington won 38-21. It was the team’s fifth straight win, and it pushed them into a tie for first in the NFC East — the latest they’d held a share of first place since 1999.

In the visitors’ locker room in Cleveland after the game, Cousins stood by his locker taking handshakes from teammates. Then Dan Snyder and team president Bruce Allen walked in — and essentially walked past him to congratulate Griffin, who hadn’t played. According to a witness cited by ESPN, Snyder patted Cousins on the shoulder and kept moving.

It’s a small moment. But it captures exactly what Cousins was dealing with for the next three years.

He won NFL Rookie of the Week for that game, threw for the most yards by a Redskins rookie since the 1987 strike season, and earned Washington a share of the division lead. The front office’s attention was elsewhere. Cousins would go back to backing up Griffin in 2013, playing in five games and struggling — 52% completion rate, four touchdowns, seven interceptions. In 2014, he was competing for the backup job again. It took two more years for anyone in Washington to take him seriously as a starter.

2015: Cousins Finally Gets the Job — and Runs With It

Griffin got hurt in the 2015 preseason. Coach Jay Gruden handed the starting job to Cousins, and this time it wasn’t temporary. Cousins finished 2015 with 4,166 passing yards, 29 touchdowns, 11 interceptions, and a 93.0 passer rating. Washington won the NFC East. It was their first division title in years, and their first time with back-to-back winning seasons since 1996 and 1997.

The performance that defined his 2015 season came in Week 10 against the New Orleans Saints. Washington put up 526 total yards in a 47-14 blowout at FedExField. Cousins finished 20-of-25 (80%) for 324 yards and four touchdowns with no interceptions. His passer rating for the game was 158.3 — a perfect score. It was the first perfect passer rating by a Washington quarterback with at least 20 attempts in records going back to 1950. The game opened on the third play from scrimmage: third-and-4 backed up to the Washington 10-yard line, Cousins hitting DeSean Jackson over the shoulder for 42 yards down the left sideline. After that, the Saints never recovered.

After the game, Cousins said something that stuck: “When we execute and everybody does their part, good things happen.” Not exactly Churchill. But it was typical of how he operated — steady, accountable, never taking the glory.

The AP and PFWA named him Most Improved Player that year. His nickname, “Captain Kirk,” had arrived.

The “You Like That” Moment

Late in the 2015 season, after a game-winning play, Cousins turned to his sideline and shouted “You like that?!” into a sideline microphone. The clip spread everywhere. He and his brother applied to trademark the phrase. For a quarterback who’d spent three seasons being ignored by his own front office, it was a strangely perfect declaration. Washington fans loved it. And honestly, it was hard not to.

2016: The Best Season Nobody Fully Appreciated

Cousins followed his 2015 breakout with an even better statistical year. He threw for 4,917 yards in 2016 — third in the NFL and a new Washington franchise record. His deep ball was genuinely elite: 72 passes of 21 or more yards (the fourth-highest rate in the league), with a 45.8% completion rate and 120.4 passer rating on those throws. He made the Pro Bowl. He led Washington to consecutive winning seasons for the first time in 20 years.

Then they lost to the Giants in the regular season finale and missed the playoffs. That loss reopened every question about whether Cousins was good enough to be a true franchise quarterback. Washington entered the offseason undecided — and that indecision would define the next two years.

Two Franchise Tags and a Front Office That Couldn’t Decide

Here’s where the Cousins-Washington story gets genuinely strange. After his 2015 season, Washington placed the franchise tag on him — fair enough, one big year, they wanted to see more before committing. He made roughly $19.95 million guaranteed that year and proved it wasn’t a fluke. They tagged him again in 2017. Cousins became the first quarterback in NFL history to play consecutive seasons under the franchise tag, earning a combined $43.9 million across those two years with no long-term security on either side.

During the summer of 2017, Washington offered Cousins a long-term extension with $53 million guaranteed. Team president Bruce Allen announced this publicly, framing it as Washington’s good-faith effort. But the offer was structured so that only one year beyond the 2017 tag year was actually guaranteed. As Will Brinson of CBS Sports noted at the time, the number barely exceeded what Cousins stood to earn by simply playing out the tag and the transition tag the following year. He had almost no reason to sign it.

What made the whole saga look worse was a video Allen released addressing the situation. He called his quarterback “Kurt” multiple times. Not Kirk. Kurt. Cousins’ name had been in Washington headlines for two years.

By 2018, the math had turned impossible. A third franchise tag would have cost Washington $34.5 million for one year — a number the team wasn’t willing to pay, especially after they’d already acquired Alex Smith from Kansas City in a trade that signaled they were ready to replace Cousins entirely. They let him hit free agency in March 2018. His contract with Washington expired. Six years, 62 games, multiple franchise records, and no long-term deal.

Why the Negotiations Actually Failed

Washington’s position, never stated directly, seemed to be this: Cousins had one and a half good seasons, and they weren’t sure that was enough. His 2015 and 2016 numbers were real. His 28-33-1 record as a starter was less convincing. The Redskins wanted the security of knowing before committing long-term money.

Cousins’ camp looked at the same record and saw a quarterback who’d led two winning seasons in a market that hadn’t had back-to-back winning years in two decades, behind an offensive line that ranked poorly in pass protection, with a supporting cast that lost two of its best receivers (DeSean Jackson and Pierre Garcon) going into 2017. The offer Washington put on the table barely cleared the floor. There was no real incentive to sign.

Both positions have logic. But Washington’s front office — already operating under the shadow of Dan Snyder’s ownership and what multiple reports described as ongoing organizational dysfunction — never found a middle ground. The same institution that had mishandled Griffin’s development, fired GM Scot McCloughan mid-contract in 2017, and struggled with consistent quarterback identity since the early 1990s, couldn’t close on the one quarterback they’d actually developed into something useful.

What Cousins’ Numbers Actually Mean in Washington History

Over 62 games with Washington, Cousins threw for 16,206 yards, 99 touchdowns, and 55 interceptions with a 93.7 passer rating. His career completion percentage of 66.1% ranked second in NFL history at the time he left Washington, behind only Chad Pennington among quarterbacks with significant attempts.

He set Washington’s single-season passing record twice — 4,166 yards in 2015, then 4,917 in 2016. His 2016 total stood as the franchise record for years. He was the first Washington quarterback to throw for 4,000 yards in three straight seasons. His 2015 perfect passer rating game against the Saints hadn’t been matched by any Washington starter in at least 65 years of recorded data.

Was he a franchise quarterback? That depends entirely on your definition. He was consistent. He was accurate. He read defenses well and rarely forced throws into coverage. He wasn’t the kind of quarterback who made defenses genuinely afraid — ESPN’s analysis at the time noted he “projected competence, not brilliance.” But between Joe Theismann’s retirement in 1985 and the mid-2020s, Washington’s quarterback history is mostly a graveyard of failed experiments and wasted picks. Cousins is, without much competition, the best of that era. That’s a compliment to him and an honest assessment of everything around him.

After Washington: The $84 Million Guarantee That Proved His Point

In March 2018, Cousins signed with the Minnesota Vikings on a three-year, fully guaranteed $84 million contract. It was the first fully guaranteed multi-year quarterback contract in NFL history. Every dollar. No performance clauses, no void years, no outs. Minnesota paid him what Washington wouldn’t, and the number validated every argument his camp had made during the franchise tag years.

Washington replaced him with Alex Smith, who broke his leg in a catastrophic injury that November and missed nearly two full seasons recovering. Washington then cycled through Colt McCoy, Josh Johnson, Mark Sanchez, Case Keenum, Dwayne Haskins, Kyle Allen, Alex Smith again, Taylor Heinicke, Carson Wentz, and Sam Howell over the following years — none of them close to what Cousins had given them. The contrast wasn’t subtle.

Cousins went on to play six seasons in Minnesota, then signed with Atlanta in 2024, and joined the Las Vegas Raiders in April 2026 on a one-year deal worth $20 million fully guaranteed. His career totals through 2025 stand at 44,700 passing yards and 298 touchdowns across 174 games — numbers that put him solidly in the top tier of NFL quarterbacks by volume and efficiency over a sustained career.

Frequently Asked Questions

How long did Kirk Cousins play for the Washington Redskins?

Six seasons, from 2012 through 2017. He spent his first three years as a backup to Robert Griffin III before taking over as the full-time starter in 2015.

What was Kirk Cousins’ win-loss record with Washington?

As a starter, Cousins went 28-33-1 with the Redskins. His best seasons were 2015 (9-7, NFC East division title) and 2016 (8-7-1).

Why did Kirk Cousins leave the Washington Redskins?

Washington and Cousins couldn’t agree on a long-term contract. After two consecutive franchise tag seasons — a first in NFL history for a quarterback — Washington declined to use a third tag, and Cousins hit free agency in March 2018. He signed with Minnesota for a fully guaranteed $84 million, which Washington had never offered.

Did Cousins ever make the Pro Bowl with Washington?

Yes. He was named to the Pro Bowl following the 2016 season, his second year as Washington’s full-time starter.

What franchise passing records did Cousins set with Washington?

He set the single-season passing yards record twice — 4,166 in 2015 and 4,917 in 2016. He was also the first Washington quarterback to throw for 4,000 yards in three consecutive seasons, and his 158.3 passer rating against the Saints in November 2015 was the first perfect game by a Washington QB (minimum 20 attempts) in at least 65 years of available records.

Where does “You like that” come from?

After a late-game play during the 2015 season, Cousins shouted “You like that?!” into a sideline microphone. The clip spread widely, became a signature phrase for his Washington tenure, and he and his brother later applied to trademark it.