Kirk Cousins is one of the most scrutinized quarterbacks in the NFL. Statistically, he has put together an amazing career. Unfortunately for him, his teams have been average. That has caused his legacy to be looked at in a certain light. Whether fair or not, people expect quarterbacks like Cousins who make top money to win big games.
With a new offensive-minded head coach, Cousins is looking to change that narrative during the 2022 NFL season.
Let’s take a look at how many times teams with Kirk Cousins as their starting quarterback have won games against teams with a winning record.
The reason for QB wins against winning teams
I started to dive into this stat for every quarterback because the new hot argument is to say that a certain quarterback didn’t beat any good teams. I often see people use this argument to say players like Kirk Cousins and Matthew Stafford are not good and just put up empty stats. At the end of the day, there is much more to the story.
First off and most importantly, quarterback wins are a team statistic. Secondly, very few quarterbacks in the NFL have a winning record against teams who finished the season above .500 in the league.
There are a lot of moving parts involved in football. While winning and losing is the most important stat, it is one that unfairly gets attributed to quarterbacks.
What is Kirk Cousins’ record against winning teams?
Since entering the NFL in 2012, Kirk Cousins is 10-40 (.200) against teams that finished the season with a winning record.
With the Minnesota Vikings from 2018-21, Kirk Cousins was 6-21 (.222) against winning teams as the starting quarterback.
With the Washington Football Team from 2012-17, Kirk Cousins was 4-19 (.173) against winning teams as the starting quarterback.
Kirk Cousins is a unique case because he has performed very well in many of the losses. When you really dig into it, he hasn’t played with the best overall teams during his time at Washington and Minnesota. Football is a team game and Cousins hasn’t always had the best team around him. That is heavily impacting his record. Some make the argument that he just isn’t a winner and I would urge them to look at it more critically.
Cousins is still young. If Minnesota ends up making the right hires at GM and head coach, he could end his career on a good note in regards to winning.
What quarterbacks have a winning record against winning teams?
As seen on our master QB record vs winning teams chart, there are only a handful of NFL quarterbacks that have a record above .500 against winning teams.
You can digest that information on your own. The only thing I want you to take away from this is that it is extremely rare to have a winning record against teams that finished the season with a winning record.
Share this stat on social media
Sharable Graphic
