Washington Redskins: Who to trade – Kirk Cousins or Robert Griffin III?
With a lot of changes expected to be made to the Washington Redskins roster this offseason, the biggest one might be at quarterback. It is yet to be determined whether any of the Skins top two quarterbacks will be traded or not, but it is likely that one of them will find a new home for 2015.
The big question that remains is who exactly is a more likely candidate to be traded? Kirk Cousins has never been the official starting quarterback for Washington in his career yet, and has only started in the absence of Robert Griffin III. With that being said, Cousins looks to be the leading candidate to be traded at first glance.
However, if you dig deeper into it, that might not be the case. While RGIII has been prone to injuries, Cousins has yet to suffer any sort of injury in his three years here in the league. He has started 13 games in his career, including 11 over the last two seasons.
Although his performance hasn’t been spectacular, it has been very good for a backup quarterback. He has recorded 3,030 yards, while throwing for 29 touchdowns, holding a completion percentage of 59 and a passer rating of 86.4. As I said, those aren’t great numbers, but for a quarterback coming into a near-impossible situation, it is all that you can ask for.
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As for Griffin, he performed extremely well in his rookie campaign as I’m sure all of you are well aware of. He accumulated 3,200 yards through the air while recording 20 touchdowns and just five interceptions, and rushed for 815 yards on 120 attempts (6.8 yards-per-rush) while totaling seven touchdowns on the ground.
Unfortunately for Griffin, he tore his ACL in the Wild Card matchup with the Seattle Seahawks and did not perform the same in his second year. He threw 16 interceptions and 12 touchdowns, while suffering a 5.5 point drop in his completion percentage and a 33.1 drop in his quarterback rating.
His sluggish 2014 where he only started nine games has quickly turned Redskins fans against him. Personally, I think it’s stupid. I mean, give the guy a break. He just tore his ACL. Give him some time to recover and recuperate, and then you can judge. That argument however, is for another time.
To answer the question that I stated in the headline of the article, Cousins is far more likely to be moved than the talented Robert Griffin. Although fans in D.C. might think otherwise, the Redskins front office is not going to give up on their second-overall pick that quickly.
My prediction is that both of these players will start the season on the Washington Redskins roster, but if I had to pick one, it would be the backup.