When the Washington Commanders selected Robert Griffin III and Kirk Cousins in the same draft in 2012, not many people had Cousins earning the fourth-most salary of any current player on their BINGO card. RGIII went No. 2 overall; Cousins was a fourth-round pick and came in as RGIII’s built-in backup. Through consistent play and shrewd negotiations, Cousins has forged a successful NFL career.
What was Cousins’ college football journey like? What type of risks did draft evaluators see that pushed him to the fourth round?
Kirk Cousins’ College Football Career
After his Holland Christian High School career came to a close, as the story goes, Cousins intended on signing with a MAC school — either Toledo or Western Michigan. As fate would have it, Michigan State head coach Mark Dantonio failed to nab his top targets at QB, eventually offering a scholarship to Cousins.
Cousins redshirted his freshman year, and then backed up Brian Hoyer in 2008. The following year, he won the quarterback job and wouldn’t relinquish it until he graduated (with a 4-0 record over in-state rival Michigan, mind you).
His first season as starter (2009), he threw for 2,680 yards at a 60.4% completion rate. A 19:9 touchdown-to-interception ratio would be a consistent theme with Cousins’ college résumé. In 2010, he elevated his play even further. While the TD-INT ratio stayed analogous (20:10), Cousins increased his completion percentage to 66.9% and threw for 2,825 yards.
The 11-2 record in Cousins’ junior year earned Michigan St. a share of the Big Ten Conference Championship.
Kirk Cousins Buzzer Beater pic.twitter.com/DH2cnBze8z
— Random College Football Plays (@PlaysCollege) April 16, 2024
Cousins’ senior campaign had a slight boon in personal statistics (five more passing TDs and nearly 500 more passing yards), and the Spartans finished with a nearly identical record from the previous season. This time, they finished 11-3 because Michigan St. played in the first-ever Big Ten Championship Game.
KEEP READING: Kirk Cousins’ Net Worth
Despite leading the Big Ten in several passing categories, he finished second-team All-Big Ten. The natural-born leadership Cousins displayed enticed Washington’s head coach at the time, Mike Shanahan, into double dipping on quarterbacks. When asked about the draft strategy, Shanahan replied: “You’re one or two plays away from being the starter…And if I see that value out there on the third day of the draft, I’m going to take that.”
The butterfly effect is pretty wild, isn’t it? Cousins isn’t a classic rags-to-riches tale, but it’s a stark reminder that grit and preparation are two commodities that the NFL won’t shy away from.